After you have bought your crested gecko’s terrarium, prepared its substrate, and set up lighting, humidity and heating, it is time to introduce some accessories. In this post, we will discuss choosing the best non-toxic plants and branches for a crested gecko’s vivarium.
Plants and other accessories will make your crested gecko’s vivarium more naturalistic and give your gecko some space to hide, climb on and of course rest!
Each owner has his/her own setup, and most of it will depend on how much space you have in the terrarium. With a smaller terrarium (10-15 gallons or even a Kritter Keeper), you will need to use the space efficiently.
Are plants important in a crested gecko’s vivarium?
Crested geckos are display lizards and they look amazing in naturalistic settings with plants and branches. Adding plants to a crested gecko’s vivarium is very important and crucial.
This is because crested geckos spend most of the day in the leaves hiding from bright light, exercising and generally resting.
Crested geckos are arboreal (living in trees), so you must add plants and branches for your gecko to climb on.
Are live of fake plants better for a crested gecko’s vivarium? Cons and pros.
Both live and fake plants have pros and cons. Let’s review them.
Pros of fake plants:
- You will not need to water fake plants or care for them in any way expect for cleaning.
- Another advantage is that they will suit a vivarium which doesn’t have any lights.
- Many fake plants also look realistic, so it is possible to create a naturalistic vivarium with fake plants.
- Most of them are sturdy and don’t break easily even if your crested gecko bites them.
- And what is more, fake plants won’t grow so you don’t need to care about trimming or removing any dead leaves.
Cons of fake plants:
- The only disadvantage of fake plants is that they are not alive, and they won’t create a fully naturalistic vivarium.
Pros of live plants:
- Will help to create a naturalistic and stimulating environment for your crested gecko.
- Look more appealing.
- Plants in pots are easier to remove for cleaning than foliage and plants that are attached with suction cups.
Cons of live plants
- They need watering, pruning, fertilizing and can die if you don’t take a good care of them.
- Live plants will need artificial lighting in the vivarium – this is not suitable for tanks that don’t need lighting. Heating your crested gecko’s vivarium with an under tank heater is not suitable. Read about lighting and heating in a crested gecko’s vivarium here.
- You can have some trouble with growing plants. If choosing plants, make sure they don’t grow fast, or otherwise, you will need to prune them from time to time.
The best safe live plants for a crested gecko’s vivarium
The best live plants for crested geckos should be both safe if ingested and provide support for climbing & shelter for hiding.
Never fill the whole vivarium with plants and branches. Half of the vivarium should be open, so that your crested gecko can move around and navigate.
Some plants that you might choose will be decorative, and will not provide support for climbing.
Other plants and branches will be for climbing and shelter. You will need to make sure they are sturdy and leaves are wide and strong enough not to break or bend.
- Pothos plant – a beautiful plant with broad leaves. You can even place a branch or vine under the leaves so your crested gecko can climb under them.
- Dracaena plant – another beautiful plant that crested geckos can use to hide under. Choose smaller cultivars to fit in the vivarium, such as Dracaena compacta Janet Graig.
- Ficus benjamina, or a weeping fig – make sure branches are strong enough to hold your crested gecko or place a branch underneath the leaves.
- Peperomia, such as Peperomia orba
- Bird’s nest fern, or Asplenium nidus
- Sansevieria, crested geckos especially love Sansevieria trifasciata, or Mother-in-law tongue, or snake plant – easy to care for with nice sturdy leaves.
- Moss – sheet moss, mood moss or forest moss to use on top of the substrate. Covering the soil with moss will help reduce any risk of your crested gecko ingesting the substrate (read more about substrate here). You can also use moss to conceal plant pots.
- Lucky bamboo – in a pot or vase that is secured to avoid bending. Your crested gecko can walk on it.
- Bromeliads – Bilbergia or Cryptanthus will both make beautiful decorative plants.
What you need to remember before putting live plants in a crested gecko’s vivarium
- Make sure that potted plants are not too heavy. Secure them to avoid any pots falling and crushing your crested gecko.
- You will need to wash any live plants that you buy before placing them in a vivarium. This is because most plants get sprayed with pesticides and contain them in the soil. Wash the leaves with soap and replace the soil with the kind that you used for making the substrate.
