Marcel @ Reptile Lounge

Marcel is the new manager of the Reptile Lounge in Kempton Park. When it comes to caring for snakes, spiders, lizards and all manner of creepy crawly - Marcel is pure genius! He’s spent a lot of time and effort building up a special enclosure to show off our Desert Rock background and his beardie stock.

Here is a close-up of the adorable little beardies showing off their new home…

Reptile Lounge Display

Need advice and assistance rocking your reptiles?
Give Marcel a call on +27 (78) 398 6248, or if you are in the neighbourhood pop in to the Reptile Lounge - Plot 226, High Road (Old Pretoria Road) Pomona, Kempton Park

Theres a small swampland area about a mile from our home that used to be a protected area since it’s a breeding ground for the African “Pyxie” Bullfrog. Our local govt council have decided to allow land developers in and they’re slowly destroying it to build matchbox sized cluster homes.

In Feb this year we found 8 of these adorable little critters hopping around amongst the squished remains of their siblings in a busy car park next to the swamp. 4 were given to a friend with a large pond on his farm and the other 4 have been enjoying a predator free stay in a spare tank we’ve kitted out for them.

We decided to build them a new poly-concrete home. Heres the build log…

Raw Materials

The usual suspects…

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• Fibre flyscreen
• Concrete / Quickcrete / Buildcrete
• Pool filter sand
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• 1 Large tube of marine grade silicon sealant
• A small powerhead/water pump/internal powered filter
• 50 or 75 watt submersible aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing Read More »
  
  Posted in DIY Projects 4 Comments »

The great thing about Point’n'Click cameras is that occasionally even n00b photographers like myself get some really awesome shots by accident…

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More photos of our Beardies

This is what happens when u dive into your salad bowl in hot pursuit of a fleeing mealworm!

Never a dull moment around here at feeding time!

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More photos of our Beardies

Mom-in-law recently donated an old burnt out 2 foot chipboard vivarium to our cause. It used to house her baby bearded dragon who unfortunately died from natural causes about 8 months ago. We decided that it would not only make a perfect home for a pair of baby corn snakes (Which Chelsey has been nagging us to get for months!), but also to serve as the perfect “hands on” solo project.

Here’s a couple of in progress photo’s…

[Show as slideshow]

Chelsey’s snakey cage features a 3D granite style rock background with removable cave & matching water dish. The granite colour along with the antique green varnish stain used on the woodwork was chosen to contrast the reds and yellows of the corn snakes she wants to get.

Still quite a bit of work to be done and a couple of items to be purchased such as the heater pad, substrate, glass door panels and of course, the SNAKES!

Looking mighty good! Not bad for a 13 year old chicky!

We’ve been hard at work on 3 new prototype designs which we’ll be taking to show the local pet stores within the next couple of weeks…

	Malawi Rock Aquarium Background Tank Size: Standard 3ft (915×325x450mm) Features: Recessed rear cavity suitable for internal powered/sponge filter and submersible heater. Includes caves and plant anchors. Colored in shades of gray to emphasize the colors of the Malawi and Lake cichlid families.
	Tropical Rock Vivarium Background Cage Size: Standard 400 x 600 x 350mm Features: Trickle waterfall with external pump & filter unit, recessed feeding dish and plant anchors. Suitable for Chameleons and other small lizards.
	Desert Rock Vivarium Background Cage Size: Standard reptile cage 900 x 420 x 330mm Features: Trickle waterfall with external pump & filter unit, recessed feeding dish, sizable shallow bathing area and plant anchors. Suitable for Bearded Dragons, Snakes and medium sized lizards.

Version 2.0 of our “Betta Betta” tank was intended to be an improvement on our original 1.0 design but brought a whole lot of new challenges with it! A couple of new ideas were incorporated:

• Using a hard plastic container shell for the base to minimise leaks
• Increasing the water capacity to 10 litres
• Placing the heater in upright position to improve heat dissipation
• Including a “built in wet/dry filter” compartment on the back of the waterfall

Heres a run down on the construction…

Raw Materials

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• 10 litre plastic basin/container
• Concrete / Quickcrete / Buildcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• Sheet of 4mm thick window glass
• 2 Large tubes of marine grade silicon sealant
• 500ml Powertex Hobby sealant
  (A trial sample of which was kindly donated to our cause by Bobby from Powertex’s local distributor)
• A small powerhead/water pump
• 50 or 75 watt aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing

Read More »

One of the rare moments that make owning special pets so much fun. I was lucky my camera had been on charge and although I didn’t have time to get the light settings right I was still quick enough to capture this awesome shot!

The little daredevil cricket on Lemmy’s nose was the sole surviving member of “lunch” - the one that got away, only to return hours later and tempt fate all over again! lol

The “Betta Betta” tank started out as a unique gift idea for a close friend who loves the sound of running water in and around her house. Since I promised her a while back that she’d be the proud owner one of the “first born” Siamese Fighters from our first attempt at breeding them we decided on combining a running water feature with a small cosy fish tank, and the Betta Betta Tank was born.

Version 1 proved to be a huge learning curve and a major challenge to boot. Heres a run down on the construction…

Raw Materials

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• Concrete / Quickcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• Sheet of 4mm thick window glass
• 2 Large tubes of marine grade silicon sealant
• 2 cans of matt finish lacquer varnish spraypaint
• A plastic pickle bottle
• A small powerhead/water pump
• 50 or 75 watt aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing

Read More »

Spent some time over the Xmas holidays creating a new Paludarium home for our mudskipper “colony” out of some old polystyrene packaging and a bag of cement…

Raw Materials

• Snoop around in your neighbours garbage for bits of polystyrene packaging (a couple of days after xmas or payday is a really good time for this!). You could buy sheets of it too if you want to waste money!
• Concrete / Quickcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)

Read More »