Hi Guys! Yeap, total newbie here on his first post and in need of some feedback. 
(Although this is my first post here, I have been reading out this forum for a couple of weeks now since I had been doing some research before buying my leo... but still, now that I got him, I have a couple of questions that I was wondering if you could help me out...)
So yesterday after weeks of preparation I finally got my leo, haven't named him yet but it is a Tangerine Tornado, male, about 3 months old, I'll say about 3 inches (plus tail)... My guy's new home is a 20 gallon tank (30" x 12") with a hiding spot/cave, water dish, a couple of big rocks for climbing, moonlight bulb and after reading for weeks the whole "heated" debate about substrates, I decided to go with slate tiles... (which brings me to one of my "problems" so to speak...). When I bought my tank and accessories from my local petshop owner, he gave me a bag of Reptilite's Calci-Sand that contained roughly about 3 lbs of sand... I never intended to use it (after reading here that it was not recommended for younglings) but the thing is that I planted a couple of cactus on some spots of the tank which I did cover the soil with some of the Calci-Sand. The area that has sand is roughly about 4" x 6" and I used some big rocks and his water dish as a "barrier" for it not to disperse all over the place. When I came from the shop yesterday with my gecko, I placed him on the tank, and after a couple of minutes of exploring around, he went in to the hiding spot and just stayed there for most of the day coming out ocasionally to have a look around and then back in. Last night (and I must say that it was a rough night for me, haven't been able to sleep trying to watch him over...) I noticed that about 1:00am he had climbed over his water dish and over the rocks I had used as a barrier and layed down on the sand... I kinda panicked for a while but since I thought that he was just exploring and he was not "consuming" any of the sand itself I let him lay there... to my demise I fell asleep and when I woke 2 hours later, he had fallen asleep right there in the sand... I couldn't help myself panicking again so I immediately removed him from that area back to the slate tile area in which after of a couple of minutes he went back into his hiding spot/cave (which was what I wanted...). Then I went to sleep, woke up again about 4:30am and guess what? He was back again sleeping/laying on the sand... :main_huh:
I let him be since I didn't want to "overstress" him... I mean, I know it is a whole new place and a whole new ball game for him (and for me!) but what do you guys think? Should I remove the sand and the cacti plant from the tank? Obviously I intend to feed him away from the sand (for the reasons mentioned in other posts of the posibility of the sand being ingested at feeding time...) but what about him preferring to lay (at least his first night...) on the sand? Would that be acceptable? Or should I completely remove it? I know that during the day he will probably stay in his hiding spot/cave but I frankly do not know if it would be OK for him to hang around the sand area while I am asleep...
Another thing... I noticed that since yesterday he has had 2 "episodes" where he kinda goes around the tank moving "desperately" trying to climb up the tank walls like wanting to get out... is this a normal behaviour? Or is it that my little new friend doesn't like his brand new home? I tried to carefully approach him to have him go back to his hiding spot so he could calm down but he took a "swing" at me... so again, I just let him be and he eventually calmed down and went back in to the hiding place... any help/feedback from you guys would be appreciated. My sincere apologies for the long post but there was no other shorter way of explainning the scenario at hand. :main_rolleyes:
Thanks!
(Although this is my first post here, I have been reading out this forum for a couple of weeks now since I had been doing some research before buying my leo... but still, now that I got him, I have a couple of questions that I was wondering if you could help me out...)
So yesterday after weeks of preparation I finally got my leo, haven't named him yet but it is a Tangerine Tornado, male, about 3 months old, I'll say about 3 inches (plus tail)... My guy's new home is a 20 gallon tank (30" x 12") with a hiding spot/cave, water dish, a couple of big rocks for climbing, moonlight bulb and after reading for weeks the whole "heated" debate about substrates, I decided to go with slate tiles... (which brings me to one of my "problems" so to speak...). When I bought my tank and accessories from my local petshop owner, he gave me a bag of Reptilite's Calci-Sand that contained roughly about 3 lbs of sand... I never intended to use it (after reading here that it was not recommended for younglings) but the thing is that I planted a couple of cactus on some spots of the tank which I did cover the soil with some of the Calci-Sand. The area that has sand is roughly about 4" x 6" and I used some big rocks and his water dish as a "barrier" for it not to disperse all over the place. When I came from the shop yesterday with my gecko, I placed him on the tank, and after a couple of minutes of exploring around, he went in to the hiding spot and just stayed there for most of the day coming out ocasionally to have a look around and then back in. Last night (and I must say that it was a rough night for me, haven't been able to sleep trying to watch him over...) I noticed that about 1:00am he had climbed over his water dish and over the rocks I had used as a barrier and layed down on the sand... I kinda panicked for a while but since I thought that he was just exploring and he was not "consuming" any of the sand itself I let him lay there... to my demise I fell asleep and when I woke 2 hours later, he had fallen asleep right there in the sand... I couldn't help myself panicking again so I immediately removed him from that area back to the slate tile area in which after of a couple of minutes he went back into his hiding spot/cave (which was what I wanted...). Then I went to sleep, woke up again about 4:30am and guess what? He was back again sleeping/laying on the sand... :main_huh:
I let him be since I didn't want to "overstress" him... I mean, I know it is a whole new place and a whole new ball game for him (and for me!) but what do you guys think? Should I remove the sand and the cacti plant from the tank? Obviously I intend to feed him away from the sand (for the reasons mentioned in other posts of the posibility of the sand being ingested at feeding time...) but what about him preferring to lay (at least his first night...) on the sand? Would that be acceptable? Or should I completely remove it? I know that during the day he will probably stay in his hiding spot/cave but I frankly do not know if it would be OK for him to hang around the sand area while I am asleep...
Another thing... I noticed that since yesterday he has had 2 "episodes" where he kinda goes around the tank moving "desperately" trying to climb up the tank walls like wanting to get out... is this a normal behaviour? Or is it that my little new friend doesn't like his brand new home? I tried to carefully approach him to have him go back to his hiding spot so he could calm down but he took a "swing" at me... so again, I just let him be and he eventually calmed down and went back in to the hiding place... any help/feedback from you guys would be appreciated. My sincere apologies for the long post but there was no other shorter way of explainning the scenario at hand. :main_rolleyes:
Thanks!