- You will need artificial lighting in the vivarium if you have live plants. If you have only few plants, one compact full-spectrum fluorescent bulb can be enough. But if you have many plants that occupy most of the vivarium (around 50%), you will benefit from a full-spectrum fluorescent fixture, that offer 2.0 or 5.0 UVB. With a fixture, you will need a hood to fit the fixture in. With a bulb or few, you can use a dome or canopy. Read more about light bulbs here. If lights are bright, make sure your crested gecko has spaces to hide.
- Spraying plant’s leaves will be useful, as crested geckos love drinking water droplets form leaves. What is more, it will help increase humidity levels in the tank.
Is it better to have vivarium plants directly in the substrate or in pots?
It is important to create a stimulating environment for your adult crested gecko
If you choose to use live plants, the best idea is to place them with pots in the vivarium. In the vivarium, you can cover the pot with hanging leaves or moss, for example.
If you introduce a plant in the substrate soil, caring for the plant might become too difficult. The roots might grow deeply into the soil and it will be hard to remove the plant if needed. The plant that is planted into the substrate soil is also likely to grow faster.
Watering plants that are directly in the substrate will also be difficult. It is easy to overwater the substrate, which will cause rotting. A drainage level under the substrate will help absorb some excess water, but overwatering will cause serious damage.
To introduce potted plants, place them in the vivarium and hide the pots with moss, leaves and hideouts. It is a good idea to place live/fake plants with foliage in the back, so they are hanging down.
Best fake plants that you can buy/find for sale for a crested gecko’s vivarium
- Bamboo bars like these – you can attach them to the glass and your crested gecko can jump and climb on them. Make sure they are sturdy by checking suction cups and placing bars not too high from the ground.
- Pothos vines – vertically hung foliage
- Other types of foliage, for example Ficus, Mandarin and Amapallo
- Fake spider orchid
- Decorative red vine
- Boston fern like this
Branches for a crested gecko to climb on
Apart from plants, you will also need to place one or few branches in your crested gecko’s vivarium. Branches will add to a naturalistic look and will help your crested gecko climb and exercise.
When choosing branches for your crested gecko’s vivarium, try to choose ones that are more resistant to rot. You can choose thick wooden branches, driftwood or thinner branches/wires.
Some examples of branches that you can use for a crested gecko’s vivarium are jungle vines, bendable branches, thin vines with suction cups, Mopani wood like this, fake bamboo sticks etc. If collecting yourself, the best choices are American planetree (sycamore), various fruit tress (especially black cherry) and oak.
Avoid grape wood (will mold and rot), cedar, juniper, fir, yew, redwood, pine and other conifers and evergreens (can be toxic). Don’t choose any branches that will rot easily.
If you are collecting wood branches yourself, make sure to disinfect them before placing in the vivarium. To do this, you can either bake the wood in the oven (60-80 minutes at 250 degrees) or soak in a bleach solution.
Make this bleach solution by mixing 1 part bleach with 8 parts of water. Leave the branch in the tub for an hour and rinse well many times. You can also remove the bark to remove any bugs that can hide in there.
Securing the branches and waterproofing them
If a branch or driftwood is heavy, you need to secure it so it doesn’t fall on your crested gecko and crush it. To do this, you can either create a foundation or use a non-toxic aquarium sealant to seal the wood to the terrarium floor.
What is more, you can waterproof the wood in crested gecko’s vivarium to make it resistant to rot. There are different ways to do this, such as applying hot glue or water/oil based polyurethane. Read about waterproofing wooden accessories here.
Floppy tail syndrome in crested geckos – reason and prevention
Try creating more activity space that is vertical, so that your crested gecko exercises more and has support when climbing and sleeping. Also, try to leave less wall space to prevent your crested gecko from sleeping upside down.
That will also help to prevent a floppy tail syndrome. But what is a floppy tail syndrome?
Many crested geckos tend to sleep upside down, laying against the smooth glass. Lack of any branches and foliage makes the tail drop down over crested gecko’s head. This makes the tail muscles weak and the tail becomes floppy.
If you don’t do anything to fix this problem, your crested gecko might develop weak and twisted pelvis that can hinder female’s ability to lay eggs.
Place branches or vines near the glass so that your crested gecko can curl its tail around one of them to prevent its tail from hanging.
Hope you found this article useful! It you liked this article, make sure to share it and read our next post on more vivarium accessories, such as hides, bowls and more!