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Crested Geckos! (other pet reptiles welcome :D) Anonymous
Hello /an/!

I just thought I would share some pictures of my new babies. Two crested geckos, which I picked up last Friday - nearly three months old (yeah, I know they're tiny... apparently they were ridiculously runt-y when they hatched) and OHMYGOD I <3!!!!!
>> Anonymous
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The two of them together.

Anyone out there with reps, post your scaly buddies
>> Anonymous
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meet lewis
>> Anonymous
>>317278
OP here

oh god lmao, he(?) is adorable. How old?
>> Anonymous
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My Caracal eats those for fun.
>> Anonymous
a little over a year old.
>> Anonymous
>>317281
d'awww, I can imagine so
>> Anonymous
I'd be scared of crushing them :<
>> Anonymous
>>317287
I was too, so I either wait until they choose to get on my hand (notail does 9/10 times on its own) or i put them into a situation that compells them to get on my hand, like bringing them out on their vine or tilting the tank slightly.
>> Anonymous
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tatsu, my baby blue tongue skink
>> Anonymous
they're adorable, good luck with them! i almost got a crested but decided on a blue tongue instead ^ lol
>> Anonymous
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Here's a blurry picture of mine that I took with my shitty camera.

I'm planning on getting another Crested eventually, but right now I just have her in a paludarium with some guppies. She doesn't like to be handled much, but she does let us hand feed her. She likes to dive into the water and try to eat the guppies.
>> Anonymous
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Guildenstern, my Bearded Dragon.
>> Anonymous
>>317266
Your gekko made me happy!
Send my love to them.
>> OP
>>317326
What's it like keeping one of these? I've heard different things. I love knowing the different care methods for various reptiles...

>>317332
Thank you! Again, I am interested in the whole blue tongue idea.. I don't have the room, but recently I've been hearing more about keeping them as pets.

>>317373
What. A. Fantastic. Idea.
Any more pictures? What are cresties like when they swim? It's a little too bad she's not fond of handling, but maybe she'll come out of that. How long have you had her?

>>317389
Hahaha. I love the name. Rock on.
A month ago, it was me going 'geckos! oh cmon geckos! Geckos!' and my boyfriend going 'ehhhh I don't think we have the room...' and now he's gearing up for the time where we have enough space and experience for a beardie.

>>317399
Haha that's awesome. Will do, in the form of some CGD and fruit treats. :)
>> Stubbybutt OP
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Also, more pictures. Stubbybutt here enjoyed hanging on my laptop while I worked on an assignment; I suppose the warmth was just right.
>> Anonymous
>>317373
Post more pics or details on setting up a paludarium. I have a 55gl aquarium that I've been considering turning into one. Are crested geckos active, or are they like my leo and only come out when I'm asleep?
>> OP
>>317813
Cresties are nocturnal, but sometimes you may see them doing something during the day. If you want to make use of watching their activities you can get a reptile red or blue spectrum nocturnal bulb - that way you can see them, but they don't see the wavelength so they think it's nighttime.

IMO it has to be a rep. bulb, I tried mood lighting bulbs and they still throw off other wavelengths.

Hopefully>>317373can detail further how to set up the paludarium. I'd be interested myself.
>> Anonymous
>>317801
oh my god!! too cute!
>> Anonymous
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>>317798
I was really unsure about doing a paludarium at first, since Cresteds are arboreal and aren't really known for their love of water. I did a lot of research first and found that other people had done it successfully, so I gave it a whirl.

She loves it. She couldn't swim at first, and we had to save her from drowning several times. I almost scrapped the whole thing because I wasn't trying to kill her. I had vines going into the water so she could get herself out, and that worked. Once we added the guppies, she started jumping in on purpose and she's a fine swimmer now. Sometimes she swims like an alligator, sometimes she sticks her legs straight out and floats on the surface, sometimes she does a doggie-paddle type thing. Luckily she's not good at diving under the water, so she hasn't caught any of the fish yet.

One thing I love about this setup is that she never used to be very active... she would just sit around and look bored. Now she's all over the place, jumping from vine to vine, diving, watching the fish. It's cool.
>> Anonymous
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Another blurry picture of her.
>> Anonymous
ew... I think I recognize OP's hands! Did you ever play a game with /b/ of determining things about sum1 based on their hands?

anyway, I think the little guy on the left is the cuttest :P
>>317267
>> OP
>>317842
Wow.. that's great to hear that the environment perked her up. I would honestly consider trying it after your experience, but would like to know a bit more about how you put it together (water, land, amount of time you cycled the water before putting fish in, types of plants, any issues.. aside from near crestie drowning).

>>317853
Nope, actually. I rarely browse /b/ and afaik I've only posted one picture on there that had my hands in it. It was a picture of a freaky mutated tree at my house (looked part spruce, part juniper).

