BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Got a big wood tunnel for my little guy, and switched around the light placement. He seems to really like the hide!


^^ I put him up there for that pic, but he crawled up on top to be under the basking lamp earlier, i was very proud!

closeup:

Oh wow he's an Interesting lookin skink, He's so dark I love it! Quigly's really bright and yellowy, Aww now I want a darky tooooooooo.

Ohhh.. what a cutie! I can't wait to hear the pitter pa.. umm.. hissy hiss of a little skinky baby in my ROOM*


*the place for most of my critters, the studio, the tools... the critters...

Omega, one thing I'm pretty big on with fish tanks and vivariums alike, is backgrounds. They not only beautify the tank, they block movement, light and shadows to prevent that "...in the middle of the room," feeling that prey animals don't like too much.

I found a cheap, damaged copy of Dali's "Swans Reflecting Elephants," that fit pretty darn well on the back of the vivarium.



KW

ok Kyle, this similarity stuff has to stop.... I always keep my Dali collection book on my coffee table... he was an incredible artist.

But I'm planning on him being in a complete new setup within a the next week or 2, should I just put something up as a temp background for now?

I really don't care for the look of most aquarium backgrounds, but I definitely want him to feel safe- and I'm sure I can find something cool. If I end up getting a solid enclosure with glass front... will i need to use a background on all 3 opaque sides?

Lucifer_Spades wrote:Oh wow he's an Interesting lookin skink, He's so dark I love it! Quigly's really bright and yellowy, Aww now I want a darky tooooooooo.

if i get a second one it will be getting a light colored, hehe, just for something different- i love my dark one!

Omega wrote:ok Kyle, this similarity stuff has to stop.... I always keep my Dali collection book on my coffee table... he was an incredible artist.

But I'm planning on him being in a complete new setup within a the next week or 2, should I just put something up as a temp background for now?

I really don't care for the look of most aquarium backgrounds, but I definitely want him to feel safe- and I'm sure I can find something cool. If I end up getting a solid enclosure with glass front... will i need to use a background on all 3 opaque sides?

Well I'm the older one, so I'm the original one.

Well, if you find a $3 Dali poster, I say go for it, screw paying $15 for a stupid fish or typical lizard vivarium background.

You *can* use a background on the opaque sides, use a little water-thinned Elmer's glue and a rolling pin (or something to press out the bubbles... It makes it a little more natural, nicer to look at for you, and heck, maybe your blue as well. It's not a have-to thing, but for the little effort and the vast improvement (presentation value, too...) I say it's a good idea.

KW

Original.. bah! You can have it. I'm ok with "New and Improved" or "Extra Strength!"... heck, even "20% more free!" will do.

Yeah, once I know for sure what I will be getting, I'll have to figure out what all i could do. If I get that plastic one piece Vision setup, I would want to do a fairly temp attachment if possible, just to make cleaning easier. Now i'm inspired to find a really cool background scheme. Perhaps he will need a disco ball for extra UV's.

By all means, improve upon Supreme Weissness. If you can. Just don't be "Coke II..."

Cleaning is certainly not hard. By far the cleanest animal I've EVER owned, the bluey is. I'm curious to see your Vision setup once you have it; I really want something either really nice such as that or to make something of similar caliber.

KW

Yeah, I'm still debating. The seller is getting back in town tomorrow, and is supposed to send me some pics of the actual unit. It's a big chunk of change, but Fatal_S's sweet tank-in-progress is at almost 100 bucks now (well, 70-80), without glass, rails, etc, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't save me much money to build one. And when I have to move the thing more than 50 feet, I will be glad I spent a little more for it to be light. Plus I really like that it's the one piece as far as moving goes.

My goal is to find some kind of old console stereo unit, the kind with built-in speakers and a turntable, that has swinging doors... Or a small hutch or tableware cabinet of some kind. Converting it minimally, treating the corners and the wood, installing the lights, etc, replacing the door centers with glass, calling it good. I think I can do it for under $100 since I already have the lights and whatnot. I'll pray to the second-hand store deities.

KW

KyleWeiss wrote:My goal is to find some kind of old console stereo unit, the kind with built-in speakers and a turntable, that has swinging doors... Or a small hutch or tableware cabinet of some kind. Converting it minimally, treating the corners and the wood, installing the lights, etc, replacing the door centers with glass, calling it good. I think I can do it for under $100 since I already have the lights and whatnot. I'll pray to the second-hand store deities.

KW

Yeah, finding something you're happy with that isn't expensive will be the hard part. You have a nice setup now though, and I'd like to get my bluey's permanent home as soon as I can, so that he is happy and so that I'm not tempted to put money to improve a temp tank, lol. So far I haven't spent money on anything that won't eventually be in his bigger enclosure, hopefully it will stay that way, haha.

KyleWeiss wrote:My goal is to find some kind of old console stereo unit, the kind with built-in speakers and a turntable, that has swinging doors... Or a small hutch or tableware cabinet of some kind. Converting it minimally, treating the corners and the wood, installing the lights, etc, replacing the door centers with glass, calling it good. I think I can do it for under $100 since I already have the lights and whatnot. I'll pray to the second-hand store deities.

KW

Look around charity stores that sell furniture. That's where we got our cabinet from.

I'm a pretty sneaky, resourceful guy. I'll find something.

Rollie's setup is extremely basic. I'm pretty dang sick of the lift-top. I spent a bit on the 40-gallon tank brand new, but I can recoup half that if need be. I'm not too worried about it. For learning a lesson in what to buy and what NOT to buy, I'll lose a few bucks.

Wise idea to buy/make things that will go from temp-tank to enclosure.

KW

Yeah, craigslist has sick deals on aquariums, at least in a big city it's easy to find them it seems. I got my 58 gallon cichlid tank with wooden stand, filter, lid, heater, 50+ bucks in decorations, all kinds of tank supplies... all for 100 bucks. I emailed a guy yesterday about a 50g reptile setup for 50 bucks... no response yet so I'm assuming sold.

Well, we were lucky because our cabinet had glass fronted doors. No removing panels required.

mouseinamilkbottle wrote:Well, we were lucky because our cabinet had glass fronted doors. No removing panels required.

nice find! pics?

http://bluetongueskinks.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8736

It's not as deep as it looks - the back is mirrored.

mouseinamilkbottle wrote:http://bluetongueskinks.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8736

It's not as deep as it looks - the back is mirrored.

haha, it fooled me for a second, looks like a very nice setup!

What a pretty skink! Got any outside the cage pics of him? Would love to see more! Can't help it, I'm a pic addict!