Is it enough? - Eastern water dragon and Turtle enclosure

[lyndahh]

Hi guys, I'm new to the site and to reptile keeping myself so please go easy on me.
Just today I have placed my Eastern Water Dragons and my Shortneck turtles together.
I have talked to many reptile owners and pet store workers along with online researching to understand the risk and care associted with doing so.
I understand that the turtles may nip the tails of the water dragons, I came home one night and found that my little EWD has lost his tail BEFORE I started housing them together (when i cleaned the old enclosure i could not find any signs of it).
Before I continue i shall give some info on my reptiles I am currently housing.
My 2 Eastern water dragons (Flash and bolt) were hatched early this year (january 2012)
My Short necks were also hatched in january this year.
I bought a 4 ft enclosure by 18''x18'' enclosure with is fitted with a 1/3 Basking dock area 20 cm off the ground. I have placed branches all around and ensure that if my EWD fell into the water they can get out. The Water is 14cm high. I have a Reptile one reflector light with a 5.0 UV light recommended by the workers at this pet store i went to. On the Right side of the tank i have a reflector dome with a 75W basking light, which i Will change to a moonlight when its night time. I also have a water heater which keeps the water at 25 degrees. I do NOT have a thermostat because the lady at the pet store said that all the heat would escape from the top and she wasnt sure about using electronics around water.
I understand that both creatures deficate in the water so I purchased a Aqua one 1050 Series 2 Cannister filter. Other then that I have 1 semese fighter fight and 2 guppies in the water (The guppies were purchased pregnet so they can reproduce babies in which the turtles and water dragons can consume) so i have no emotional involvment with the fishes i bought.
I also have a 3 ft enclosure which i was holding my EWD's before I tried to house them together as I was also thinking about getting Bearded dragons. However I am holding out that thought until I know that my EWD's are happy, and if not i will move them back to their enclosure.
I have some pictures shown below.



Please help me out, I'm unsure if the enclosure is enough. I was thinking about housing them for about 12 - 18 months before I decide to Build an outside enclosure. I am also an enviromental student and cannot afford too much !

 

[K3nny]

whats the size of EWDs and size of turtle for comparisson against the enclosure size?
and for the record, pet shop people are not always (emphasis on always because you do find qualified ones now and then) reliable when it comes to scaly pet husbandry, just in case you don't know that already
and nip tails, yes, but also consider the possibility of death in extreme cases (hey, anything is possible after all)

 

[snakerelocation]

waterdragons, whether eastern or gippsland are territorial, some more so than others, I have two that live together in a enclosure doubble the size of yours and they were together 2 years before one got tail nipped, somtimes its just play turning nasty, if they keep at fighting then the only solution it to seperate them, i started putting some treatment that had a bittering agent in it (can not for the life of me remember what it was called) but that seemed to work, so might be worth researching that as well, they do do alot better in bigger enclosures.

 

[lyndahh]

Hi thanks for commeting,
My eastern water dragons are about 20cm long including tail, they never fight or I have never seen them fight the worst i have seen them is when the little one has a cricket in its mouth and the bigger one tries to take it other then that not much else. They sleep together most nights one ontop of another and the turtles are about 4cm in diametre shell length. The enclosure is 4ft by 18''x18'', I'm not a fan of pet store workers myself but being relatively new to this I can only go by what some people recommend.

 

[Twitch_80]

Looks like you have put a lot of work into the enclosure, looks very nice. You will have to upgrade at some point though, if not for the ewd's then definitely for the turtles (if your outdoor enclosure isnt ready) but at least you have a lot of things to transfer straight into the new enclosure. One thing I would be concerned about is your substrate, gravel and rocks are bad for turtles as the may swallow it causing problems as they cannot always pass it. There are turtles grit's available that do a great job of adding calcium as well as stabilising the ph and mix well with sand such as river sand. Check out Australian Freshwater Turtles for suppliers or they can ship it to you. Great work though and nice animals.

 

[lyndahh]

Hi twitch, I use a turtle conditioner which buffers the water when the Ph is getting too high and neutralises the water, I also use baby Turtle anti fungal blocks to prevent shell softness or fungal infection which I replace everytime it begin to decrease to a small amount. And with the substrate I'm glad you mentioned it as I wasn't comepletely sure about it apparently it was a type of substrate which had calcium releasing properties too it, but its also so hard to clean, I clean out the substrate everyweek and remove any deficate and it's very time consuming. The place where i purchased my turtles was a new store that opened for about 3 months at my time of arrival and I didn't trust the store but I tried to mimic the tank they had storing the baby turtles and I purchased that one. I shall take at the site you recommend and update in the near future thanks.

As with the outside enclosure I am uncertain of my permanent residency to a particular home, so I am hesitant to build an outside enclosure, I predict I would be settled in to a place in about 1 - 2 years (Currently renting atm) so I would need something to be about to house the lizards and turtles for 1 - 2 years.