Bioactive Radix Tank

[Qwerty3159]

So I went ahead and decided to give my female radix a nicer setup.
20 gallon long tank lit with a 24 inch walmart LED fixture with a small 25 watt bulb for heat although its been so hot inside that its been warm enough without it on.
Soil is locally collected topsoil mixed with an organic commercial bag, screened to get rid of mulch and rocks, mixed with a little sand. Plants are spider plants, green jew, pothos, a button fern, and a rabbits foot fern. I have some wandering jew rooting at the moment which will go in and probably replace the less hardy green jew.


I kept this tank pretty simple and all the hides are of cork bark which I don't have to worry about her crushed by if she tunnels under them more. In total there are technically three but I expect her to make more. The only thing I'm not happy with is where I put the button fern because it keeps getting slithered over. I'm definitely going to have to add some branches or sticks to this tank since she's been climbing all over everything including the poor button fern.


I just have to find a way to keep the water dish clean now!

[guidofatherof5]

The radix will not allow the water dish to be kept clean. If I may make a few suggestions. First, I don't think that tank is big enough. The water dish is definitely not big enough, garters and most snakes like to soak. Are you feeding outside the tank? my concern is the ingestion of the soil. Is there a hide in there? No offense meant.

[Zdravko092368]

I believe her hides are under the cork pieces and ingesting the soil as long as there's no big chunks of wood or rock will be fine, the waterdish being kept clean won't happen lol. Garters are a menace when it comes to waterdishes...

I agree that a climbing spot is a good idea, try to create an aerial level with some branches and a spot for basking under the light.

[Zdravko092368]

Do you have isopods or springtails in there?

[Qwerty3159]

Do you have isopods or springtails in there?

I introduced a good number of springtails from some existing cultures I had. I'm going to head off to a wildlife refuge this weekend to get some isopods from a safe area as well as some leaf litter. When the leaf litter is added that will give a lot of cover.

The radix will not allow the water dish to be kept clean. If I may make a few suggestions. First, I don't think that tank is big enough. The water dish is definitely not big enough, garters and most snakes like to soak. Are you feeding outside the tank? my concern is the ingestion of the soil. Is there a hide in there? No offense meant.

No offense taken constructive criticism is good. I agree the tank could be bigger. I'm going to make the leap to get a 40 as soon as I find one on Craigslist or Petco has a dollar gallon sale. I read on the caresheet here that a 10 gallon was the minimum for an adult male and although I'd never keep an adult in one of those I think the 20 long should suffice for at least a bit longer.
The main hide is a hollow under the cork bark. At first I dug it out for her but I filled it back and decided to let her make I herself. It's where she spends most of the nights as far as I can tell. There are other little burrows she's made under the rest of the cork pieces too. I've decided I'm going to stick an exo terra cave or two on the other side just in case. I know that dish is too small in fact I don't even mean it to be hers I just had that in there for now because I liked the green. I have a small tub that will fit over there and that's what I'm going to use.
I'm not terribly concerned about there ingestion of soil I'd rather her swallow a bit of that here or there versus something like an aspen shaving. I sifted all the small pebbles and mulch out. If it becomes a problem I will feed out of the enclosure but she took a rat pinky yesterday and the soil didn't stick to it at all.

The basking spot is on top of that big cork flat doubling as a cave. I'm planning to make some changes here and there and criticism is welcome

[Albert Clark]

Congrats! I think it looks amazing. The garter is very cool too. Lol.

[Qwerty3159]

Thanks Albert! I'm pretty happy with how it looks as of now. Of course, the snake has been doing some rearranging but that's okay. All the plants are still holding up and if they don't I don't mind taking the more delicate ferns out and replacing them with something like pothos vine or some more wandering jew.
My favorite part of this tank was that it cost next to nothing to set up. The light fixture and ferns cost me about $15 from Walmart and everything else I already had laying around.