Posted by JamieMT on July 17, 2002 at 17:28:01:
In Reply to: new here..and have a ? posted by Ren on July 01, 2002 at 22:09:07:
I just got hermies myself last week, so I'm a pretty new owner. But I've been reading a *ton*, and everything I've read says that heat lamps tend to dry out the tank too much, lowering the humidity. The best way (from the literature, anyways) to keep the humidity up is to use an undertank heater, and put thier water dish over it with a natural sponge in the water. The heat will cause the water to evaporate, and it will be drawn up into the sponge, which will distribute it more "evenly".
Personally, I don't have a heater for my tank yet (no air conditioning and it's rather warm), so humidity isn't really a problem, since I have an acrylic tank with an acrylic cover (vents where aquarium equiptment would go). As long as I leave the cover on and make sure thier water dish is full and has a sponge in it, the humidity stays just fine in there (down at the bottom of the tank anyways, where the hermies usually are).
Good luck - I'm sure by now you've found all this, but just in case, here it is. :-)
