I have a longer panel... what direction do I orient the panel for best heat and efficiency? The panel is nearly the exact same temp as the width of the enclosure. Saw another video where the panel goes longways with the direction of the enclosure.
You “could” use a HerpStat on a basking lamp. But the constant dimming/undimmimg of the lamp may bother your skink. In your case. It may be easier to use a lower wattage bulb that can be run at full power.
@@AlexsAgamids oh gotcha so no really worth it for a basking bulb? What about using one for a night bulb since in the winter my house stays around 55 to 60 and wanted to add a ceramic heat emitter or one of the deep dome Ones that don’t produce light
@leo2o915 for a ceramic heater, absolutely! You could put the ceramic heater in the middle of the cage and set the stat to “80” and then program the night drop to “70” for the skink. That way your basking bulb will run all the time for a basking spot, then the thermostat will turn the CHE on/off as needed to keep your desired daytime high/nighttime temp.
I have gone through all the written instructions, waited 24 hours, and watched this video. I can't get the timers to work. Which outlet corresponds to 1? I have the clock set correctly and my daytime heat lamp to come on at 8am, and it never comes on. I am assuming that #1 is the first daylight outlet.
Figured I should comment an update on the pair (since this video was filmed on May 1st, 2024). I was off on my estimates regarding the female likely being able to lay next year. She has laid two clutches in my care since her arrival. Three eggs laid May 28th, and three eggs laid August 1st 2024. The male is still smaller than her. But I am hoping if he puts on some size this year, then perhaps next year they'll both be "even" and maybe...just maybe... I can hatch out some Sulawesi black sailfin dragons! Stay tuned!
She’s likely got more and needs to push them out. Leave her be and let in do her thing. If you stress her out she may get out of the water and hold her eggs, which could cause egg-binding which in turn: would require surgery.
Wish I had the ability for someone to give me a project like that these are amazing animals. I have a juvenile the largest of the species. hydrosaurus microlophus
One day I’ll own microlophus! I did buy some juveniles two years ago hoping to get a pair, and then sent them to a friend of mine who collaborates on lizard work with me. Sadly both ended up being males. But lady luck favored me last year as I hand picked another micro at a show and that one ended up being female. Once that group of 2.1 breeds, I will be getting some captive born & bred babies! Thanks for watching and stay tuned!
@kyanduran2613 This species will not stay pure black. As I said in the video, the males will have a phase during sub-adulthood where they are all black, but eventually the middle of the body changes to a light cream and gold color. While there are photos of “all black” sailfin dragons. Those specimens are from the central part of Sulawesi and do not show up in the reptile trade.
@laulinave8666 H. microlophus matures with more grey tones and light yellows (which are complimented with the iconic enlarged dorsal-lateral keeled scales). If you have a microlophus that is very black/dark. It is most likely an integrade/hybrid animal from where H. celebensis and H. microlophus have overlapping populations within Sulawesi sletan.
I’ll see if I can get back into filming some lizard content then! Agreed on the nose rub! So many people keep sailfins (and Chinese water dragons) incorrectly to where they bash their faces up. Happy that these two have perfect faces!
Thanks Paul! I filmed this video back in May and sadly just got around to uploading it. The female has laid two clutches so far surprisingly! Sadly infertile. The male isn’t big enough. Maybe next year 🤞🏻
My male corn snake was a hesitant eater before when he was newly moved in with me. I asked the old owner if he was like this usually and they said that the snake ate really good with them. I thought he was hesitant because it was mating season, but because I was new to owning a snake I wasn’t completely sure.. Ones when he didn’t want to take the mouse, I planed to starve him for about 3 weeks to see if that would make him eat after trying many other different internet recommendation that did not work. I noticed that he got a lot more active after 2 weeks without food. About five days from this point, I gave him a mouse. He took it like a champ! I’ve never seen him strike the mouse before, except for that one time he was terrified by the rat I tried to feed him (which he did not eat, angry snek🐍), and after that one time he has not been hesitant again.
Thanks for putting this out here! I couldn't figure out why my day/night timers weren't working. Mine DID need the 24 hours to work properly... and the instructions never said that!
I certainly don’t mean to come across in a negative way. I’m merely trying to be real with the husbandry that goes into working with this species in captivity. I get a lot of joy out of working with water dragons! (I’d at least like to think so going on 11 years of keeping them, and as of this comment now owning eleven water dragons!) Not trying to deter anyone from keeping them. But more so wanting to provide a critical and honest explanation of what goes into keeping them! Thanks for watching!
