high school enclosure

[dunl]

Hi all,

A few months ago I rescued Pascal, and brought him to my classroom. Here he is:

I'm going to turn the classroom display case into a habitat for him, and I am looking for lots of ideas regarding this. It is at the back of the class, with the glass side facing out into the hallway:

To give you an idea of how big, here is a comparison with my hand to the mausosaur fossil in the lower left of the above pic:

There is a dual outlet plug on the "floor" of the display, and fluorescent lighting overhead (turns on and off with the hall lights). The back of the display in the class locks for security as well. My initial vision is to place tile down, silicon the seams and put sand immediately over the top (camoflaging and hiding the silicone from eyes and dragon). That will help wear down the nails, and make clean up easier. Then, decorate with some driftwood trees, and maybe some sort of live tree if I can find something suitable.

Thoughts, advice, comments all welcome.

 

[PatsyB]

I love the idea of the tank being seen from the hall and the class room. I just don't know if this is practical for a bearded dragon. I think the tank is too tall to get the proper heat and UVB exposure.

 

[dunl]

The F32T8 woul just be additional. I can lower the other two bulbs.

I love the idea of the tank being seen from the hall and the class room. I just don't know if this is practical for a bearded dragon. I think the tank is too tall to get the proper heat and UVB exposure.

T8

 

[Elizabeth Rhoads]

Please no sand. Awesome case, but you won't be able to monitor what is happening to him. School kids out of your control, may not be so soothing for him.

 

[dunl]

First, the sand would only be embedded into the silicone to hide it.

Secondly....what are you talking about? Kids out of control? I won't be able to monitor it?

It's people like you who make these forums a bad place. Someone posts asking for suggestions, and you take some paranoid notion you have in your head and express it due to your need to have attention. Please explain to me how the kids at my school are out of control, and also my poor monitoring skills.

 

[Canicke]

dunl - take a breath, please. most of us dont use sand in our tanks because our little guys can ingest it when they eat and it can cause gastrointestinal distress - up to an including impaction. not a good thing. since you did not previously note that the sand would not be loose but, rather, imbedded into the silicone it seems an assumption was made that the sand would be scattered over the top (i made that assumption myself) as to the kids - again, it seems as if an erroneous assumption was made - apparently that your charges would be running around the viv and the classroom. i dont believe it was directed specifically at YOU - it was, rather, situational. perhaps Elizabeth has had some bad experiences.

Let us know how you do with the lights and heating - i am curious about that.

 

[dunl]

The sand is not the issue, as I could see how that could possibly be misunderstood. Completely my fault.

My issue is people that instantly take something as negative. I'm looking for suggestions on building the enclosure, not on how to do my job and control kids correctly.