Naturalistic Terrarium questions

[dsnider8818]

This is my first venture into the world of naturalistic terrariums and also my first experience with geckos. Im just looking for a little input on my setup. Since this is my first time with geckos I am not sure whether I should add another perch or whether it is overcrowded as it is. Any input would be great.

Here are some pics (the plant on the left is a ficus benjimina and the one on the right under the log is a hoya carnosa). Also, its hard to see but behind the ficus is a piece of cork bark.

 

[acpart]

The real question is what kind of gecko are you preparing this for?

Aliza

 

[darkridder]

You will want to invest in isopods and spring tails, without a clean up crew youre going to have to be cleaning the tanks soil often, with a clean up crew in there they wll break down the feces and keep the soil healthy.

I am assuming since you put this in the crested section that you plan to put a crested in there. Do remember if you have never raised a small gecko before, it is best to start them in something much smaller. Also cresteds are terrible hunters and often miss so it is best to feed them in another container, or feed all live insects from a dish deep enough that they can not jump out of. You will also want to add in more plants, a living viv needs to be pretty much the same as a fake setup, you want plans covering parts of the 3 out of 4 walls, and you want roughly 50% of the tank to be plants. You will also want to watch that wood, being that this tank will stay fairly humid, wood often molds quickly at the base near the dirt, so keep a good eye on that, again a cleanup crew will help with that as they munch on molds also.

 

[dsnider8818]

I was planning on getting cresteds. I didnt know that about the isopods and springtails. I was under the impression from some of the things I had read that the Pete was biologically active enough to break down the feces. Anyways, are those something that can be purchased? I must admit I have never heard of them being used in that regard. As far as the size of Cresty goes, I was aware that hatchlings and very young ones are best housed in a small "creature carrier" sort of thing. Ideally I was looking for juvenile about 4-6 months old, would one this age still be to small to house in my 10 gal. terrarium.

Also, I made a few upgrades plants wise. I got some silk plants to cover part of the back wall and purchased a Dracaena as well. Here is a pic of the new and improved set up. Sorry about the angle, I cant get the other picture to work.

 

[darkridder]

Ages dont really equal sizes with cresteds, some 4-6 month old cresteds are only 5-6g, which is far to small for anything larger then a 10 gallon. And the problem is although a 10 is bare min for an adult, you no longer have 10 gallons worth of space as you now have about 7 gallons of working space due to the soil layer within the tank. It would work for an older juvie to young adult, bt you may want to consider a 15 high or better yet a 20 tall for an adult if you want to do a live planted tank.

Also you may want to consider either feeding from a bowl. The problem with planted tanks, esp with cresteds since they are terrible hunters odds are hig for a face full of dirt. So by feeding outside of the tank or from a bowl deep enough the bugs can not get out, for one no dirty mouth (thanks orbitz!), but also your insects cant hide and in the case of roaches which is what I use, they will burrow. So like my phelsuma tank (which is personally the only live setups I have), they have a ceramic dish for both their roaches and mealworm dinner since their tank is so dense, even a cricket could easily hide and never be found.

The tank looks really nice, except the one plant in the left back corner looks kinda weak so watch it a crested may break it. A good plant for them is moth in laws tongue, also called a snake plant, very sturdy plant.

The cleanup crew is def needed. Eventually fecal material will break down, but not quick enough. Think of outside when a dog goes #2, there is bio activity going on, insects, ect but that little nugget is out there for a long long time then mom gets mad and makes you go clean the back yard. To a point yes your soil will become active, but not to the point of where breakdown is greater then the input. Eventually you will either one need to break down the entire tank and change the soil out, or two add in live critters to clean it up. The problem with peat is that it is fairly acidic so one watch your plants, not all plants do well in peat, and two it can kill some of your cleanup crew. Like in both of my tanks I have red wigglers, help to keep the soil from getting compacted, happier plants. Two I have springtails and isopods (pill bugs) to help take care of the feces, and they are slowly working on that as I just now added more to the big tank. Now you dont want to any of these right away, like for the earth worms I added some coffee grounds to the tank which gave them something to munch on until there was some feces in the tank. The springtails came next. And now last month I added more springtails and isopods as I noticed a build up starting to occur along with some mold. Which is another thing like I said the springtails and isopods will take care of, mold is natural to grow in these setups, so by adding the cleanup crew to it, it will help take care of that for you.

Now I have 3 different species of isopods in my tank, but I also have a smaller breeder tank set up for them because eventually they will get picked off and eaten in the tank, my phelsuma love their bugs, so I am also in the process of breeding isopods to insure in the future I have enough to keep replenishing my tanks. But like I said I can not stress enough getting a cleanup crew in there unless you want to change the soil out every few months. If you want help finding isopod and springtail breeders let me know, I know of someone who not only keeps pretty much all planted rhac tanks, but she also raises and breeds springtails and isopods for a pretty good price and if full of great info.