From the east of Australia in the South Pacific Ocean
is a cluster of islands that some of the most incredible
geckos call home, New Caledonia.
A two-day journey from this tropical paradise in the rural suburbs of Pittsburgh,
that environment has been loosely replicated to house three geckos
whose lineage traces back to those islands; Henry and Delilah, the Crested Geckos,
and Cynthia, the Gargoyle Gecko. I think these geckos make great companions
and are up there as some of the best pet reptiles you could have.
What a rewarding journey it’s been to steward them all these years.
A journey that began nearly nine years ago to this day
with a tiny gecko in need of a new home. I’ve kept “exotic” animals for my entire life,
but geckos were never on my radar. That was until July 2014.
A family got a baby crested gecko, but they soon realized he
wasn’t the pet for them. They wanted to get rid of him.
Luckily our paths crossed, and that gecko’s little
toe pads crawled all over my heart. That, of course, was none other than Henry.
Since the beginning, the little man has
always required special care and attention. One of the areas I had to focus on most was food.
Truly, he’s never been very interested in live prey
and generally wouldn’t eat enough of his gecko diet.
That was unless I fed him myself. Nine years later and I still
primarily feed him by hand. Subsequently, we’ve spent more time
together than most of my other animals giving us a unique bond.
Most nights, he wants to spend time with me. The second I’m in the animal room
doing the nightly care routine, I hear him slap onto the glass,
where he clings until I arrive. He just wants a good plant to roost in,
nourishment, and quality time with Dad.
Well, I guess that’s if he’s not being a little crazy man during mating season.
We don’t need to talk about that, though. I’ve also found it very rewarding
to upgrade his housing arrangements over the years.
That said, I’m not proud of how I kept him initially
in a bare-bones 10 gallon tank. What was I thinking?
I did keep him with plants at first,
but for whatever reason, stopped as he grew larger.
In late 2016 when I began constantly making content,
I set out to make amends with a better and more appropriate setup.
This time I’d convert a 20 gallon long aquarium into a vertical vivarium.
I attached polycarbonate to the frame and got to work applying the foam.
I covered the bottom of the tank with it, followed by grape wood and planter pots.
Once cured, I carved it and resorted to the old silicone
and coco fiber technique. Knowing what I do now,
I can say it’s a terrible solution for geckos, but more on that later.
As usual, I added a false bottom, which I created from egg crate.
I concealed it from the outside with gravel and covered it with a windscreen barrier.
I spread a layer of my tropical substrate on this,
then charcoal seeded with springtails to make it bioactive,
and more substrate. I added various plants,
but most notably a Calathea ‘Golden Mosaic’. I absolutely love that plant,
and it’s a great option for the smaller New Caledonia Geckos.
The setup also sported leaf litter, a circulation fan,
and a drain for the false bottom. The only thing left to do
was see what Henry thought. He quickly made an ungraceful entrance,
followed by climbing to the top. Back then, he was still quite skittish,
but shortly made himself at home. About five months later
and I can say with confidence that he was doing better than ever.
His larger vivarium caused him to thrive and calm down a good bit.
Even though he was more receptive to me now, it was still lightyears away
from how he is today. Undoubtedly, this all caused me
to fall in love with crested geckos and wanted to get another.
Roughly around this time is when Delilah entered the picture.
Initially drawn to her colors, but I was excited about the
prospect of another personable gecko. Even at this size, she was calmer than Henry,
ate exceptionally well, and grew quickly.
For reference, she developed about three times faster than him,
reaching her adult size in roughly a year. Additionally, Delilah is so sweet and gentle.
I don’t know what it is about her, but she’s easily one of the most calm
animals I’ve ever encountered. She definitely doesn’t
want my attention how Henry does and is more than happy not to be bothered.
However, she also isn’t shy about spending time with me either.
Anyway, she lived in a 10 gallon for about a year until I made new setups for her and Henry.
I was going big this time with a 24x24x24” footprint,
which equals 60 gallons or 227 liters. I constructed the enclosures with a
combination of plywood and common boards. I also designed them to have a built-in canopy.
Of course, I sealed the insides with epoxy to ensure they were
waterproof and vivarium ready. I just had to stain and poly the exterior,
install a drain on the back, and a door on the front.
To make the build as easy as possible, I created background panels with Styrofoam.
I covered these boards with coco fiber liner and cork bark,
which I created holes on to make them more functional for the geckos.
I applied expanding foam between the elements, which I carved out as usual.
I covered this with silicone, followed by orchid bark and coco fiber.
I discovered that coco fiber alone is a terrible solution
because geckos can’t cling to it well. Including the bark or other pieces
makes it easier for them. It was a lot easier to create
and install the backgrounds as panels. I’ve done so for nearly every setup since.
I placed egg crate window screen false bottoms into each setup.
