Setting up a day gecko planted terrarium: the egg was laid, its a dud 11/29/08

[@marko@]

60% during the day, 80% at night. i mist in the morning and at night.

its been in there since wednesday and its fine. it was growing emmersed since september, and in much less controled and stable conditions (a pot with cellophane over it and a few holes). thats how it got so nice, it was giving me almost a leaf every week for the past 2 monthes while it was growing emmersed.

[FrostyNYC]

Do you have a tool for measuring humidity in the tank?
Its very nice, btw. Good job.

But hey, where's the gecko?

[@marko@]

yeah, above the korean rock fern (back left corner) is a temp and humidity gauge.

thanks.

[@marko@]

my geckos came today.
they look great. they are chilling the the bottles they were delivered in, too scared to go into the tank. ill get some pics of them later.

[SeaSerpant]

Can't wait to see the pics. can you add some of the tank if you have time. I'd love to see it, again!

[@marko@]

sure. ill get pics in a little bit when the lights come on (they are most active in morning, and the female is an expert at hiding).

[@marko@]

i got pics!
and great pics too. im really suprised how photogenic the male was. the female, however, was still very very cautious and i didnt get as many of her.
Male:











Female:



Terrarium:







oh, and did i mention my moss was making spores? you can see the structures sticking out of in the pic:

[A Hill]

Beautiful little lizards. They're one of those animals I *almost* got a while back. I still regret never getting any. Those and PDFs...

What are you feeding them, and if you don't mind how much was the pair?

-Andrew

[@marko@]

im not feeding them yet. since most geckos never eat before 3 days after being shipped. so today will be their first meal here.
im going to feed repashy as a staple. its a prepared food for omnivorous geckos, and i heard great thing about it on geckosunlimited.com. here is a link to the food: http://www.geckoranch.com/repashysuperfood.html
im also going to feed crickets and real fruit occasionally.

the lizards were $50 each, and then $75 for shipping. so $175 shipped. but if you take care of them well, they should breed every year during the spring summer and fall.

[@marko@]

its a double post. but i have something to say, so ill just edit it:

the female ate the food greedily (she stuffed herself), the male was basking right next to it, and didnt recognize it as food. its ok though, since they are mates and as he sees her eat, he should catch on pretty quick.

[Raslad]

I'm in the wrong business!!! Those things live in the house here. The wild ones will come down and drink out of your cup and would take crickets out of my hand. Next time you want some, I'll get you "wild caught" ones for 20 bucks plus shipping

[@marko@]

i would definately take that deal.
ironically, these are from a hawaiian bloodline.

[@marko@]

ok i took the very first aquarium plant i ever had, an A. barteri, out of my infected 20L cleaned it, and put it in my exo-terra. its rhizome was divided multiple times, but this is what is left, and its still not a bad size. i also took out my large petite anubias. when i went to plant them, i noticed that the anubais i had in there before grew a red leaf. imagine if it started growing all red. how cool would THAT be?
anyway here are some pics of the plants (new, old, and red):

red leaf


new and old anubias side by side

[IMG][/IMG]
petites together


FTS


a. barteri in its new spot


petite in its new spot


T. ionantha


rock fern


tillandsia and vine
update on the phelsuma:
i have witnessed the female eat. i almost never see the male, and since i got pics of him, i have not seen him in the open, but i know both are relatively healthy. there is plenty of fecal matter. it would take both to sh*t that much, so they are both eating and active enough to find the food and bask enough to digest it and drink enough to stay alive to eat it and bask.
ive also come up with names for the invisible geckos: Hyperion (male), and Metis (female); after titan gods of greek mythology.

[eyebeatbadgers]

Nothing quite as fun to watch as really expensive reclusive lizards! Plants are looking good however

[@marko@]

lol
yeah. they were actually out today and i got pics.
thanks, the anubias barteri wilted (idk why, my petite is doing great, and the soil is very moist), but the rhizome is fine, so it should survive the transition.

ive got definite proof now of the geckos doing good in the cage. EGGS!!!!


2 perfect little white eggs. ill post pics in a little bit, now im off to order an incubator (hopefully they will survive until i get it). i didnt expect them so soon.