@@AlexsAgamids Honestly it might be smart to deter some people. Just saw a girl selling her waterdragon and she had it in a small exoterra terrarium with a tiny waterbowl. I didn't realise the lack of knowledge people have about this species before i made the previous comment
I'll have to respectfully disagree. Deterring people will only be seen as negative and arguably come across as "gate keeping" (ex: "You shouldn't keep water dragons, but I can!"). Such context and ideologies would be negative, and that is personally not what I am for when it comes to working with water dragons in captivity. I am sorry to hear about your negative experience regarding seeing someone incorrectly maintaining a water dragon and listing it for sale. However, I hope through the content of this channel: education will help further the knowledge, captive husbandry, and respect Chinese water dragons deserve when maintained in captivity giving everyone a fair chance at enjoying these amazing lizards in the reptile-keeping hobby.
Omg helpppp. When I first got this I found this video because I didn’t understand the instructions 😂 anyway, I was able to figure it out. It’s been more than a year with no problem whatsoever until about a week ago. We had thunderstorms and I guess it messed up the program or smth. I’ve been trying to get it back to normal but the Time always ends up at random times and it switches from Auto😭😭😭 I’m going out of town soon and NEED to figure this out ASAP🙏🙏
Hello, The power surge could’ve messed with the backup battery in the timer. I’d suggest replacing that battery. Thus causing the whole timer to reset completely.
@@AlexsAgamids thank you okay and all the enclosures I’ve seen people doing I’ve never seen anyone building their Chinese water dragon an outdoor enclosure. I’m building mine one where he can go from his inside enclosure to outside any pointers or tips or why this isn’t done or that I haven’t seen it done.
@user-qv9bj6qh6s The main reason why most people do not keep their Chinese water dragons outdoors is because most of the united states is not hot or humid enough to meet the needs of a Chinese water dragon. Since they need air temps in the mid to high eighties with near eighty to one hundred percent humidity. It simply is difficult. I only know of one person who keeps their outside. But they live in the southern tip of Florida. For the most part. 99% of people can only meet their Chinese water dragons needs by keeping them inside.
For now you can easily cover all four sides of the glass with paper to prevent nose rubbing! When I've raised neonates in glass terrariums that worked exceptionally well!
Not a big fan of it. When it gets too dry the small particles get stuck in the eyes of the Chinese water dragons when they soak and kick it all up. Hence why I prefer the “chip” since the bigger sizes won’t irritate them.
They're pretty easy to keep! In my experience many outdated care guides keep them too warm. I currently work with a large group of adults at my current position and can tell you that they tend to avoid excessively hot spots (I think part of the reason people used to say these snakes had bad attitudes was due to them stressing out in excessively warm temperatures) In my experience, letting the daytime ambient temps fluctuate from 74-81 with a night drop works well! (So far I had four clutches laid this year at work with great egg viability under these parameters!)
@joshualandry3160 that’s how I’ve always worked with/maintained beauty snakes! Many other long term breeders I’ve spoken to such as Rob & Amy Zerkle, and Matt Most all vouch for the “cool, ambient temps” for Asiatic beauty snakes.
Hello, At the moment I do not. I will list ads on Fauna classifieds when I have more available. I will also be sure to post to my Facebook and Instagram pages (@alexsagamids) when eggs are starting to hatch.
It should! However the Aussies get a little bit larger than Chinese water dragons. So it may not hurt to increase the floor space (say 4’x3’ as opposed to 4’x2’)
Only in the middle area of the 30” fixture. Sadly in the 20” fixtures and the sides of the 30” fixture it is not wide enough to fit both “long style” bulbs.
Since water dragons are prone to nose rubbing, I came up with the idea of using glass tint, or mirrored glass film. I havent tried it yet but do you think it would work?
I’ve tried tinting the glass. The issue that occurs (especially with males) is that they can then slightly see their reflection. So they’ll attack said reflection and damage their face more jumping at the glass. I’d imagine such aggression would be worse with mirrored glass.
hey man i was wondering some questions about chinese water dragons i live in arizona and i want to a multiple species outside enclosure with 2 chinese water dragons a basilisk and a iguana all about 1-2 foot in a 8foot tall 8foot with 3 foot wide and i wpulf have a mist system for it being outside and its gonna be in like half shade and gonna have it with galvanized chicken wire do you think this would be possible?
I would not suggest it. Outdoors in Arizona would be too hot for a Chinese water dragon. The chicken wire will also be problematic as the water dragon and the basilisks will rub their noses against it and damage themselves. You’re better off maintaining said lizards inside (I would not advise keeping them with a green iguana either)
When it is 79 degrees without the heat panel on doesn't that mean that he has no temperature gradient? Like there is no basking spot because the entire enclosure is at 79 degrees with no heat panel running? PS, I'm just genuinely curious.
