mrtoofay
New Member
Hi,
New to the site and fairly new to tortoise keeping. My experience with tortoises were tortoise sitting my brother-in-law's Russian when he went back to Taiwan for couple months. I am a fish person. Have been keeping tropical fish for over 25 years.
I got interested when I attended a pet show with my kids, it had a reptile section. Then our recent visit to reptile super show sealed the deal. Started doing my research on enclosure and diet requirements for different species, and finally decided on keeping stars. Was going to get sir-lankan stars, everything we going well and was about to purchase when my wife saw Burmese Stars, well, there's not turning back then.
So, just want to make sure that I am getting this right. I got two of them in an enclosure made from a 55 gallon tote, will make a second enclosure and separate them as soon as I fine tunes everything and get everything right with this first one.
Well, the substrate is plain coconut coir, it smelled a little.. earthy, so my wife put in some plants, I think they are rosemary, sage, and lavender. I guess she's hoping that those plants will mask the earthy smell. Are those plants ok to eat and is the smell ok?
I've cut out most of the lid and replaced it with two sheets of acrylic. One's got two holes cut out and I glued some L brackets to rest the lamps on, and to keep the acrylic from bending. I used two pcs of acrylic so I can slide them around to gain access to the enclosure easier. The lamps are CHE and MVB. Right now, the CHE is in the middle of the lid while MVB is on the right side, where the plants are. The CHE is temperature controlled at 83f with the probe placed at the left side of the enclosure, away from the lamps and about 2 inches above the substrate. The MVB comes on around 10am, and goes out at around 8pm. The temperature of the tile, which is directly under the MVB stays around 100f when the MVB is on, and the cool side is about 85. The water bowl is under the CHE. The humidity stays around 85%. Do I still need a humid hide?
So, what do you guys think about this setup? Are the placements of the lamps ok? Are the placements of the food tile, water bowl ok?
I understand the benefits of the closed chamber enclosure, but one thing really bothers me. Are the tortoises getting enough air/oxygen? It's gotta be awfully stuffy inside. My wife things the plants will help, but I told her that once the light goes off, they are actually competing with the tortoises for O2.
Well, there's my long-winded introduction and questions. Thanks to everyone in advance. Here are some pictures.
New to the site and fairly new to tortoise keeping. My experience with tortoises were tortoise sitting my brother-in-law's Russian when he went back to Taiwan for couple months. I am a fish person. Have been keeping tropical fish for over 25 years.
I got interested when I attended a pet show with my kids, it had a reptile section. Then our recent visit to reptile super show sealed the deal. Started doing my research on enclosure and diet requirements for different species, and finally decided on keeping stars. Was going to get sir-lankan stars, everything we going well and was about to purchase when my wife saw Burmese Stars, well, there's not turning back then.
So, just want to make sure that I am getting this right. I got two of them in an enclosure made from a 55 gallon tote, will make a second enclosure and separate them as soon as I fine tunes everything and get everything right with this first one.
Well, the substrate is plain coconut coir, it smelled a little.. earthy, so my wife put in some plants, I think they are rosemary, sage, and lavender. I guess she's hoping that those plants will mask the earthy smell. Are those plants ok to eat and is the smell ok?
I've cut out most of the lid and replaced it with two sheets of acrylic. One's got two holes cut out and I glued some L brackets to rest the lamps on, and to keep the acrylic from bending. I used two pcs of acrylic so I can slide them around to gain access to the enclosure easier. The lamps are CHE and MVB. Right now, the CHE is in the middle of the lid while MVB is on the right side, where the plants are. The CHE is temperature controlled at 83f with the probe placed at the left side of the enclosure, away from the lamps and about 2 inches above the substrate. The MVB comes on around 10am, and goes out at around 8pm. The temperature of the tile, which is directly under the MVB stays around 100f when the MVB is on, and the cool side is about 85. The water bowl is under the CHE. The humidity stays around 85%. Do I still need a humid hide?
So, what do you guys think about this setup? Are the placements of the lamps ok? Are the placements of the food tile, water bowl ok?
I understand the benefits of the closed chamber enclosure, but one thing really bothers me. Are the tortoises getting enough air/oxygen? It's gotta be awfully stuffy inside. My wife things the plants will help, but I told her that once the light goes off, they are actually competing with the tortoises for O2.
Well, there's my long-winded introduction and questions. Thanks to everyone in advance. Here are some pictures.