# Crested Gecko Enclosures- for those wanting ideas or pictures



## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

A few people have been asking for Crestie and other arboreal lizard viv pics lately, and as I was taking some for the POTM anyway i thought i'd make a thread about them! Its really hard to capture the effect of a viv from far enough back to get it all in too!

Here are a few pics.... I hope you like. 

This is the whole setup as i designed it to work...









This is the left half...










Close ups of waterfall made from tribal mask...


















Here you can see a feeder ledge i made by dremelling a shape out of the cork bark for a dish to fit. The cork itself i cut out of a bigger log to get the shape i wanted. They seem to love it, thats Madame Mim and Kurian sitting on it.









And a more top down view of the floor. The laybox is concealed beneath the feeder ledge, so it doubles as a hide. The substrate of the viv is actually large river rocks with a layer of organic soil and sphagnum moss on top. On the right you can see the water pool, the waterfall runs into this, and they drink from the pool and waterfall. you dont see them paddling though!









Ok and here is the right side, this actually houses Whites Tree frogs but the principle is exactly the same and i designed them to look good together side by side, so the pools are adjacent. 










A close up of the floor section, there is a waterfall to the left.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

and a couple of cutes piccys of the guys enjoying their vivs...

Clouseau, blue phase Whites tree frog, lives on the right









Madame mim posing!









and Tarragon looking beautiful!









Comments and questions welcome!!

Sarah


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## -matty-b- (Dec 13, 2007)

they look real good:mf_dribble:

how often do you give it a proper clean and everything?


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

They are absolutely beautiful vivs! I mean just beautiful! I love the tribal mask waterfall, you're so inventive and creative. I'd love to do something like that if I ever venture to the crested scene lol. Just so wonderful. Makes me think my leos vivs are boring lol. But wow that must keep them very active and happy  10/10 for you Art!


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## -matty-b- (Dec 13, 2007)

Kimmy173 said:


> They are absolutely beautiful vivs! I mean just beautiful! I love the tribal mask waterfall, you're so inventive and creative. I'd love to do something like that if I ever venture to the crested scene lol. Just so wonderful. Makes me think my leos vivs are boring lol. But wow that must keep them very active and happy  10/10 for you Art!


that puts my compliment to shame:lol2:


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

-matty-b- said:


> that puts my compliment to shame:lol2:



lol well I am a writer you know


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Aw thanks guys! They do really seem to enjoy them and it makes it all the better! 

Matty, i change the water in the base maybe once every 3 months or so? I have a pump/filter in there so its being perpetually cleaned, but i have an electronic syphon and just suck all the water out once in a while. As for the viv itself very rarely. all i have to do is wipe down the glass, and remove some of the bits of wood to scrub the urates off them. the rest is either used by the plants or falls in the water and is removed by the filter


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

so are they natural plants in the vivs? what do you use?


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

yep theyre all live. My favourites tend to be Dracaena and fittonia because they do so well without water, so i put those in the plant holders that have harder access to water (my bad design!lol) i also like to use bromeliads when i can afford them, and those lovely lime green tropical looking plants are a firm favourite and do really well but noone seems to be able to tell me the species name!


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

lol do you ever get any attackers telling you not to use live plants in the viv? have you ever had any problems?


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## Comet (Dec 29, 2007)

They look great. when I get a bigger exo terra one day I will have to pick at your arty know how


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Kimmy173 said:


> lol do you ever get any attackers telling you not to use live plants in the viv? have you ever had any problems?


juat wondering why on earth anyone would oppose the use of liveplants in a vivarium? its very common practise, and ive never had any problems whatsoever. Of course there are some types of plants that may cause problems, like toxic ones or spikey ones, but i carefully choose the plants i use before i buy them and wash all fertilizers from the soil and leaves before planting. 

Never heard anyone 'attack' about the use of real plants. have you then?


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## Comet (Dec 29, 2007)

they really look amazing art bgecko. very happy looking cresties


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Thanks comet!!!


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## linda.t (Sep 28, 2007)

your viv's are stunning & i love the live plants.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Thanks! i love live plants over fake, they just add another lovely 'living' quality to the viv


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

I use fake plants in my vivs but I've heard of so many arguments where someone is using a live plant and someone else is telling them it's not right and that you should never ever have any live plants! I don't have any but that's my choice, I've never had luck with plants lol they tend to die. I was just wondering because the people I have talked to about it are so anti-live plants that it was a real surprise you've got live plants. It's interesting actually, I wonder how many people have live plants in their vivs.


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## linda.t (Sep 28, 2007)

i like the water fall do both vivs have them in,i'm thinking about putting one in with my crestie and maybe the frogs.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Kimmy, thats interesting what reasons did they give for not having liveplants? in amphibian keeping its almost unusual not to have some degree of liveplanting, more so in the more fragile species so i would have thought any problems that mean liveplants shouldnt be used would count double with amphibs as theyre so susceptible to their environment. what forums that on?

Linda, yep both have waterfalls, the left viv has the mask which has water coming from the mouth, and the right viv has a slate waterfall on the left which i like in with the frogs as they sit on it.


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

the first time it was mentioned to me i was in my local reptile shop and someone came in and asked if the cham had live plants in the viv and the owner said yes and this person had a major rant with the owner claiming it was harmful to the cham and that for safety reasons etc like if it ate it or something. 

