Looking for Gecko Suggestions

Celaeno22

New member
Hello!
I'm sorry if this information could be found elsewhere on the forums. I tried looking but wasn't having much success.

My husband and I have recently decided that we'd like to build a bio paludarium. The only thing we have bought was the tank (Zoo Med Paludarium 18"x18"x36").

Before we do anything else we are trying to gather all the information we need and properly plan out the materials, setup and take the needed time to make this work.

Originally we had the thought that we'd have half land half water on the bottom with shrimp, snails and vampire crabs, lava rocks and roots that would allow easy access to and from the water for the crabs. We were then going to get mourning geckos for the upper scaped area with branches, bromeliads, ferns, moss and orchids and humidity kept around 80%. We've since had several people on forums and in our local reptile store inform us that while mourning geckos would do well in in this sort of environment and live compatibly with the crabs, we'd likely end up dealing with an abundance of hatchlings, and they would likely escape the case. We've kind of been dissuaded. That brings us back to square one and the reason I'm here.

Would there be a gecko species that you'd recommend for a setup with a small water tank feature on the bottom? The water area will be about 8"-9" deep, 9" wide, and 18" long. In our looking we've seen too many comments about geckos either drowning or becoming ill from too much humidity. Would it be a species that would do ok with vampire crabs? The crabs are not a must have, but a 'liked to have'.

We'd appreciate the insight and assistance in our planning!
 

acpart

Active member
Obviously you will need an arboreal species. It would also be a nice idea to have geckos that are somewhat larger than mourning geckos in an enclosure that size. Here are some things to check out:

crested geckos: I currently have a small group of females in an 18xs18x36 (not everyone feels OK about housing them together, but this has worked out well for the past 4 years and I have alternative housing if there's a problem). I think the biggest issue with them is that even without a male being present, they do tend to lay eggs and they bury them in the ground. This could be a problem with the small amount of land space you'll have. In general, if you're able to put some kind of rock in the middle of the water part, a gecko that size would be able to access it if it ended up in the water.

--some species of day gecko: The most common are the Giant Day Gecko and the gold dust day gecko. Smaller, but very colorful day geckos include P. klemmeri and the electric blue day gecko (L. williamsi). There are also other day geckos in the Phelsuma genus that are about the size of the gold dust day gecko.

I would recommend against getting a breeding pair and would do more research before getting a group of females. Some of the day geckos tend to be territorial and bullying with other geckos. It's possible that an enclosure of that size would offer enough hiding places for the smaller day geckos to make this more feasible. If you like the giant day gecko, I would definitely recommend getting just one, given their size.

Another way to go, if it interests you, is to get some tree frogs who would utilize the water feature and the height of the enclosure as well.

Aliza
 

Celaeno22

New member
Thank you for those suggestions! We have been looking more at the crested geckos, and ensuring that there were several out-of-the-water locations in the deeper water areas, along with making sure the transition from water to land was easy to navigate. We're likely going to do stacked 3-5 inch lava rocks for the transition area, plenty of good grasping for the geckos.
 
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