Paludarium geckos

[Herpin Man]

I have constructed a large (4' x 8' x 6') tropical paludarium. It is a heavily planted, humid, community enclosure. Yes, I intend to mix species. It needs geckos, and I am trying to decide what species to keep. I like Lined day geckos, and not having kept this species before, I have a few questions;
- Can they be kept in groups?
- Can more than one male be kept in a large enclosure such as mine?
- Are they compatible with other small gecko species, such as Mourning geckos or house geckos?
- Do you have any suggestions as to how best to remove eggs and/or babies before they get eaten, bearing in mind the size of the enclosure and the difficulty of simply reaching in and hand-catching tiny lizards?

 

[acpart]

You have some good questions and the issue is whether there are people who have tried something like this that can answer your questions from the perspective of experience (which I don't have either in this area). Here are some things to consider:
--Housing more than 1 male of each species could go either way. There may be enough space and hiding spots or there may not. I think you're going to have to decide whether you want to "play it safe" and leave it at 1 male, or experiment and see what happens, knowing that there's a chance you may lose a male

--Besides the people who feel that gecko species should never be mixed in the same enclosure, there are others who say that only geckos from the same locale should be kept together. Of course, that begs the question of situations in the real world where gecko species from one locale have been brought to another locale (e.g. gold dust day geckos in Hawaii) and thrived there. Sometimes they thrive at the expense of native species and sometimes they co-exist. I would say that your primary guideline should be whether the species you're putting together have the same habitat requirements

--there are several techniques for successfully separating eggs/hatchlings. One involves providing lay spots where the eggs can be removed. Some people advocate taping floral water tubes to the sides of the cage and encouraging the gecko to lay in there (I tried it with L. williamsi and it worked well), or using air plants if the geckos tend to lay in plants. The tubes or plants can be removed from the enclosure and the eggs can be incubated. Another technique is to tape a plastic cup over the eggs if they are glued to the side of the cage. When they hatch, the babies will be in the cup. You could also use the "survival of the fittest" technique, allowing the babies to hatch in the enclosure and letting the strongest survive the other geckos' attempts to eat them.

Good luck.

Aliza

 

[Herpin Man]

Aliza, thanks for your reply.
I had read somewhere that some Phelsuma do well in pairs, but not in groups. Maybe I'll have to try it and see, as you suggest.
Regarding removal of eggs- I was thinking along the same lines as you. If I provide lots of cork bark and bamboo for them to lay on, I could remove those items for incubation. Any babies that hatch inside this enclosure, I may never get my hands on. It is large enough so that I can't easily reach the back wall.
I am taking my time to decide what is going in there, but I do know this much- this enclosure needs geckos.

 

[IrishEyes]

And we need to see photos! Did you ever finish this project and select your various species to live in it? How did it go, if so? Inquiring minds want to know .

Oh, and I was going to mention that, when we vacationed in Hawaii the last time, we saw Anoles, Phelsuma l. laticauda, and house geckos in abundance on the same property, although we never saw them hanging out together, of course.;-) That was in a tropical rainforest setting.

 

[Herpin Man]

I've mad a few minor changes since the photo was taken, but you get the gist of it.
I ended up putting Mourning geckos in, partially because I didn't want anything big enough to go after the Gray treefrogs that I ended up not putting in there, and partly because Mourning geckos are parthenogenic- I don't have to worry about males fighting.
In the pond portion, I have some West African clawed frogs, Silurana tropicalis. I also have Zebra danios and White Cloud Mountain minnows. They seem to be too fast for the frogs, and are doing well. In addition to the Mourning geckos, that's it. It's not the elaborate multi-species enclosure I envisioned when I started building it. When I started to really think about the habitat, temps, who can eat who, etc., it really narrowed my choices. I chickened out on the Gray treefrogs because I worried about them passing on parasites or disease to the tropicalis. That, and it's just a bit too warm. In addition, there are just too many hiding places. I seldom see the frogs or the geckos, unless I look in at night with a flashlight. Even then, I never see them all at once. Some could have escaped or died, and I wouldn't know it, except perhaps by the smell.
I'll keep working on it, but all in all, this paludarium has not been worth the time, expense, or space that it takes up. Time will tell, but if you have any great suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[IrishEyes]

Well, it was a good idea, even if the reality didn't turn out to be as good as you'd hoped.

I have no experience in keeping multi-species creatures in the same area, except that my Fire Bellied Toads used to live in my Aquaplantarium (a paludarium that is predominantly aquarium, with a smaller space for the terrestrial part) with my tropical fish w/no issues except that the toads kept finding their way in to tight spaces I couldn't get them out of, and had to wait for them to do it on their own. The FBTs now live on their own in a 10 gallon habitat that is basically another, albeit much smaller, paludarium.

I have several species of arboreal geckos who each have their own spaces (I worry that the giant day geckos would chow down on the little gold dust day geckos, for example), and I don't really have any plans to experiment with large (or medium or small) multi-species spaces. I'm happy to hear about your update, though. Even when things don't work out the way we'd hoped, we always learn something, right?

View attachment 42711
I've mad a few minor changes since the photo was taken, but you get the gist of it.
I ended up putting Mourning geckos in, partially because I didn't want anything big enough to go after the Gray treefrogs that I ended up not putting in there, and partly because Mourning geckos are parthenogenic- I don't have to worry about males fighting.
In the pond portion, I have some West African clawed frogs, Silurana tropicalis. I also have Zebra danios and White Cloud Mountain minnows. They seem to be too fast for the frogs, and are doing well. In addition to the Mourning geckos, that's it. It's not the elaborate multi-species enclosure I envisioned when I started building it. When I started to really think about the habitat, temps, who can eat who, etc., it really narrowed my choices. I chickened out on the Gray treefrogs because I worried about them passing on parasites or disease to the tropicalis. That, and it's just a bit too warm. In addition, there are just too many hiding places. I seldom see the frogs or the geckos, unless I look in at night with a flashlight. Even then, I never see them all at once. Some could have escaped or died, and I wouldn't know it, except perhaps by the smell.
I'll keep working on it, but all in all, this paludarium has not been worth the time, expense, or space that it takes up. Time will tell, but if you have any great suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[Herpin Man]

Well if nothing else, it's a pretty deluxe setup for the Mourning geckos and the tropicalis.