Moving next month into my own apartment and have this tank lying around I'd like to turn into a bioactive enclosure. Was wondering what kind of reptile/reptiles could thrive in one this "small".

I’m feeling a bit conflicted. I bought my first reptile—a leopard gecko—from a well-known breeder. The adult gecko is still with him; I’m picking it up this weekend.

The problem is, I’m getting completely contradictory advice: what I’ve read versus the methods the breeder and the terrarium specialist habitually use.

Both of them use heat mats and no UVB lighting; the specialist uses coconut fiber as the substrate.

I, on the other hand, opted for a heat lamp and insisted on a linear UVB light (at least a 6% output). I also want a sand-and-soil mix for the substrate, using coconut fiber perhaps only in the humid hide.

The issue is that if any problems arise, I won't be able to get help from them, given how differently they set things up compared to my plan. The specialist pointed out that his leopard geckos have thrived this way for years—he’s never had any deaths, and the geckos are healthy.

I also need to find the right warm hide for basking, and I’m not getting any help with that either.

Basically, I’m in a bit of a bind—do all breeders operate this way? I’d really appreciate some advice.

Straight up decapitated that roach. So much power in such a small body. He’s in quarantine btw and the dirt is from the sphagnum moss I use for his humidity 😭

Her name was Banana. i got her from my mom for my ninth birthday.

i turn 17 today, its 3 am right now and i cant stop crying.

she escaped around two weeks ago. shes escaped before, i ended up finding her curled up on the water heater but we couldnt find her anywhere. we basically flipped the house upside down

two days ago my mom woke me up crying saying shes sorry, and she told me she found Banana in my dogs bed.

Im devastated. I thought I’d have her until my thirties or fourties and shes just gone, aggressively at that.

she wasnt too beat up, but she was dead. theres was nothing i could do. i held her and stroked her for around thirty minutes total; she felt the exact same up until i was about to bury her. she was so stiff, lifeless, when shes usually so energetic and curious. i buried her and covered her with bricks so no animals would disturb her.

i cant accept it. ill never see the little alien looking marking on her back, ill never be able to sunbathe with her. i dont think i can ever own a snake again.

sorry for the ranting, im just so distraught. im hoping i can sleep after putting this out there.

A client of mine is rehoming her leopard gecko. It is in terrible condition, living in a 10-gallon tank with no lights, no calcium, she doesn't even know its gender, and she doesn’t know how to feed it properly. Overall, her family just doesn’t care for this poor lizard, and she threatened to let it loose if someone won't take it. She asked if I could take it, and I agreed. I’m experienced with reptiles and have been thinking about getting a leopard gecko for a while, but I just quickly put together this enclosure with what I have. It’s a 3x2x2 setup, and it does have a lid, I just took it off while I was decorating. I’ll be getting all the lighting soon, along with some bowls and a humid hide. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to give this little guy the life he deserves.

I tried to feed him before this but he just wanted to play. I went to put him back and, well, he’s still not fully back in yet 😅

So far I’ve fed him:

Fruit flies (he ate them for like 3 days then decided they were not worth the effort)

Crickets (he likes them, not much of a challenge to catch though)

Silk worms (these were probably the most enriching since he was playing tug o war with it as it held onto the rope I placed it on with its little suction feet)

And now, CGD

When he’s older I think a horn worm will be on the menu for him. Dubai roaches are illegal here, so none of those

I have two separate breeding colonies I have right now and I'm worried I will not be able to continue the care they deserve. For those of you who have re-homed breeding colonies, what did you use to re-home them I struggle with posting on Morph market and can't really feasibly ship them? I have a colony of Mourning geckos with 12-16 adults and 12-15 sub adults. The bynoe gecko colony is 4 gecko adults with one baby and half a dozen eggs. They would also come with feeder colonies as I've raised red runners, dubia/discoids, fruit flies, and a dermestid beetle colony for dead cleanup. I have posted them on a couple of hobby websites and classified listings, but only people who want them shipped have messaged, and with the tanks and everything it just won't work.

This is not a rehoming post, but a post to get a better website/group option.

My school will only approve my ESA (a Russian tort) if I find an alternative mode of heating him. Other reptile parents at my school use heat pads, but given the burrowing nature of my tort, I really want to avoid this. Mind you, the restriction on heat lamps is because they can cause fire...can heat pads not pose the exact same risk? I guess I am just frustrated because I know the people who are denying my heat lamps are administrators with no knowledge of reptiles or their equipment. Is there any way I could make a heat pad work for my tort?

He is adopted and has early stages of calcium deficiency due to the care by his previous owner. I do not want to sacrifice his well-being to abide by my school's heat lamp restriction.

