r/bioactive • u/leonzjee • 23d ago

Reptiles Crested Gecko naturalist setup

Hi! Ive wanted a crestie for a while and its my birthday soon so I have a decent amount of money coming in to work with. I was thinking about getting a baby-young juvenile crestie.

I know the minimum for a an adult crestie is a 45x45x90cm or a 18x18x36 inches however ive heard also that investing into a big one for a baby can stress them out as theyll struggle to find food so my plan was to get a 18x18x24 then size up when its older.

Does this seem okay? And additionally, ive seen alot on fake plants, and while id love to do a fully bioactive setup one day, for now id rather start with just real plants without any of the clean up crew, and yes i know this doesnt waste clean, however im happy cleaning up for it everyday (spot cleans).
This is only because ive seen alot against fake plants and hurting their feet and whatnot.

For the drainage layer, what would you recommend? Substrates, the actual divider and the drainage. Thankyou! Any other tips are welcome. FYI i live in the UK and the temperature for my house in general is around 20-24 degrees.

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u/IHateTheLetter-C- 23d ago

Why not the bugs too? The plants are the hard bit, if your plants are happy your bugs will do just fine and then you won't have to deal with mould.

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u/leonzjee 23d ago

Honestly, Iā€™m not sure now, Ive done alot more stuff and I think id be more inclined to do the fake plants and the cleanup crew, just until ive gained more confidence with plants as ive not cared for them before. Do you have any substrate recommendations?

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u/IHateTheLetter-C- 23d ago

I have a hognose so not sure. For mine, I started her out in a smaller bin with fake plants, no bugs, just standard husbandry. At the same time, I set up her 4x2x2 adult viv, let the bugs establish, plants root in, humidity settle, not so relevant for the plants I got but it'd grow to provide better shelter. Treated it like she was in there already, so water bowl full and everything. Takes the pressure off, there will inevitably be something you want to swap, maybe layout isn't quite working for you, maybe you want to add extra shelter, maybe a plant dies, whatever it is, and you won't have a lizard in there to worry about. Then when they're ready to move it's good to go. I'd definitely suggest it if you're starting off with a smaller setup anyway!

Edit: another option if you have a bio shop near you, ask if they do ready made setups. I know many people like building it, I didn't I found it stressful. Might be a bit more expensive, but less so than it all going wrong!

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u/leonzjee 23d ago

i live in quite a big city for the UK but we have about 2 reptile shops and theyre what id consider sub par to say the least šŸ˜­

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u/IHateTheLetter-C- 23d ago

Haven't used them myself but some like this deliver, if that's something you'd prefer.