Soon to be new owner!!!

[Pinky81]

So many of you know me from the Leopard Gek forum as I breed and keep Leo's but Ive finally decided to get a couple of crested!!!

So I have a few questions on tank maintence. I have a Medium Tall Exo-Terra that I plan on doing a bottom layer of hydroballs then a layer of Eco Earth Loose coconut fiber soil, and a layer on top of that of twice milled Cyperus mulch. I have some cork bark and another wood piece and plan to mostly keep fake plants. I suck at keeping plants alive. But I want to get my soil maintence free so i read on another thread about isopods and springtails. (Thanks Darkrider for the great info!!)

Here are my questions. Is it ok to do fake plants even though I want a live substrate? I will be getting two female crested in this tank, how long do I wait till I start adding the little buggers? I assume not right away correct?

Also does anyone have information on ppl who breed these buggers and have good prices?

I do also want to get some live moss, is this ok to get and put on the substate top...it will grow there correct? Will I also need a UV light to keep the clean up crew happy as well as the live moss?

Any pointers or suggestions welcome!!!!

 

[darkridder]

The problem with females in a soil substrate, even if you dont plan on breeding, your going to have to look for buried treasure from time to time...ie your females are going to lay eggs and hide them somewhere, it is going to be a pain.

Live soil benefits from plants because plants help take up nutrients, and produce nutrients that make the soil heathier, without it, for one you will never make a bio layer first as your tank will stay sterile...I mean if nothing is going in, nothing can be converted. Two plants also help to break down nutrients from the fecal matter also, as the feces breaks down into individual molecules your clean up crew doesnt use, thats what the plants use, so then you dont get build ups of things like potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen.

Live moss is terribly hard to grow, even the most seasoned viv builder often has trouble getting it to grow, they often need higher humidity and different type of lighting to be offered otherwise it dies out.

I honestly would suggest if youre not going to put plants in there, go with the basic paper towels as the soil will greatly benefit from the plants and really does require it. A UV light will not be needed, but a nice plant light will work, it will produce the correct amount of UV for the plants and inverts without over kill or bothering your cresteds since crested geckos do not require UVB.

If you check out the natural post in the general discussion you will see a viv I put together that doesnt use hydroton balls instead I have a false bottom which is what about of people opt to do since hydroton balls are so expensive and make for a seriously heavy tank.

Also if you dont get 2 females that were housed together youre going to want to do a 90 QT period from one another, and from your other animals. Or if youre confident that the breed you get them from, be it the same breeder, you can try qt's them together, but it is far better and safer pratice to QT alone as you can better monitor them this way.

You may also want to invest in younger female, say 10-12g, the reason is even the ugliest buckskin female will run you $70-90, nicer females will be around $150, and breeding quality females tend to be $250+, and this can be younger geckos price, and adult can go for upwards of $600-700 for a top quality female, but a buckskin adult will be the $70-90 (usually $70-75) range. So by buying something around 10-12g you have good chances that possible female is a female, without paying the big price for an adult female.

 

[doodlebug86]

if you're really interested in cresties, the Pangea Forums are the place to look. Pangea is like the gecko forums for Rhacodactylus owners & lovers. you'll be able to find all kinds of excellent looking geckos there & really awesome people.
good luck, Rhacs are great.

 

[Pinky81]

Ok so I did find some information about the isopods and springtails on a FB forum. Thanks for the great info darkridder! I am going to be getting set up with simple plants from a person who grows plants specifically for live vivs. She is going to put together a bundle with some plants that are simple to care for, she also said the same thing about the moss! Bummer I do like the look of moss but I know I won't be able to keep it that moist.

I did however actually pick up my two crested!!! I love them to pieces! I live very near a great breeder who sat down with me. Im fairly sure the yellow harley is a female. Both the breeder and I louped this little one and do not see any sign of pores or developing pores. The mocha harly on the other hand we aren't as sure...this little one was a bit harder to tell. The breeder felt like it was a female, I looked and thought I saw a few scales that looked like they had pores but still not 100%.

They are both being housed together as I 100% trust the breeder and I also will be weighing and watching both closely and feel confident in watching for signs of problems.

Here is a link to my FB album. I only have a few pics as I didn't want to stress them too much just after bringing them home!!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2105201711596.2101136.1292110509&type=1

 

[darkridder]

Quite welcome, and if ya do decide to go over to pangea, I am thongwedgie over there

If the breeder is not 100% on both of them, realize a male can take upwards of 12+g's in order to show pores, I have one male 16g and he doesnt even have a buldge yet, and you will almost never find well seasoned breeders selling 100% sure females under 16g because of this, males can simply be late bloomers. I bought a "female once", the last time the girl looped her she was 14g, I got her at 17g, and went...uh this is a male, so in 3g the gecko went from "female" to male. So I am not trying to call the breeder a liar, just saying the average breeder will not make a claim as 2 for sure females under about 18g so do keep in mind if youre "ladies" are under that weight, you may possibly have to consider having 2 setups ready.

 

[Pinky81]

Yea the smaller one that Im questioning is 13g. The breeder and I spent a while looking at the two...REALLY good learning experience for me!! Im ready with another set up if needed, as he made no quarenties, but I feel in love with both these guys so if they turn out to be male/female or Male/male I'll just seperate. My breeder doesn't promise sex on any of his babies, as he explained the same thing you are...we both just made our best guess, he and I were seperated on the mocha harley he said Female...I say possible Male...I have my own loupe so Im keepin an eye on the lil one, we'll see which one of us guessed right! But I 100% trust the breeder on the health of the two otherwise Im with you on the quarentine period. Got my fingers crossed on that sex though!

i think I will make my way over to Pangea since the Crested forum is kinda small and slow.