New to the forum, couple of geckos, LED diy light

[kgb_m3]

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and would like to share my gecko addiction with a few pics.


A little less than a year ago, I was over at a local pet shop. This little guy looked like he needed a good home. GF and I both liked him and decided to pick J.R. up.

We got him a 5 gallon tank with a mesh top, some paper towels and let him get used to the new place.

Couple of days later, J.R. got some furniture.

Just about a week ago, I took my 11 year old niece to a pet shop for some bedding. Came home with two new 12x12x18 Zoo Med terrariums and another crested gecko. He's a very good looking dalmatian. A little over a year old, very calm and goofy with a lot of personality. Meet Bowser.

Their new homes.

I also made a red LED night time viewing light and a splitter for the mister/fogger.

Parts used:
-2x 1w 630nm red LED light engine
(http://www.digitrondisplays.com/products/led-light-engines)
-mesh aluminum tray/pen holder
(can be found any office supplies store or can be substituted with anything similar)
-12v DC power adapter
(cut off the plug, strip ends, install inline power switch, splice into LED black/red wires, insulate using butt connectors/electrical tape, use hot glue to secure to aluminum tray)
-aluminum tape
(creates reflective coating inside aluminum tray, hides wires)
-double sided tape
(attaches LED light engines to aluminum tray)


Planning on getting 18x18x24 when Bowser and J.R. get a little older/bigger. Also I'm not exactly sure what J.R.'s morph is, please help identify.

Thanks for looking

 

[darkridder]

I wouldnt suggest housing them together, if you end up with a male and female and breeding is your intent, normally it is still within the females best interest to be housed alone. You also want to ask yourself if your plan is to breed what is your goal? It is best to have a goal, what in particular you want to produce. Like myself looking at your females I would invest in tiger or brindle dalmatian or super dal for Bowser, and depending on what JR ends up being, going with a halloween harley or attempt to find an extreme to bring more pattern to the table, or a nice standard extreme.

As far as J.R.'s morph, it is a halloween flame at this moment. Many geckos grow out of the halloween and their dorsals go more torwards a yellow orange than a straight up orange, and if that is the case then it would simply be a standard flame.

 

[kgb_m3]

They are actually both males and are housed seperately in identical tanks side by side of each other. I'm not sure if I really want to get into breeding, but I may pick up a female for Bowser in the nearest future.

Thanks for identifiying JR's morph!

 

[darkridder]

Were you planning on keeping them separated? From your post it leads me to believe you are planning to put them together in the same tank in which males do not get along with one another.

 

[kgb_m3]

Technically I was told at the pet shop that it's "ok" to keep two males in the same tank, but I did enough of my own research and common sense tells me it's not. They each have a tank and may get a female in the nearest future if I decide to breed.