Live plants safe for crested

[stevie]

Hello! Can anyone give me some suggestions on live plants that are safe for crested geckos? I can find general lizard info on the net, but would love some suggestions from those who have crested geckos.

[HeatherRose]

Try pothos plants...they're my favourite, they grow fast and I have one in every crestie enclosure :p

[CDN-Cresties]

A friend of mine uses bamboo.

[stevie]

Thanks for the great suggestions!!

[Double J]

Here is a list of ones that are easy to keep with a mere fluorescent light, and will do well with a crested:

Pothos
Philodendron
Peace lily
Large Calatheas
Elephant ear plant

You can get good sized plants of these types at Home Depot for around or less than ten dollars.

Good luck

[marisa]

Is any type flourescent light good for growing plants? Or those "grow bulbs" ???

I know nothing about using artificial light but soon I will be setting up a crested enclosure with live plants.

Marisa

[HeatherRose]

Those grow bulbs are nuts...they work. I use the UVB lights in my enclosures, and when I don't have them the plants are certainly less vibrant :p

[little_dragon_]

I use G.E Grow and Show bright sticks. they are inexpensive, come together as a unit and work great for my plants.

My favourtie plants for cresteds are snake plants, golden pothos, joesphs coat, and weeping figs.

[CDN-Cresties]

This is a question for those who use live plants. Do your cresties lay their eggs within the soil? or do they use a nest box?

[little_dragon_]

Mine prefer to use their nest boxes full of moist coco fiber over the potting soil. However my one female did surprise me by laying her 5th clutch in one of the pots. But she wasn't able to dig deep because of the roots. Either way it doesn't really matter because it's pretty obvious when they are poking around for a good spot to lay. They test the soil with their snouts.
I received my seventh fertile clutch yesterday.

[CDN-Cresties]

Cool, im thinking about having a really nice display tank in the near future and was just wondering about it. Some of my females make the biggest mess with their nest box while others are so subtle its hard to notice.

[little_dragon_]

Cool The plants rerally help with the humidity too. All the plants listed do really well in crestie tanks.
I was just wondering you know those 82lt totes you got from canadian tire, what are the dimensions? I need to get a couple. When I was looking online at the rubbermaids I had the height mixed up with the width.

[CDN-Cresties]

The dimensions are 24"X18"X15". They're actually 80lt.

[little_dragon_]

sounds good,

I wish they made bins with a good height!

[CDN-Cresties]

Yeah true but i find that with my egg trays, theres plenty of room for my geckos to climb and hide.

[little_dragon_]

My males spend more time in the egg box then the females!
The only downfall with the height is finding small plants that support the geckos weight.
Pothos work great in bins especially when they start to vine throughout the enclosure.

[CDN-Cresties]

Very good point. What do you keep your cresties in anyway. More of a display tank or rubbermaids?

[Double J]

For lighting, I prefer to use a double fluorescent fixture... and for fluorescent tubes, I use one grow-light, and one 6500K daylight fluorescent bulb. The 6500k bulb puts out a really nice, clean white light with a slight blue tinge to it. I have grown stuff like Phalenopsis orchids, and small bromeliads using this two-light system. I use this same type of lighting above ALL of my frog tanks as well. My plants grow like weeds.
As for the egg laying with live plants .... my cresteds are too young for breeding, but a couple of breeders I know actually have laying boxes in their tanks, as well as live plants. The geckos will always bury the eggs at the base of the plants, in and around the roots. It is funny, because you can look at the enclosure , and you will know if the females have been laying or not.

[little_dragon_]

I want to change over to display rubbermaids!

I have a 25 gallon-30x12x18
a hexagon 23h-18L
screen cage 20x12x24h
20 gallon 24x12x18
62qt sterlite bin. same dimensions as yours

I want to convert over to bins they are so much easier to clean and look good as displays.