New to Reptiles, Vivarium set up & Species

[Tacobox]

So after a ton of research I have almost settled on my set up. I am asking for all of your opinions as everyone here has more experience than me (which is zero). I have been doing salt water aquariums for over 10 years so I do come with some knowledge and a few tricks. I am going to set this tank up and work on getting everything to exact levels for geckos and plants for the next month, then come April 6th&7th I will go to Repticon in Denver and find my gecko.

Here are my ideas:

18x18x24 Exo Terra or take the old 90g saltwater show tank out of storage and build a stand and top for it.
-modeled in a vivarium style, possible water feature

Plants-thinking of purchasing from Lowes
-Bromeliad, Money Tree or Madagascar Dragon Tree or Pony Tail Palm, Ferns, Orchids or Anthurium, Bamboo, and some sort of climbing or vine type plant.

Watering
-mistking and fogger?

Gecko Species (male or female????)
-this will house a single Chahoua or crested. Much prefer the Chahoua though.

I am in the Army and this tank is primarily for the ascetics of the living room as my current house will not support the weight of a full fish tank. I am very involved with my pets and try to create the best ecosystems possible. I want the gecko to be as happy as possible as well. I will be gone for a few days here and there hence the misting system. I can get my neighbor to feed but that is about as far as they will help. I also have a 3 year old son that is also going to be taught about responsibilities and taking care of pets with this little project. I welcome any of yours opinions and criticizems. Thank you all in advance.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Greetings to you from this international gecko forum. Geckophiles of many genuses hang here. Hope that you're looking forward to meeting some of us :biggrin:!

Have you checked out the Correplophus ciliatius forum or the forum for chahouas?

 

[Lizard_lady80]

Hey Tacobox! Nice to hear we have a new herp head in the midst! Good choice going with a tropical gecko if you’re looking for ascetics! If you set up a naturalistic terrarium, you’re going to have an amazing work of art in the house!

I don’t know much about live plants so I won’t be able to help you there, just don’t ask hardware store employees about what’s safe for reptiles, they have no idea! I also don’t know much about the Coahoma, however, I do own a Crested myself and am very knowledgeable!

As far as housing goes, an Exo-Terra Small/Tall (18x18x24) would be perfect for a Crestie and house it for its entire life, no upgrading! However, if you start with this size terrarium right off the bat, you’re going to want to feed your gecko its live crickets out of its cage in a smaller enclosure, (Tupperware, critter keeper, or any small container) as its hard for young Cresteds to find their food in such a large enclosure.

I would personally go with a mister over a fogger for the Cresteds, these guys will often get most of their drinking water from droplets off the plants and glass walls (I use RO water to avoid water stains).

Cresties eat live crickets, Repashy CGD 3.0 (highly suggested), and fruit variety baby food.

In regards to you being away, I would get the automatic mister, a light timer, and a "silicone water bottle ice cube tray". In the tray you can freeze perfect portions of both baby food and the CGD, making easy feeding for friends and neighbors to help out!

Cresteds truly are a great low maintenance rep!!

 

[Tacobox]

LizardLady-
thanks for the info, i didn't even think of freezing the food to allow a ease of feeding. great info there! I have also thought about the fact that if I buy a baby that I will have to feed them in a smaller encloser setting. I have plenty of tupperware and a 10g sitting in the closet so I am sure I can cover that.

The things I am considering:
-if the plants I pick up from Lowes are reptile safe or not
-cleaning the tank? Poop and such on the glass. having a mister should make this easier by not allowing it to dry, correct?
-not a fan of the "tail-less" lizard look, thats the one thing kinda swaying me from a crested (even though chewies can loose thiers too, i was told it is less likely to happen) and this has also made me consider a gargoyle.

I am sure I will have tons more questions. I am reading almost every "info" forum and book i can find on geckos right now. I tend to dive deeply into these sorts of things before i even make one purchase.

 

[Lizard_lady80]

Plants... I know nothing!
As far as cleaning the cage goes, I personally find that my gecko rarely poops on the walls of the cage, however the mister will help clean that off. Check to see if you can’t set the mister on a timer, you don’t want their cage to be dripping wet constantly. Once in the morning, and once at night is usually just fine, unless you have a very dry home. If you feed Repashy CGD 3.0, you will find that your gecko will have more solid poops. They look like little tic-tac’s and are often found right on top of the moss covered floor!
Easy peasy!

As far as tail dropping goes, yes it does happen with Cresteds, but USUALLY they are pretty good, as long as you don’t pick them up by the tail, and treat them with care, they should keep their tail. Not a fast lizard when on the ground, so there should never be any need to pick it up by the tail.

Doing your own research is an amazing idea! From what we have discussed thus far, you sound like you’re going to be an amazing herp owner. Just remember when getting info online, you want to see a number of forums and peoples opinions. Not everyone is right about everything!

Feel free to message me any time if you have any other questions, I'll do my best to help ya out! Good luck!