My boyfriend likes the left one more too, I think they are both cute but I am more fond of stubby. It has a hardier demeanor (I'm assuming since it dropped its tail, it lost its 'pls dont freak me out or ill drop it' collateral) and lets me do tons of stuff with it.
>> OP
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Another picture, unfortunately blurry, of stubbybutt chillin out in my bf's shirtsleeve.
>> Anonymous
Is stubby just a deformity or did he lose his tail?
>> OP
>>317871
He lost it. I think his breeder said that he tried to kamikaze dive out of the kritter keeper and when she tried to catch him he dropped his tail from stress.

Cresties don't grow them back, unlike most geckoes - but it doesn't seem to bother stubbs too much.

(these dudes need real names, oh lawd)
>> Anonymous
Haha.. Stubby is a nice name. It fits him.. literally..
>> Anonymous
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>>317813
1. Tank. Mine is a 20 gallon high, but I tried this out in a few 10 gallon tanks for practice. I highly recommend doing this, because you WILL fuck it up the first time. But for the final product, bigger is better.

2. Make the background. From my research, I found that most people were making their background/rock walls/waterfalls/ledges/whatever out of expanding foam... usually Great Stuff Gaps & Cracks foam filler. It's yellow, and once it cures you have to seal with it epoxy to make it fish safe, and then you have to silicone some moss/coco fiber/sand/whatever to it to make it look nice. That's a lot of work and time, so I got some black pond/waterfall crack filler instead, which is basically the same, but doesn't expand as much, and you don't have to seal it because it's fish safe.

Lay the tank down so that whatever side you're working on is on the bottom. This foam shit is horrible and it gets everywhere, but it does the job. Make sure you wear gloves, and try very hard not to get it anywhere in the tank that you don't want it to be. Then quickly stick some driftwood pieces into it, and throw some moss or whatever onto it before it dries. You have mere minutes. Then let it sit for 24-72 hours (depends on the brand), to let it cure.

I used a blowdryer to blow away the excess moss (I have sphagnum moss in mine).

I decided I wanted a shelf-like land portion in mine so I could get the most out of the water portion of the tank. Some people like to do a ramp-style that slopes into the water. Whatever makes you happy.

I foamed a ferret corner litter pan into the back left corner (I did that before I put the moss on). The pan is secure enough that it won't fall.
>> Anonymous
3. Plants. The pan is filled with gravel on the bottom, potting soil over that, and moss on top. I'm growing an Aluminum Plant, a Borneo Fern, a Heart-Leaf Philodendron, and a Peace Lily. I have to trim them back sometimes because they grow pretty fast. Any smallish terrarium plants will do. I stuck some twisty vine ropes in there with a few fake plants here and there as filler.

4. Fish. Depending on how much water you're going to have, you have a few options. I went with guppies because they're easy, hardy and colorful. A Betta would also work well, as would a small Gourami or if you're more experienced, a dwarf cichlid. Some people chose not to have fish at all, and just have a water feature in the tank for appearances.

My tank has a little over 5 gallons of water. I used a gallon jug to keep track of how much I was putting in. I recommend letting the tank settle with some water in it for a week or two before you add the fish. I have a small air-powered filter running and an airstone in the back to help keep the water moving. I treat it like any other aquarium, doing 10% water changes every few days, testing the water regularly, etc.

It does get very humid in there, to the point where I will have mushrooms growing in there, so I made a screen to fit over the open part of the aquarium hood. It helps a lot.
>> OP
>>317884
>>317885
Thanks a ton for the info. I'm definately going to consider it. These fellows have a while before they would be introduced in so I would have enough time to dry run and see how it goes.

From your experience, how well would you think it would work to take a 20gal long, turn it on its side so that length is now height, and silicone a custom cut piece of glass about 1/3rd of its height onto the bottom - then trying to make a paludarium? I'd use a custom screen door for the remaining part - maybe a modified zoomed double latched screen top or something. Was just an idea.
>> OP
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>>317893
Because i only realised after that it would help - a picture.
>> Anonymous
>>317893
I've seen pictures of other people's tanks set up that way. I think it would work great. One thing that would be nice about that is lower humidity. Humidity has been the one thing I've had the hardest time controlling in this setup. At times it would be up to 98% in there. I've got it down to 70% now with the makeshift screen, but your idea would work better.
>> OP
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>>317900
Oh, awesome then. Thanks for your insight.
98%.. that's nuts o_o

Also, pic of my bird trying to bathe from water dish. Had to share, and I'm running out of gecko pics.
>> Anonymous
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Here's another picture I took a few minutes ago.
>> Anonymous
>>317278
Jesus, thats a fat gecko!
>> Anonymous
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