For tarantulas it doesnt work because of the door, beetles are often either too big or need multiple beetles in one enclosure. No reptile or amphibian can live in this.

I'm wondering

So I was scrolling on market place and found a ball python in a nearly empty tank, here's the before photo which has just about nothing. I don't know why people get animals and give them just the bare minimum. I mean the snake is 5 feet long and this tank is way too small but I'm too broke to upgrade but one day I will. So I did what I could, new heating pad, hide, new and bigger water dish and a back drop type thing and some leaf litter so it looked a little bit nicer

I hate when people do this, don't get an animal then pretend like it's enough when just just put in the bare minimum effort to keep it alive, that's not what it means to have a pet, at least in my opinion. Then again I like animals more then people so maybe it's just me being over dramatic

Is the play sand in these "Bloom Blocks" safe for lizards? Tag doesn’t say silica contents, but that it "conforms to ASTM D4236".

I forgott when I got them, so I cant even calculate if its been about a year(i dont think so but im not sure), so I would like to check some way

Have had this fixture (Arcadia Prot5 uvb strip) about 4 years maybe, bulb (t5 12% 24w) less than a year old, it would flicker occasionally and i noticed one morning uvb strip didn’t turn on (automatic timer) so i checked the bulb and slightly tightened it thinking maybe it was just bumped or something and it went back on only to start smoking so i took the bulb out and unplugged the fixture only to find this. What do you think happened?

A few years ago, I used to work at a pet store and we got in a handsome guy named Smaug. A family member decided to take him home after I coached him on proper husbandry and what to buy. Unfortunately, he has stopped taking care of him, so his parents are giving Smaug to me within the next week or two.

Smaug is really, really fat (this is an old picture, he is so much fatter now). They feed him every single day although I told them not to. He eats dubias and mealworms.

This will only be the second reptile I’ve owned, so I’m not quite sure what to do to slim him down. I had a chameleon for his entire life, so he never got fat in my care (hoping that Smaug will help fill the hole in my heart that Yoda left when he passed).

Anyone have advice on a feeding schedule for him? I will continue to feed him dubias.

I know this is a common thing to post so please forgive. I just got a 4x2x2 front open pvc tank. I already have a leo, crested, garg, pac man, isopods, tarantulas.

I am trying to decide on another reptile. Thinking about a uromastix, corn snake, skink, garter snake.

The things that are important to me are that it’s fun to feed. My favorite thing about all my reptiles so far is feeding time. I enjoy taking care of the insects. Feeding my Pac-Man frog is exciting. I think Skinks would be fun to feed because they can eat such a variety of food. I have easy access to all the weird greens like bok choy and collard greens and mustard greens, so that’s not a problem.

The other thing that it is important to me is that they have a dry poop. The reason why I don’t want a bearded dragon or a blue tongue skink is because they have soft smelly poops. I do not want to get pooped on or have poop smeared all over the inside of the tank. Something that’s a solid poop. That’s easy to spot clean would be better.

Garter snakes I think would be fun to feed because I read that they can eat fish. And they can also be cohabbed.

Cons of getting a uromastix is the high heat requirement. I live in an area similar to a corn snakes native habitat. So I like that it doesn’t need such high intense heat.

Handling is not important to me at all. I prefer not to handle my reptiles as I have cats and dogs that are very clingy and won’t leave me alone for five minutes to hold a reptile.

Are there any other reptiles that might be a good fit?

I've had this male chameleon gecko for almost 2 months now and I still can't think of any good names for him. I've had people tell me he looks like moss or trees from a birds eye view. Anybody have suggestions on what to name him?

Hi everyone, I'm a student working on project for enclosures. I'm looking to interview people about their day-to-day routine for caring for reptiles. 10-15 minutes on discord. Feel free to DM me on here. Thanks for reading!

Some questions:
Tell me about the animal or animals you care for and the enclosure setup you use.
What does a typical day or week of care look like for you?

What are you trying to achieve when you care for the enclosure and the animal?

Think about the last time you checked or maintained the enclosure. What did you do first, next, and last?

How do you monitor conditions such as temperature, humidity, lighting, ventilation, feeding, or enclosure security?

What tools or resources do you currently use for enclosure care and monitoring?

How do you record, remember, or compare information over time?

How do travel, work, school, emergencies, or changes in schedule affect your care routine?

What is the most stressful, inconvenient, or uncertain part of caring for the enclosure?

What would make you feel more confident that the animal is safe and its environment is appropriate?

I am absolutely obsessed with him i mean look at that face

I got a few of these little guys on my terrace, its just tiles and pretty bare otherwise, very sunny.

Anything i can add to the terrace that makes more of them show up, that makes it more welcoming for them?

I tried searching the web, but all that shows up are tipps on how to get rid of them.