Correct. That way it prevents the enclosure from overheating. For example: if the room was 79-80 degrees, but I had the thermostat probe on the warm side set to say 88. Then the cool side of the cage could be 85!!! So by using this probe method. It ensure the heat panel is always on in a dimmed state to offer that hot spot on the shelf. But the moment the ambient room temperature rises, the thermostat probe detects that and thus the heat panel will not run (that helps avoid the risk of the snake overheating)
Is this a correct observation: the only thing you are "doing" is change out the water and spray down the enclosure every day. Then since the enclosure has a solid top, it naturally moves through this "humidity cycle," including reaching 99% at night? I'm asking as a new adult cwd owner who has created a diy wood enclosure from a wardrobe, and am having a hard time holding humidity. I do have holes in the top for my heat/uvb lights. I plan to close the top and replace with lights set on the inside (based on your temperature and usb videos). should this be enough to take care of the humidity?
Correct! I have no top ventilation to trap in the humidity. DO NOTE THOUGH: that my enclosures have cross ventilation to allow ample airflow and prevent stagnation. Do not make your enclosure airtight as that’ll encourage mold and bacterial growth which will be detrimental to your Chinese water dragon. (Live plants such as pothos help a lot!)
Okay, so I have a question. I pressed the program button and realized I could make 7 different timer programs. This is confusing because, one, there are 8 outlets, and two, only two of those outlets are daytime ones, and if the night ones turn on after the day ones turn off, what are the other programs for? Additionally, does this mean I can set a program for one of the white outlets and theoretically use it as a day one that shuts off at a certain time?
The "7" different programs means you could in theory have the lights run at seven different on/off intervals throughout the 7 day week (thought most people just setup one program so the timer turns on Sun-Sat at the same time every day) The different programs do not affect the outlets. Each colored outlet corresponds with the timer, the 4 remaining white outlets provide power 24/7 (say for if you run a thermostat, heater, etc.) Hopefully that helps! ~ Alex
I just finished my custom enclosure with a tank on the bottom is 6ft tall and 3 1/2 wide .. but my waterdragon stay in the bottom all day in the water every night I need to take her out and put her on top to go to sleep I don't want her to stay in the water overnight.... What would be causing my dragon to stay in the bottom??
Could be a number of reasons. Sluggish behavior can be attributed to cold temperatures, stress, and other factors. Make sure everything such as the humidity, temperature, and diet of the dragon are dialed in first before assessing other factors!
I would not suggest bathing your snake before it sheds. In this video, my snakes were in glass terraria. However they are now maintained in large, naturalistic PVC enclosures.
I love watching reptile room tours for a couple of reasons. Inspiration, enjoy reptiles I won't have through a video to name a few. Seeing how other's reptiles are and a bit of background story is a good enough reason alone for me. There's no one else around my area that keeps lizards so reptile room tours are like "visiting" other keeper's room. Nice dragon btw!
Correct! Obviously don't use a "small" water bowl by any means. But a large tub (I've also used cat litter boxes in the past) that offers the dragon a opportunity to completely soak, while also being able to get easily cleaned will suffice.
Worth the money for the sake of investing in the stability of your heat source(s) running and safety of your snake. I’ve heard of too many cases where a heat pad runs at full power because the “affordable” thermostats fail and thus apply full power to the heating element. I’m thankful to say I’ve had my snakes going on 13 years now and I’ve never had an issue with heating elements due to a proper thermostat. Sure I could “go cheap”, but in my opinion, it’s not worth cutting costs at the risk of loosing the animal.
So it's been over 48 hrs and my night light comes on just fine but the day one doesn't. The lights work because they come on in the programing section. I've checked the settings and my times are correct but the light still won't turn on. Any ideas?
Hello. I love your videos. We just rehomed a chinese water dragon and I've been watching tons of your videos! His current enclosure has an area that is 4 feet high and 4 feet wide area, then bottom half is over 6 feet long. I was consider getting a higher grow tent, but you think length is more important than height? Also your basking surface area is over 110f? When I read basking area should be 90-95f, do they mean air temperature? Thank you!
Correct, I keep my basking areas around 105-120 (it fluctuates over the seasons) Lots of care guides for these lizards are outdated and/or written by people who haven't kept a large number of individuals of this species. Chinese water dragons appreciate warmer temperatures than "online/one time experts" state.
