Reptiles & Amphibians

Front-opening glass terrariums, turtle tanks and screen cages:

the enclosure decides most of what goes around it. A glass terrarium with front doors and a mesh top, the format Exo Terra and Repti Zoo made standard, lets you reach in without lifting the lid. An old aquarium with a mesh lid works, but everything goes in from above and air barely moves near the floor. PVC enclosures hold heat and humidity better than glass, while all-mesh screen cages give plenty of air and keep little warmth. A turtle tank is an aquarium with a dry basking dock, and it needs a filter rated well beyond its volume, because turtles foul water far faster than fish. Glass tanks and canister filters cross over with aquariums and aquarium accessories, and pumps and heaters also turn up under fish.

Basking bulbs, heat mats and the thermostat between them:

heat and light come from separate pieces. A basking bulb gives a warm spot and daylight, a ceramic heat emitter gives heat without light for the night, and a heat mat warms one end from below. Mats and emitters always go on a thermostat, because neither regulates itself and a mat running flat out can scorch the glass. On/off thermostats suit mats; dimming ones suit bulbs, which otherwise flicker as they switch. A probe thermometer at each end tells you more than a stick-on dial.

UVB tubes, glass and mesh:

UVB does not pass through glass, so a terrarium beside a sunny window gets none, and a fine mesh top filters out part of it. A long tube across the top covers more ground than a screw-in compact bulb. The catch is that any UVB lamp keeps glowing long after its UVB has faded, so a lamp that lights up proves nothing. That is why a used UVB tube is worth next to nothing and the fixture is what holds value. A high-output tube loses most of its useful output between six months and a year of daily use, a compact bulb sooner. A small T5 fixture with its first tube costs around ₡30,000 to ₡40,000 new, so a seller who knows when the tube went in is offering something, and one who does not is selling a fixture.

Lamps and thermostats from the United States or from Europe:

Costa Rica shares its current and plugs with the United States and Canada, so a fixture or thermostat bought there plugs straight in. Gear brought from Europe by someone who moved here is built for a higher voltage: a basking bulb may never reach temperature, and a thermostat may not switch on without a transformer. Read the label on the plug before agreeing a price, and check the lamp dome, which needs a ceramic socket because plastic softens under a strong bulb.

A used terrarium, heat mat or thermostat on the bench:

swing the doors and check they latch, look over the mesh top for tears, and lift the substrate to see that the bottom glass is not cracked. Glass and PVC clean completely; cork backgrounds and foam rock walls keep whatever lived in them, so scrub them hard or replace them. Plug in a heat mat, feel for even warmth with no hot patches, and run your fingers along the cable for melted spots. Test a thermostat against a separate thermometer before trusting its probe. On a turtle tank, the suction cups holding the dock harden with age and stop gripping.

A complete terrarium setup, listed for collection:

give the outside measurements, say whether it opens at the front or the top, and list what comes with it. Photograph the doors and the plug labels, and state when the UVB tube was fitted. Emptied, a front-opening glass terrarium also suits bromeliads, mosses and miniature orchids, so the person who answers may be growing plants rather than keeping anything. Whoever drives from Nicoya to Alajuela for one should bring blankets and carry it flat with the base supported, doors taped shut and lamps packed apart, because on a potholed road the doors are what crack.