New Tylo Urodelarium

Here is Elektra and Eddie's new home. I've been planning it for quite a while and finally put it together over the weekend. (See http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52305 if you're interested on my questions about gluing in the partition.)

I built it partly because I've wanted to give them a larger home for a while now, but mostly because I was worrying that if they didn't follow their natural life progression it would be bad for their health. From what I understand, this species is supposed to become aquatic after they grow up, but they show no interest, especially Elektra I worry about as she was born in 2005. I acquired her as a larva and I couldn't fret about her more if I had laid the egg myself.
So I put this together on the "if you build it they will come" principle of behavioral management.

The lid hasn't come in yet, but the petshop where I go was kind enough to lend me a larger one that they had in stock, until the one that fits it correctly comes in, hopefully on Friday.

Oh, and don't forget to add my new word, "Urodelarium", to the glossary.

You can see they are enjoying their new home already. That is Eddie in picture 5, Elektra in picture 6.

Hmm, wasn't quite what I was thinking when you described what you were going to do earlier. I would think the tylos would be more likely to explore the aquatic section of their enclosure if the level of the terrestrial side was the same as that of the water's surface. Building up the land side with LECA, gravel or activated carbon separated by fiberglass mesh (window screening) and then your substrate would boost the level of the terrestrial side and keep the substrate from sitting in the water should your divider leak. Just a thought.

Otherwise it looks pretty nice. I especially like the water section. That ladder cracks me up because my cockatiel loves chewing and climbing on the colored version of that.

Well, it did occur to me that it seems to us that water should be lower than land, but then I thought that animals that are able to find their way back to their pools of origin from far far away and migrate long distances would be able to make their way up and down to a water pool only inches away if that's what they wanted. In nature, pools appear in all kinds of contexts, not necessarily lower than their base land. I already caught one of them exploring over the barrier on the rocks on the water side, and come back again.
I decided that if/when it leaks, I'll reglue it and do it with the LECA, but I wanted to try this first because it was my original idea. Plus I didn't have to search and wait to find and get LECA, since I had everything I needed for this setup already. And I already caught one of them on the ladder too.
I realized I didn't have anything corresponding on the water side of the ladder, so I already built up another incline on the water side. If they want water, they'll easily get there.

Both have dipped their toes in the water

Eddie has even taken a dip! So they both are well aware of their options. I didn't help them at all. I put them both in the terrestrial side this morning and haven't touched them since, only watched and photographed them.

Apparently they prefer the ladder to the bark climb! And you can see how I put something in the water to be the other side to the ladder.

Also those hooks are not as menacing as they appear, I don't think they will be able to hurt themselves in it.
In fact I just thought of putting little pieces of styrofoam on the ends, good thing I am such a packrat.

I'm probably as happy as they are! I want my animals to have as much room as possible. I keep thinking how they have twenty years at least and I want them to have as much as I can give them, not the minimum I can get away with. Even my geckos have a wheel, and I have caught them on it.

Lovely photos Dawn! I'm sure they'll love their new home.

Hey, is it possible they could drown?

They have both been over every inch of their new enclosure several times.
In and out of the water area, in and out, in and out (though not exactly in the water very often, just over and back over the partition). I've been checking on them obsessively every twenty minutes. It was all I could do to go to bed last night. Anyway, I lowered their water level after that drowning fear popped into my head. That came, by the way, thanks to John in this thread:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?p=136574#post136574

even though they are far from morphs.
Anyway, aren't they CUTE?

Since they've been in their new habitat, they've been spending more and more time in the water.
It's about 50-50 now, where I'll find them when I check on them.
Interestingly, they are always both on the same side; if one is on land, so is the other; if one is in the water, the other is closeby.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: these two are my favorites. We have 4 inches of snow on the ground but because it's a little warm today I went out and found them each a fat slug.

Great but i think you should level the water and terraium are you can just keep it how it is.:yin-yang:

Nice job!!!!

I feel a little jelous, have you think using real plants instead of plastic ones?, I bet your little friends will love that a more real natural look

The tank doesn't get enough light to support live plants. Anyway, Elektra and Eddie don't live there anymore as of two days ago. They became fully aquatic after a while, and they were in the basement in a tank too large to have in my living room. I really missed seeing them constantly, so I put them back up in the living room in a 15 gallon aquarium set up just like the aquatic side of this setup. But it worked really well to get them acclimated to the water.

Here are Eddie and Elektra in their new home. They're basically back to their old 15 gallon tank, but now it's all aquatic with just a couple of islands--just like the water side of their land/water tank above.
It was an educational thing to do: I was worried that they were supposed to be aquatic by now; I made them a half & half which let them choose water at their own pace; they became 95 % aquatic on their own then. Yes, that's their old "bat boy" picture in the background, Kaysie. I missed them in the basement! Now we can eat and talk together as in the old days.

I was kind of hoping for eggs this year, as they are obviously different sexes and seem to get along.
On the other hand, no one wants to be nagged into motherhood. I'll let them wait until they're ready.
*sigh* now I know how my mother feels.

I didn't realize how much I had posted on these two until I searched for this thread!
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49580
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50804
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53362
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52904
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39257
http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39277

Dawn, you read my mind!