I put Leca around these to help retain humidity as well.
Then I mixed up the substrate, prepped the plants,
and brought the setups to life. Literally.
These colonies of springtails helped get the bioactive process in full effect.
I put a thick layer of substrate on top of these and began planting.
I went heavy on the bromeliads to try and replicate the canopy feel.
Jungle vines allowed me to lean into this even more
while giving the geckos plenty of climbing space. I continued adding various plants,
including smaller ones for texture, like anubias, selaginella, and moss.
Substrate seeded with isopods, leaf litter,
and circulation fans, completed the builds.
My primary goal was simply to recreate a canopy's look and feel.
However, I didn’t add the geckos for nearly three months.
Allowing them to establish for as long as possible is the way to go.
During the time between, I added more jungle vines
and areas to accommodate their food dishes seamlessly.
Once I finally set them free in their new homes, I was delighted to see it.
Both of them appeared to be at home immediately. In the following weeks, I noticed a massive
difference in the geckos. They both became even calmer
and appeared to enjoy the new places to climb, explore, and hide within.
Just months after that, I moved into my old house.
And it was right around then that I could truly see the change in the vivariums.
The geckos, unfortunately, ruined the small plants
and the detail work I painstakingly provided.
That didn’t matter for their enjoyment of the setup, though.
However, something terrible happened. I was holding Henry one day, as usual,
and I sneezed. I felt it coming on,
and I knew this could happen, so I tried running him back to the
enclosure as fast as I could, but it was too late.
And sadly, it scared him to the point that he dropped his tail.
It really upset me to see and I was worried that I broke his trust,
but to my surprise, he actually calmed down significantly after this.
In fact, it was around that time that he began coming to the glass in the evenings
to hang out with me. The geckos were still
enjoying their setups months later. However, something unexpected happened.
I received details that a Gargoyle Gecko needed a home.
I didn’t want any more geckos, but naturally, I felt terrible hearing its story.
For the sake of brevity, I was told that no one ever wanted her.
She wasn’t habituated or given much human interaction for over five years.
So you can imagine that despite being captive-bred,
she was a wild animal by the time I got her. And that’s how Cynthia entered the picture.
She arrived in an 18x18x24” enclosure, which is actually a decent size.
Initially, I did a quick redo by adding fake foliage,
which she seemed to enjoy, but it wasn’t until two months later
that I would do a proper redo. I dismantled the previous one,
moved her into a different setup, thoroughly cleaned the tank,
and got to work. I attached cork rounds
directly to the glass to create a canopy. I stuck sheets of coco fiber liner around
these to fill most of the gaps. Elsewhere I applied expanding foam,
which I carved out as usual. Then I mixed spider wood
within the scape for more interest. I coated the foam in silicone as before,
but I used Tree Ferns Fibers this time. This is the best option for the
silicone background method. I also created jungle vines
with ropes, silicone, and coco fiber, which I wove throughout the design.
I took a different approach with the false bottom as well.
I used a sheet of Matala Mat to fill most of the space,
followed by Leca for a better visual. I topped that with Geotextile Fabric
and a thick layer of substrate. Following a similar theme to the
others I used, bromeliads and pothos. I experimented with Pellionia tool.
Of course, much like the others, I integrated the food dish into the wall.
A batch of springtails, covering of leaf litter,
and isopods completed the design. The results looked great,
but I wouldn’t add Cynthia for about a month near the tail end of 2019.
Not only did this setup look cool, but it would also serve her better,
and allow me to more easily build trust, but that wouldn’t happen overnight.
Over the following two years, the geckos did incredible.
Henry and I spent hours together, Delilah was as sweet as ever,
and Cynthia learned to trust me a little more. Despite all of this, it’s no secret
that I hate how Exo Terra and other manufactured tanks look.
I also wanted all three geckos to be in a single area.
Because of these things, I decided to make an entirely new set of enclosures for all of them.
The 24x24x24” footprint from before worked great, so I did the same here.
However, this time, I used Liquid Rubber to seal the insides.
Naturally, I stained and sealed the outside to get the finished look I prefer.
A difference with this design were the doors. I installed Neodymium Magnets with Super Glue
so they lock with ease. After all of that,
I placed the tanks on the racks and proceeded to design the interiors.
I made background panels again, but I used XPS Foam this time.
I wanted to simulate the look and texture of dirt,
which I achieved by carving with a wire brush drill bit
and a clay carving tool. By this point, I was basically
done with silicone backgrounds as well. Instead, I used the Drylok Method that
Troy Goldberg popularized. It’s a great option that
I’m glad to have added to my tool set. I painted on a black base layer to start.
Then I applied a few dry brush layers of different browns to develop something resembling dirt.
Even though these went together, I wanted each to have a different look and feel
while remaining entirely functional for the geckos.