I've not had much experience as live plants aren't an issue for me as mentioned above lol so I don't really take note of most of the conversations but one or two have stayed with me. It was my first forum, one a friend had created that's no longer running (probably says it all actually lol) and a leo owner had asked if she was alright having some form of live plant in the viv with the leo and everyone on there advised her not to because they can be harmful. I understand that but surely not all plants are harmful, they'd encounter plants in the wild right? 

another one was for a crested geckos viv lol this is the one that made me surprised. someone posted a picture like yours of their viv and it was beautiful (yours is better lol) and he didnt even say if the plants were live or fake but obviously you could tell (I couldn't but I'm dense lol) and this woman said that this type of fern he was using was the most harmful plant she's ever seen in with any animal, let alone one as sensitive to its environment as a crested gecko. others agreed but I passed on the conversation lol.

I just thought it was like the sand/impaction debate lol that live plants weren't meant to be in and that's that lol. People get slated if they say they keep their reps on sand so I was just curious. Now I know it isn't toxic or harmful in all cases lol  I feel much more enlightened lol. Makes me wonder about the husbandry these other owners were giving their geckos though if they were so adamant that they were right and that no live plants should be used. 


and wow, sorry for the long thread.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

hmmmm very interesting, obviously some plants are toxic and shouldnt be used, a common plant people accidentally use is diffenbachia (sp) which looks harmless enough like a big leafy plant but its v.toxic. You have to know what you're doing, but its pretty standard practise from what ive seen to have liveplanted vivs. Mine certainly enjoy it. I'm not sure with leos, as i dont know of too many plants that would survive in low enough humidity for them, but in the wild Cresties live in lowland rainforest, so if plants were harmful to them they wouldnt have survived v.long!! lol

Thanks for raising the qu, cause its not one i've heard before, mostly its people like you, who decide not to use live because they always die! lol and for those people who keep their geckos on paper it obviously doesnt work quite as easily. 

Just as an additional comment, only adult geckos are kept like this here, all young geckos are kept on kitchen paper to stop risk of impaction and monitor poos (lol). There is no real risk of impaction with my substrate choice as the rocks are far too large for them to attempt to swallow


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

I'm happy with my fake plants for my leos because I can place them wherever I like lol and can cut them up and everything  

that was my thought though if you could find suitable plants what's the harm in having them in the viv but these people were so against it and it didn't really mean anything to me because I wasn't going to be using any live plants so I didn't raise the question. Would be fun to see a debate between someone as knowledgeable as you Art and someone like that woman, I don't even know her name lol so I doubt it'll happen but I can imagine her lowering the tone of it all by calling you a name lol 

she wasn't a nice person  


so lol enough on plants  nice vivs


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

haha i see! i've had more than enough runs ins with 'those kind of people' over the years!! lol People who believe what theyre told 1st and refuse to change their mind, whereas i like to find as much out about a subject and then decide. Like my stance of species mixing, its not just cause someone once told me not to do it, its due to lots and lots of reading about the possible effects, and i still hate it!!!


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## linda.t (Sep 28, 2007)

i was wondering what u needed to make the water falls.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

for the mask one, i bought the mask, got some aquarium pipe the right diameter and fed it up the back of the background and through a hole made behind the masks mouth. Then connect the pipe the other end to a pump and voila. For the slate one you just get pieces of slate and stones etc and use aquarium safe clear silicone to stick them in the required shape. simple but time consuming to get it right. 

i have construction diaries for these type of vivs on my website btw. i call them advanced gravel bottom design


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## AndyDaDude (Oct 30, 2007)

with waterfalls do u need a small filter or something similar? how often do you change the water in them? thanks 

o n vivs look great!


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

yea i have a fluval 1 i think which filters and pumps them, and the rest of the water in the viv. i change the water maybe once every 3months or so, and top it up every 1 or 2 weeks


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## linda.t (Sep 28, 2007)

thanks will take a look.


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## ArranP (Jan 12, 2008)

Amazing Viv's. What plants have you used in the frog viv? I've also looked at your website (bookmarked) and the caresheet is great! It should save my skin when im in need of a bit of help.
Im waiting for the perfect viv guide to be put up though, that should be quite something if those weren't perfect enough.


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

Thankyou!! My plans for 'the perfect viv' guide are more a list of questions and answers to guide you through designing a viv to suit your animals needs, some really basic i.e. is it arboreal or terrestrial and some that people often dont consider so much, such as is it a nervous/flighty animal or not.

The plants in the frog viv are fittonia (the pink one, it also comes in a green/white variety that i use in other vivs but i liked the splash of colour this time) the light green waxy big leaved one on the mid right of the b/g is my fav plant that i cant find the name of (but i was assured by numerous florists that its safe). there are dracaena in the bottom left b/g holder under some stone mushrooms, and another dracaena type in the bromeliad planter on the right. I also use aquatic plants living in the water section


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## Igby (Jul 29, 2008)

I had started a new thread on this as I didn't realise that the person who made the website was on this forum! I'm really excited about setting up one of my vivs using your advanced gravel bottom method. It looks brilliant! :2thumb: Oh and your web site is cracking. :notworthy:

I've ordered myself a pump and now I'm itching for it to turn up but in your list step by step you mention you need a plastic box to house the pump. Is that just to protect it from the weight of the stones and do you just cut holes in the side to let the water at it? I don't think that bit is mentioned in the step by step. Also, how do you know if our ice cream tub or whatever is not going to leach toxic chemicals into the water? Do you know of a safe type of plastic that you use (they normally print it on the bottom of the packaging...I think). Really sorry if i'm being dense... I blame it on the hangover... at 6 o'clock in the evening no less. Worrying, very worrying.


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## Cockys Royals (Jun 28, 2008)

And you can see your lizards amongst that lot :lol2:

How often do ya clean the viv & how longs it take ya


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## Jo Wand (Aug 2, 2009)

Do you feed your geckos crickets in this viv? I like the idea of the pebbles and water but worry that the crickets would drown and rot in there and i wouldn't find them.


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