Keeping Eastern Water Dragons

[green_chairs]

Gday all. Try as I might, I cant seem to find a caresheet on EWD's anywhere!! So i'm asking for your advice instead...

I wish to purchase two fairly young dragons soon and keep them in a 4'x2' aquarium, with an area about 1 foot long blocked off for a 'pool'. I have just a few questions...

-How old would they have to be for me to distinguish male from female? I want to buy one of each and breed.

- I'm aware I'll need a uv globe, but which one? Ie Repti glo/sun/light/fancything (whatever they are called) 2.0 - 10.0?

-For a basking light, what sort of wattage should I look at? And should I have it on a timer or thermo? If on thermo, what temp? It will be an infra-red or a ceramic

-Whats the deal with feeding? I know they eat insects and salad, but how much how often etc.

-Will I need a filter for the water section?

-What sort of substrate should I use? I want somthing fairly aesthetically pleasing as this will be a bit of a show piece

-Does it matter if I use real plants or plastic plants?

Any other advice you can offer me will be quite helpful.

 

[cyclamen]

send a pm to spilota_variegata. he has good knowledge on waters mate.

 

[spilota_variegata]

Have a look at this one.

Rather than waffle, heres a link for you to look at.

http://www.reptilekeeper.co.uk/waterdragoncaresheets/kaplancaresheet.php

Hope it helps,

David...

 

[cyclamen]

oh david. thought u could be helpful. your always helpful to me. and of course i always appreciate it.

 

[PeeJay]

Good choice! EWD's are cool, great to watch cos they are very active and frisky, and kind of remind me of the raptors from jurassic park!

I'd recommend the biggest enclosure you can afford, two EWD's will require approx 3m x 0.8 x 0.8 tank when fully grown to allow them enough space to do their thing. A removable water tub is a must, i did have a setup in a tank with sand and pebbles at one end and a pool at the other, but it just became a mess after a week! it needed to be totally cleaned out, so i ditched that idea! if they have a tub, they do all their business in it and that leaves the rest of the cage virtually spotless! (if you have astroturf substrate)

I have two EWD's about a year old from the same clutch, and they are starting to show good colour, with one (which i now think is a male) has a bright red flush on his chest, and the other has just a slight hint of red. (which i hope is female fingers crossed) I have also read that the male has larger features head and crest, but i dont think you can distinguish this until they have a few years under their belt.

I have a repti-glo 2.0 tube, which was recommended by my reptile expert shop dude, and a 60 watt red reflector type globe, i want to install another at the other end, because they are now nearly 200mm SV length and competing for the best spot.

not sure on temp, i think i have mine set around 25 - 28 deg, but i think its better to have a basking light going all day on an on/off timer to replicate sunlight. than a regulated constant temp.

I feed mine all types of vegies and fruit, and the rep-cal bearded dragon food. it has lots of good vitamins and stuff in it. It took me a while to get them feeding on it, but they love it now. Actually they go absolute mental when they see me coming with a dish of the stuff!! I also give them some crickets and roaches for a treat every now and again.

real plants or fake is up to you, i have fake ones, but if your bringing in real ones, make sure the soil is free from fertilisers and stuff like that.

Hope that helps!

Oh, and nice VTR David, i'd love to have a thundrous v-twin like that!