I achieved this by using different types of wood and a unique formation in each setup.
Of course, I foamed everything in, carved it once dry,
and painted it to match. I thoroughly sprayed everything
down before continuing as well. Each tank has a bulkhead drain
that I affixed with a mesh cover to retain the material.
The false bottoms in these are made exclusively with Leca.
As I’m sure you know, I’ve made a lot of vivariums.
And I noticed that ones that use a false bottom made from a material, like Leca,
tend to produce better results. I believe that because of the added surface area,
it promotes a more robust beneficial bacteria colony
when compared to a void space in an egg crate system, for example.
I used Geotextile for the barriers above this as well.
Sure, windowscreen mesh works fine, but it allows small particles to pass through.
This, on the other hand, holds things back much more effectively
and is now my preferred material. Anyway, I added the substrate to each tank,
followed by an array of plants. This time I stuck primarily with larger ones
that should hold up to the geckos. Of course, I finished them off with leaf
litter and a clean-up crew. These turned out well,
but I immediately put them in, unlike the other setups where I waited.
That didn’t make a difference in the long run, though.
Although I liked the previous setups, there was something about
these that I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe it was seeing them all together?
I learned a lot from the previous builds, and think that the way I hardscaped these
accounted for the gecko's habits better than the last.
And I know it’s something I say often, but they just looked perfect in here.
Over the following months, some plants thrived, and others did not.
I also added new ones, like False Aralia, which is actually from New Caledonia.
More importantly, though, the geckos were doing incredible.
They indeed seemed content and used every aspect of these setups.
You can also see here how robust their clean-up crews became.
And that’s the beauty of going bioactive. I haven’t had to clean these setups
since I built them nearly two years ago. However, all of this footage is back from 2021
and a lot has happened since then. Most notably, I moved to a different home,
and like nearly every other setup, these didn’t transfer well.
As you’ll see, they need a quick refresh, so I’ll show you how they’re doing today.
The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the setups appear sparser than before.
There are a few reasons for that. It’s primarily the result of not replacing
the leaf litter as consistently as I should. The isopod colonies are very robust,
and when there are no leaves, they turn to the next source of food, the plants.
Additionally, I had periods of inconsistent lighting during the move,
which I think took a toll on the plants already being demolished by the pods.
However, some of them have stood the test of time.
Take the Schefflera in Henry’s tank, for example. It’s dropped several incredible roots from the top
down into the substrate. I don’t know about you,
but I just when this happens. The pothos in Cynthia's tank
has also done the same thing. Even though coverage isn’t as dense as I’d like,
the geckos have been doing well. There is another issue, though.
And we need look no further than the outside of the tanks.
Unfortunately, the glue holding a few of the magnets has been failing.
One is enough to keep them closed, but both have let loose on Cynthiass.
Needless to say, I’ve been taping the thing shut, which isn’t a good look.
I must address that immediately and want to handle the plant situation.
I just have to remove the geckos, and we can begin.
I kept it simple and added a few larger plants to each.
They’ll have to grow, of course, but they significantly improved the
aesthetic and function of everything. As for the magnets, I re-attached them
with a fast-set epoxy. This should be a better
long-term solution than the glue. While that cured, I replenished the leaf litter
so the isopods leave the plants alone. Since the bones were good,
it didn’t take much to get everything looking proper once again.
I’m pleased with the results but want to see the geckos back in their homes.
They looked great. However,
I decided to make another edit I want to make. I was using cheap LED lighting this whole time.
I think the plants could do better if I swapped those out for something more appropriate.
I put Arcadia Jungle Dawn Lights on each tank, and the difference is astounding.
Looking back, I can’t believe this all started nine years ago.
It seems like just yesterday that I got Henry. Honestly, I was apprehensive
about taking him at first, but I knew I had to and am glad I did.
I’m also happy to have got Delilah as well. It's cool to see just how different they are.
I can confidently say that Crested Geckos are some of my favorites.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy Cynthia as well
and wouldn’t give her up, but it’s not the same. I’ve worked with her enough to where I can be
in and around the enclosure without her going crazy, which is good.
However, I never see a time where the trust between is mutual, but that’s fine.
I’m happy to enjoy her from afar if that’s what she’d prefer.
The thing about reptiles, or at least what works for me,
is to obtain trust through positive interactions and continually providing
better living conditions. That’s why everything was so easy with Delilah.
I was in control from a very early stage. While Henry likely dealt with some questionable
scenarios initially, and Cynthia learned
distrust from lack of exposure. All in all, I’m pleased with everything,
but if I had to make one change, it would be putting them in larger enclosures.
If I were to go twice as tall, I think that would be cool,
and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, either. And regardless of where this journey takes us,
I’ll do my best to continue improving what I do for them.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this,
taking the time to do what’s right is an excellent way to make a great companion.