I am thinking about using my BDs 40br as a tropical viv once he moves out, and was wondering what I could keep in it? I was thinking moderate-high humidity and lots of live plants as well as a shallow water area. I would be able to allow up to 4 hrs of outside cage time everyday for excersise, but I need a relitively inexpensive lizard that can be held easily 2-3 times a week (easily as in not trying to run away and hide every other second.) also, it cant outgrow the 40br.
No it won't be okay. Mike you shouldn't give people advice if you don't know whether it is true. A Water Dragon will need an enclosure that is at least two times their length, males get up to 3 feet long and females get up to 2 feet long, so that's a minimum of 6' long, 2-3' deep, and 4-6' high enclosure Here's a good care sheet site when it comes to water dragons. http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/dragoncr.htm
Well there aren't many lizards that stay smaller. Anoles are the only thing common that come to mind, and well they don't like to be handled. Other than that you have geckos. You have several things to think about. One, you might try to get all females, but that doesn't always work. I know this personally. I thought having two pictus females would be great, turns out one is male and I had to separate them and now I'm collecting eggs. Two, never put two males together. They will fight over the ladies and over territory until one or both are dead. Finally, you have to make sure whatever species you decide to get that you don't get too many that you overcrowd the tank. Good luck!
*cough* cresties *cough* an all female crestie army! Like Jess said you would need to be sure of sex before making a communal tank (certainly with tropical species; there are some desert species that do well in mixed sex communes) and females tend to be more expensive than males.
Indeed, an all female crestie army would totally kick ass, but would also definitely hurt our pockets! Better to get them young and pray, and if you end up with half a dozen males before you get a female, umm well then why stop there? Expand... yeah... hehe. Then we will have a room that looks like Jenn's Edit: Oh and I forgot one important bit of information. When you do decide to make your colony of little lizards, be sure to quarantine each of the little guys to be sure one won't infect and kill off your whole colony.
