Pietschmanni Plunge

[Western Gecko]

First off, Hi to everyone that hangs in this forum...

I've been here a lot over the last year but I've been quite silent and just monitoring the forum for information on the leaftail species and gathering all the information I could before dipping my toe into the leaftail pool.

I'm no stranger to keeping and breeding geckos as I've kept leopard geckos, gargoyle geckos and chahoua geckos for almost four years now.

I finally decided that I was ready to take the plunge into uroplatus geckos so I purchased a 1.1 pair of wc pietschmanni. They've been stable in captivity now for over six months so I'm pretty confident that they're free of any serious parasites or other maladies.

Here's the female...

and this is the male...

This is the 36"x22"x22" enclosure I have them housed in...

upper left...

upper right...

bottom...

The bottom of the enclosure has a large ExoTerra UTH to keep the temps up as the enclosure is in a very cold basement room. With the UTH on constantly the temps average 72F in the daytime and 67F at night. The back of the enclosure has one of those decorative scenery sheets and the two sides are covered, on the outside, with green coroplast. This will give the geckos some privacy while they settle into their new home. The bottom of the enclosure has a drainage layer with hydroton balls covered with black gardening fabric. The substrate is a 50/50 mix of coir and clean potting soil. The bottom plants are ficus robustus on the left and sansevieria on the right. In the middle of the enclosure are a few branches I borrowed from a local natural area. The top section has two plants growing in Magnatural granite planter ledges. The plant on the left is unknown and the one on the right is a variegated ivy. Both of these plants are growing in 4" pots that are placed inside the ledges for ease of replacing. Handy for when i kill them... At the back of the enclosure I have two large corkbark flats with another Magnatural granite ledge at the top. The light is a double cf setup from ExoTerra with a pair of 5.0 26W bulbs. Rounding out the setup will be a MistKing misting system that should be installed by the end of this month.

The plants should eventually fill in and the back of the enclosure should become more covered and hidden from view. I'm considering adding another plant up high in the middle at the back.

How's it look?

My primary concern is that the enclosure may be too big for these guys and they go off food for a long time. I tried to make it as busy as I could but I could always add more stuff to make it look smaller. Thoughts...

 

[soberest1]

western your setup looks great, those corkies are really nice, i wouldnt mind getting my hands, God willing, on a pair someday, im just fascinated by all the uroplatus species. i wouldnt worry too much about the enclosure being too big seeing as your geckos have seen time in the wild and it makes sense that they have had good experience in waiting for food to come around and hunt. you could just add a few more crickets than normal and seek to monitor the crickets disappearing or put some crickets in a deli cup with a biovine leading in to the cup so the geckos dont have to search to hard for food. i have two phantasticus right now in a 36x18x24 exoterra and i know what your going through. i got so worried aboutmy female because she is so small that i seperated her and put her in a citter keeper to monitor her eating habits . i think shes doing better. oh and i agree another plant wouldnt hurt. maybe an asparagus fern or a nice philodendron would suffice.

 

[zohariels]

Hello Steve good to see you on here! Nice looking tank, one of guys loves those ledges, another really seems to like hanging out on some twisted vines during the day. I got a pair of eggs from them so my fingers are crossed!

 

[Western Gecko]

Hello Steve good to see you on here! Nice looking tank, one of guys loves those ledges, another really seems to like hanging out on some twisted vines during the day. I got a pair of eggs from them so my fingers are crossed!

Jess,

I posted a congrats on the breeding thread. I'm thrilled you finally got some eggs from your pair. :yahoo:

We'll show those eastern Canadians how to breed leaftails...:banana:

It's funny that one of yours likes the ledges and the other one doesn't. My pair are the same way. The male says in the corkbark and the female hangs out on the ledge.

Later...

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Nice looking setup Western Gecko and congrats on the eggs Zohariels!!

I acquired a LTC pair of these last October. They seem to be doing well and the female is nice and plump but no eggs that I've found. I'm somewhat under the impression that snails may help. I've been throwing around the idea of using a small dish of calcium supplement in the meantime.

My Cork Barks are in a semi mesh enclosure and usually get sprayed twice a day. I've noticed that a small dish of fruit smoothie seems to slowly disappear when I put it in. I'm not sure if it's the geckos or the crickets eating it but either way it can't hurt. ;-) You can check out some pics here ... http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...oplatus/43961-new-uroplatus-pietschmanni.html.

Any advice you have on getting some eggs from this pair would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and good luck to both of you with your Corks!!

Dyesub Dave. :biggrin: