Please critique my phantasticus housing

JeffG

New member
Hello,

As i said in my other post, i acquired a satanic yesterday. Here is what i have him set up in.
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Should i add a water dish even with twice daily mistings? I am going to swap out the green plants for something a little darker, other than that i am unsure of where to go with it. The little guy has alot of room to move around in there, i hope he enjoys it.
 

Justin

New member
Hi,
With that screen lid, it will be very hard to keep humidity high. It should be closer to 50/50 screen cover. Also you will need live plants to keep the humidity up as well.

Regards,
Justin
 

Brandon

New member
bump to justin--i think you need to cover part of the screen top with plastic wrap or something similar to help maintain humidity. Also, i would add more foliage if i were you :wink:
 

JeffG

New member
Also, would it be possible to see others enclosures? I did a search but didnt see much. As far as feeding goes, for phantasticus, do you guys recommend free range or bowl feeding?
 

Brandon

New member
i've never actually kept phantasticus, hopefully mike can comment on feeding as he has done quite well with them.

more foliage and a covering the screen will be great though, i'm sure your phant will be very happy 8)
 

oscar

New member
i did see quite a few phantasticus enclosures in the KS gallery if you do a search.

btw.. where's your chahoua pic?? ;)

Scott
 

JeffG

New member
Lol you got me...ill take some right after i check the ks galleries. Thanks for the tip Scott.
 

JeffG

New member
Took some pics this morning, i really wanna get this right so please let me know what you guys think. Is there not enough floor space now?

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You can see the little guy in the first pic. He is to the right and a little below the center.
 

Brandon

New member
Jeff, in my opinion that looks great! i'm sure he'll feel really secure in there. So long as he eats well, that is, can find the crickets, you're set! I can't tell for sure, but did you cover the top partially with plastic wrap?
 

JeffG

New member
Yeah i did cover about 65-70% of the top with plastic wrap. I am worried about him finding crickets, but im keeping a close eye on him and the crickets so ill see what happens.
 

miguel camacho!

New member
alright, i consider myself fairly experienced with satanics, and honestly if you're looking for the "best" enclosure for him, you're gonna want to go with something larger. dense foliage is a good thing, but space is as well. while i would normally say that a screen top isnt a bad thing, that enclosure looks so small that surface area:volume ratios dictate a lot more of your humidity is gonna get out. covering half of the screen isnt necessarily a good idea either, because you need adequate ventilation to minimize mold growth and such, which is a common problem in keeping a cool, yet highly humid enclosure. people are kinda misled about the necessity of maintaining high humidity for these lil guys. twice daily (once during the day, once after lights go out) thorough sprays of the enclosure should be sufficient to keep the humidity up through the day, and give them water to lap up off the foliage at night. allowing the cage to dry out during part of the day helps minimize the growth of mold and baceria.

if all you have is a single individual, try moving him up to a 10 gal, at least. i used to keep pairs in 15 gal talls. the thing with what you've got going on now is that yea, it does have plenty of cover, but that seems to be all that he's got going for him. satanics can get a lot more active that people normally realize at night. you should supply just about as much cover as space for them to jump around and whatnot. during the day, they'll sleep in the cover, and at night they'll come out and hang around on the twigs and branches, if you supply them. for anything arboreal, the taller the enclosure the more i think they would benefit from it. i just think people get the wrong idea that just cuz you have a smaller gecko means that it needs a smaller cage. personally, i only use the plastic critter keepers for transport and while im growing up hatchlings. with the foliage so densely packed, when you spray, all of the water is gonna be channeled to certain leaves and off to the sides before it reaches the bottom. just think of the last time you stood beneath a tree when it rained.

finally, i would recommend switching to live plants. i've done it that way since the beginning, and it can really help you out because if your plants begin to wilt, its a good sign you arent putting enough water in. the live plants will also, in my opinion, hold the water more as the silk plants may tend to absorb some. keeping the substrate moist not only helps the plants out, but it provides a time-release for the humidity as the substrate dries. thats part of the reason why natural enclosures tend to hold their humidity better than fake plants.

let me see if i can get some images to work here...

an old 15 gal tall i used to keep a pair in. it's got enough to shelter them in the plants, and theres plenty of space to hop about on top.
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now this is the big, long tank i keep a large group of 3.3 in, where a lot of my success has been coming from. ficus is a great plant for these guys as it can be dense, and basically the leaves look exactly like their tails. the vines are actually old dried honeysuckle vines, and they often perch themselves on these once the come out at night. pothos is nice, but can easily overcome an enclosure, so you might need to trim it back time to time. leaf litter is also a good idea, especially for females to lay eggs beneath. i know you're only working with a single male, but its something you can decide whether or not to use. oak leaves work well as they wont mold, i would recommend picking live leaves from an oak, then drying them yourself so asto minimize the chances of bringing in unwanted mites and whatnot. anyhow, heres the other pic.
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hope it helps.
 

oscar

New member
Miguel dude.. thats is an amazingly helpful post! you were very clear and specific in what you are talking about and explaining why and how things work or dont work helps tremendously too. thank you!

i saw that you post in the thread about my sikorae so i'm headed right over there hoping that give me the same amount of helpful advice.

Scott
 

JeffG

New member
Thanks for all of that amazing info Miguel. For just him, how does a Herpcages.com arboreal 12"x12"x16" enclosure sound? The reason i ask is because i have an extra one in my closet. I am really nervous lol, i wanna get this done right.

Its not that i cant get an aquarium easily, but im moving in 2 weeks and i dont wanna add anothe rbig glass thing to my list of moving things lol. Driving from Jersey to Florida is going to be a killer.

If you find the time, could you give me a quick run down of your bedding, and the plant species you used?
 

miguel camacho!

New member
brandon....it's actually not as difficult as it may look. you can kinda narrow down the spots to look for, and furthermore if you keep a close eye on your female, you can watch her as she scouts out spots on the bottom to lay the eggs. i added some leaf litter to the bottom after one of my females laid her first clutch of eggs in that enclosure, and sure enough i just recently pulled another clutch out from beneath those leaves. they're oak leaves, by the way. you can pretty much count on the eggs being well-sheltered, and in a spot thats likely to maintain humidity better on a microclimate scale. the first clutch i got in that enclosure was in a shallow depression next to a faux-tree stump i made from cork bark at the far side of the cage. other places in other enclosures i have found eggs are once again beneath leaf litter, once in a bromeliad, and once beneath a plant where one of the eggs was actually buried.

and as for the substrate and plants - i always use peat moss as a substrate. it's cheap and easy to get in bulk and works well. for plants, i usually stick to plants that do well in terraria, chiefly pothos, ficus, and philodendron. i have experimented with ferns and whatnot, but sometimes i have trouble keeping them alive longer than a few months. i also use a lot of dried fiber moss on the ground and dried spanish moss in the upper parts of the tank, satanics tend to LOVE hiding and sleeping in this during the daytime. cork bark slabs also work well.

and as for the 12"x12"x16" tank, i would still recommend something a bit bigger, although 16" works for a good height. while transporting, if you're not temporarily moving him to a deli cup, dont move up to something bigger yet. once you're finished with your move, then worry about fixing him up a new home.




hope that helps.
 

miguel camacho!

New member
hopefully you and your gecko are happy with the move, good luck with both. you should find that florida is a herper's paradise compared to NJ!!!
 
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