A New Terrarium :)

So initially I was planning to spend a fifth of my scholarship on a digital SLR camera. But as always, a new idea entered my mind - I'm gonna get a new terrarium for my anoles.

Long story short, I ended up with 2 males and had to separate them. Each one now occupies a 10 gallon tank (one has a bigger one, but I don't know what it is exactly, so let's just say its 10) with their own little set up and they're generally happy. Until the second one got some eye thing anyways.

Either way, I was thinking of getting a 33 gallon tank from a friend so maybe I could house the two together which would make feeding and cleaning easier. Would that work? I mean, if I mixed all their plants and caves and rocks and branches into one terrarium it would have a LOT of hiding spots and I have 4 lamps right now, so that's like 2 potential basking spots and 2 UVB lights right there.

Also, could I maybe get a long tail lizard to live with them? I saw them live together at the pet store I used to work in, but then again, we might have been cramming them in together for the lack of space... so I don't know.

As for the terrarium itself. My friend has an aquarium (I can easily get a mesh top for it though) that's 30" high, 16 wide and 12.5" deep. Is that too high? Would you recommend a long one rather than a tall one? 'Cause if that's the case, I can always go to a pet store and search for one. I'm just not sure how practical the 30" height is. And how hard it will be to clean? I don't think my arms are that long... I mean, my mom's tank is about 20" in height and it's rather hard to do anything in there already (maybe 'cause it has water in it, but still).

Thank you! If you have any suggestions for anything, please let me know, I'm totally open to suggestions.

Welcome. Anoles like height, since they climb, so the 33 gallon (29 maybe, never heard of a 33?) would be good. You could try them together with more space but be prepared to separate again if necessary. I have a 37 and its no problem cleaning it out, just stand on a footstool. I'm only 5' 3" so you have no excuse!

I would advise against mixing the species. Usually pet stores don't do the best housing for their animals. Remember, at that point they are considered "product."

Welcome to the board.

Keep your scholarship money for school! Getting a good education is the most important thing you can do!!! NEVER use the scholarship funds for anything else other than school!

schlegelbagel, thanks! I'll just stick to anoles then. I too was thinking it's 29, because I found one online that had the same dimensions and was 29 gallons, we'll see I guess. Well, considering, I'll have like 2 10 gallons empty, separating them again shouldn't be a problem.

wgnelson, I appreciate your concern, but... that's not the only scholarship I got. I have this year's tuition paid in full and even if I spend some left overs on a terrarium, I'll have more left for next year. Plus, I have a job (and parents with some edumacation savings) and a pretty decent GPA (more monies?). A terrarium isn't such a big expense, especially since I can get it from a friend. Thanks though.

Well, I got a new terrarium yesterday It's not the one I wanted, but this one is vertical (24") and still 30ish gallons, which makes it a LOT bigger than the little ones. I also got the canopy to put UVB lights in - I just had the ceramic lamps attach to the top before, but my cats got the idea of knocking them over easily, so I decided to try the canopy. The only problem I have right now is I think the holes in the mesh top are too small - they're about 3mm each. So I was thinking, should I cut every second wire out to make holes bigger?

I also went crazy today and built a cave out of garden rocks for the basking spot. I'll post the pictures of it tomorrow. This is so fun!

Oh yes, is there a substrate that I could fill a little dish with and place in the terrarium that would have wax worms just crawl around so the little guys could hunt them themselves? Thanks!

Just make sure that if you do cut holes in the screen the new holes aren't large enough for the anoles to get out... In order for UVB to get through you need 0.6cm holes. If that is going to be so big that it allows the anoles to go through them, you could always mount the light on the inside of the tank...