Abronia graminea Setup

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Vicious_Fish

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I received my 18"x18"x36" screen cage today in the mail. I'm pretty excited to get it ready for my future pair of Green Aboral Alligator Lizards, Abronia graminea. I choose a screen cage for the fact that this species lives high in the misty cloud forests of southern Mexico and they enjoy a good air flow that is hard to achieve in a glass tank. I will be constructing a fake background and I plan on adding a lot of live plants such as bromeliads, which are an important plant for this species.


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Vicious_Fish

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Here are a few photos of this amazing looking species.

aaaaaa.jpg abronia_graminea_by_peblo_tiger-d17ai2o.jpg Abronia-graminea-008-m.jpg Abronia-graminea-head-detail.jpg Arboreal_Alligator_Lizard_.jpg abro076.jpg
 

wesleydnunder

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Sure is a handsome little guy. Seth, are you gonna try to duplicate the evening temperature drops where they're from?

Mark
 

Rbishop

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Great looking critter!
 

Vicious_Fish

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Sure is a handsome little guy. Seth, are you gonna try to duplicate the evening temperature drops where they're from?

Mark
Thanks Mark! Yes, I'm going to do my best to keep the temps as similar to those in the wild. These guys are from a tiny forest in southern Mexico that can experience pretty drastic changes in temps from day to night. What's great about this species is that it's really quite happy being kept at room temp. Anything above the 90's can be lethal. Night temps can go down into the 50's and on the rare occasion it can snow where they're from.

Great looking critter!
Thanks Bob!

Those look amazing...can't wait to see 'em in the setup!
Thanks pappy, I can't wait to see it done as well! I've started using some Great Stuff spray foam to construct the background but I need to pick up a few more supplies this weekend before I can continue.
 

Vicious_Fish

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Very cool; I haven't seen these guys in before.
They're not commonly seen for sale but they are becoming more readily available thanks to captive breeding over the last few years.
 

Vicious_Fish

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Hey guys, just wanted to show you a few updates of my progress with the background. I forgot to mention the other reason why I choose a screen cage for this species. I wanted to keep the setup light because I plan to move them outdoors when the weather is nice. Natural sunlight really helps bring out their green coloring.


I cut a 3/4" piece of foam insulation board I picked up from Lowe's and placed this in the back. This becomes the base for my background. Here's a photo of the first can of Great Stuff spray foam placed on the foam board. I have the cage laying on it's back which makes things much easier because you're not working against gravity.

photo 5.JPG

Next I added a second can of spray foam after the first dried for a day. The second can will be what I use to give depth to the background. I'm also using it to form two placed where I'll can place potted live plants. I let the foam cure for about 20 minutes and then placed pieces of cork bark into it which glued into place. Not only is the bark a nice natural background for the lizards, but I will also use it to attach live bromeliads to.

photo 4.JPG

After it dried for another day I carved out the areas where I plan on placing live plants.

photo 2.JPG


photo 3.JPG

I placed a piece of manzanita wood in the front of the background and glued it in. I plan on placing live broms on this too.
photo 1.JPG

photo 1.JPG photo 2.JPG photo 3.JPG photo 4.JPG photo 5.JPG
 
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Vicious_Fish

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Just an update. I placed more moss on the background and covered up all the spots showing that I miss with the Eco Earth. Also a photo of the bromeliads that I'll be using.


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