 

[Tacobox]

Thanks for the help. I have multiple times and power strips with timers built in as well as a programmer. I had also planned on a few different lights being on top of the vivarium. I will set each one to come at daybreak, noon, sunset. Kinda the same way I set my salt water tanks up. I wont use anything that will harm the gecko, just gradual changes in light to help the plants as well as replicate a natural enviroment for the gecko.

The more i look at pictures the more my mind is set on getting a Chewie, thier colors and eyes are selling me big time! and price be damned. The way I figure it is I will own this reptile for atleast 10 years with no plans of getting more. So I might as well spend big on the only one im going to have.

 

[Lizard_lady80]

Sounds cool! Looks like I might have some research to do! Good luck and HAVE FUN!!

 

[c81kennedy]

You don't wanna freeze the food. It ruins all of the vitamins. Once mixed it will keep for about a week in the refrigerator. As far a plants I would recommend going to the wanted section on dendroboards. There is a great selection of plants at good prices you can save alot of money by buying cuttings.

 

[Tacobox]

You don't wanna freeze the food. It ruins all of the vitamins. Once mixed it will keep for about a week in the refrigerator. As far a plants I would recommend going to the wanted section on dendroboards. There is a great selection of plants at good prices you can save alot of money by buying cuttings.

Thanks Kennedy, I have been reading dendroboards and a few other forums as well. Trying to gather all my info first. I have deeply considered taking the old 90g show tank out and prepping it for a vivarium as it is already drilled in the bottom with bulkheads for a water feature.

I have kicked around the idea of making the 90 a see thru or room divider if you will. I understand that this can stress a gecko. Is there any other reason why its not normally done? I feel that my 90g tank when fully furnished would provide adequate hiding spots for a single gecko and should not stress them out too bad???

 

[c81kennedy]

Thanks Kennedy, I have been reading dendroboards and a few other forums as well. Trying to gather all my info first. I have deeply considered taking the old 90g show tank out and prepping it for a vivarium as it is already drilled in the bottom with bulkheads for a water feature.

I have kicked around the idea of making the 90 a see thru or room divider if you will. I understand that this can stress a gecko. Is there any other reason why its not normally done? I feel that my 90g tank when fully furnished would provide adequate hiding spots for a single gecko and should not stress them out too bad???

No reason at all . Most people dont recommend a big first tank but you have reef exp so you should be alright. Crested gecko's are super easy to care for. Just leave a few caves for hiding and you will be fine.

 

[Tacobox]

Like I said, this is going to be my "happy place" thing, kinda like when I had my big saltwater aquariums, I could just stare at that for hours. I want this to be a living piece of beauty. Hence the reason I want to buy a very very nice gecko to go in there. I just dont want some run of the mill petco gecko. I have been contacting breeders that will be at the denver repticon just to see what they can bring to the table

The see thru tank would be absolutely amazing, that 90g tank is huge and will afford me enough room to build a massive structure inside. But after playing with my buddies exo terra I am really sold on front opening tanks. Especially for reptiles.

 

[c81kennedy]

Sounds good. You'll have to post pictures of your build.

 

[Tacobox]

Going to hit up all the reptile shops in denver tomorrow just to see if there is anything that peaks my interests.

 

[iluvfoals]

Awesome! Potst pics of the gecko and while you're building!

 

[Tacobox]

Well we got snowed out here in denver so I couldnt get up there to check the shops out. Going to try again in a day or so.

 

[Aimless]

hey Tacobox - I'm looking forward to seeing your viv!

dendroboards is going to be an excellent place to get good plants. if you choose to go local, I generally go off one or both of these sites for safe species:
Melissa Kaplan's Plants For Herps Resources
List of non-toxic plants for your terrarium

there are a few places where they contradict. I get most of my plants from area hardware stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) when they have sales. you can't go wrong with pothos, and there are several other species on the "safe" list that you routinely find in the houseplant section.

my concerns with plants from the store are plant disease, bugs, and pesticides or fertilizers the plants may have been sprayed with. I generally put them in the shower and hose them off really well (including the roots, and I do not recycle the dirt which will often have fertilizers). then I spray down with non-toxic insecticidal soap, let it sit a few hours, and then rinse very thoroughly and pop it in the viv. this has worked well for me for several years now, and is pretty easy and cheap.

 

[Tacobox]

Thanks Aimless, ive got a small list of plants i want to check out that i got from dendroboards. So im going to hit up local hardware stores tomorrow and see what they have. I planned on getting rid of the soil they come in, any particular soap you would recommend?

 

[Aimless]

this is information about the type of soap I mean.

this is the version I use. I picked this particular brand arbitrarily, and all I can say is in almost 6 years I've used it in a large number of planted vivs for 5 species of geckos and have never had any issues or problems. I bought a quart of concentrate at a hardware store years ago and still have some left. they're supposed to be "non-toxic" but I still make sure to rinse like crazy. geckos lick everything!

 

[Tacobox]

Well I scooped up a new Exo terra tank 18x18x24 off of Craigslist for $60. Not too sure if that's a good deal or not buts its in new condition. No background just bare tank.

 

[Aimless]

that's a good deal. they go for ~$90-125 depending on where you buy them, new. just make sure you clean the daylights out of it, in case the former occupant died of something communicable