Physignathus cocincinus, Asian Water Dragons
By: Shaun Hayes & China

Many fish people, including myself, are finding out what it is like to have a reptile. The
type of reptile I have is a Asian Water Dragon. By now you are probably saying an
Asian Water what? Well read on and you will get to know and hopefully like one of these
magnificent reptiles.

Back in October while cruising the fish store, I saw this creature. It was a beautiful
green and aqua swiveling against the glass looking at me and seeming to say "buy me, buy
me!"

Well I looked to see what this little beast was and the tag said "Chinese Water Dragon".
This name is very misleading! It makes you think that they only come from China, which is
another falsity. I prefer to call them Asian Water Dragons because they are from the
southeast Asian mainland(Thailand, Southern China, Vietnam Cambodia and Laos).
While being so cute I decided I would get one for my birthday(Nov. 5th) and in the mean
time learn all I could.

Like I said in the last paragraph Asian Water Dragons come from the southeast
Asian mainland. They are usually not far from a body of water hence the name Water
Dragon. These creatures are diurnal arboreal reptiles meaning that they are active during
daylight hours and live in trees and bushes. The males can grow to the size of 3 feet and
the females 2 feet. It is not unusual for a Water dragon to live 10, 15 even up to 20 years
so remember if you buy one it IS an commitment for a while.

For China, my Water Dragon, I wanted to get the biggest tank I could afford
which was a 45 gallon. This tank will be able to comfortable keep him even when full
grown. You could go smaller but you will but wasting money "upgrading your tank. His
cage is setup up with a "water hole" they is about 12"x12". For the substrate I used peat,
it's clean and non-implication if swallowed. I have put some plants in there like Chinese
Evergreen and Dracaena as well and a mini Lipstick plant. I keep all of these in there pots
so I can fertilize and water with ease. Next for lighting. I can not stress enough if you are
going to buy any type of reptile you need an UVA producing florescent light so that
proper D3 absorption can be dealt with. Make sure your florescent says "Full Spectrum"
and "UVA" somewhere on the package. A good light to go with is Vita-lite.

Next is heating. All reptiles are cold blooded, that means they need to regulate
their body temperature by how long they stay in the sun, but since they are in out tanks we
need to provide that for them. This is where it get a little complicated for you first time
herpers, you need to go out to the pet shop and find what they call a Ceramic fixture
lamp. This just means that the socket is made of porcelain capable of holding higher
wattage's than normal. For me personally the Vita-lite produced too white of a light so I
went with 3 100 watt Zoomed reflector incandescent lights which produce UVB also
important to digestion. The goal of these light are to bring your temperature from say
75'F to 82-85'F would be a perfect temperature. You should probably buy a Reptile thermometer not a Fish but Reptile. Buy
the one which best suits your taste. I would also recommend buying more than one so you
know what the temperature is in different places in the cage.

Now that we have that covered on to HUMIDITY! This is just as important as
lighting! Asian Water Dragons require a high humidity(wouldn't you coming from a
tropical area) of around 65-75% relative humidity. This can be accomplished by #1
misting three or more times daily and/or putting an aerator stone in their water area but
you should not only use the stone method, because Water Dragons drink dew drops from
when you mist and sometimes wont drink from their pond area.

Now we move on to food. This is one of the easiest things on keeping a water
dragon. They eat both plants and animals in nature but in captivity they wont always eat
veggie/fruit matter but if they do GREAT! And for the rest of us we have our choice of
BUGS. You have cricket (most preferred) mealworms, wax worm and earthworms. I
personally stay away from mealworms because if your Water Dragon has not chewed it
good enough it could eat through your little jewel so I stick to crickets and earthworm.
Now when you go to the pet shop and buy crickets, don't feed them directly to your
animal you should gutload them which simply means feeding them nutritious foods before
the get eaten , kind of like a last meal thing. Good things to gutload them on are Orange,
Cantaloupe, melon,potato, cornflakes, oats and so on. Then before you get ready to feed
dust them in Vitamins. I would recommend using Repticol are any other multivitamin with
D3 for calcium absorption.

And now your set! You know the basics! I hope this has interested you in these fascinating
creatures! HAPPY HERPING!

Recommended Reading

Water Dragons by: John Coborn TFH book
Anoles, Basilisks and Water Dragons by: R.D and Patricia Bartlett, Barron Educational
Series
and
The General Care and Maintenance of Green Water Dragons, Sailfin Lizard and Basilisks
by Philippe de Vojoli