Orchids and Day Geckos?

[Cassia]

I am being given a 75-gallon aquarium, and I am hoping to create a vivarium with day geckos and orchids (and a few other plants, such as maidenhair fern). I have never kept geckos, so I'll be starting with the beginner's Phelsuma laticauda laticauda. I have a few orchids in my kitchen garden window over gravel trays. Some of them are not very happy, so I'm hoping to move them into the vivarium. I read the sticky on appropriate plants, and will work with that as a basis.

However--can I plant orchids directly into soil or other substrate in the vivarium, or do they need to be in pots?

I'm so new at this that I don't even know all the right questions to ask. So---ANY help or tips will be very much appreciated!

[Amanda L]

Most orchids cannot be planted in soil. I have seen some beautiful setups using mounted plants. Mounts work very well in terrariums, due to better humidity control. Check out the mounts section of the forum, or browse through some of the terrarium posts to get some ideas on what to do. Some have used drift wood as mounts and have had great success. I don't have any experience with geckos, I'm a snake girl myself. I really hope that you find the answers you are looking for!

[Cassia]

I don't have any experience with geckos, I'm a snake girl myself.

Me, too! LOL! On vivariumforums.com and sSNAKESs.com (and a couple of other herp forums), I'm Chu'Wuti--Hopi for Snake Woman.

This is a new venture for me. I've never tried geckos, and I was trying to figure out what to do with my poor orchids and reading about putting them in terrariums. Then I found that people were putting geckos into the terrariums with orchids. I figured that if I can keep snakes alive & healthy, I could probably learn to keep geckos alive & healthy, so here I am, plotting away!

Thanks for the tips for where I should be looking for ideas & answers. I'm thinking I may do ferns in the bottom, but I'll have to figure out whether a soil substrate will even work with geckos.

[Amanda L]

You may be able to ask the people that you got your gecko from. If you got it from a store that specializes in herps, then they would have the answers you need. I'm lucky in that the place I got my snakes from are extremely knowledgeable about the reptiles and spiders they have. Good Luck in finding your answers. The internet is a wonderful place to find people that know what they are talking about and are willing to help out.

[Cassia]

I don't have any geckos yet. I am more comfortable preparing the habitat first, then getting the animals after all the environmental parameters are where they should be.

Research first, action second--that's my motto!

[~Nature Girl~]

i'm thinking that day geckos are going to be a bit big and clumsy with the delicate orchids.....?......
i'd suggest a crested gecko or maybe a gargoyle gecko. here's a really good forum that covers both of those plus some others
i hope it works out really well and i'm sure it will look amazing no matter what you choose!

[Cassia]

I'm a little confused about the crested & gargoyle gecko suggestion. You said

day geckos are going to be a bit big and clumsy with the delicate orchids

. However, both the crested and the gargoyle gecko get considerably larger than the P. laticauda I mentioned; P. laticauda only gets to about 5.1" max.

Also, from what I can find, it appears that neither the crested nor the gargoyle can take the humidity that the orchids would need, while P. laticauda needs a tropical environment. Maybe I don't understand what the orchids need as well as I thought? What humidity do they need?

[phearamedusa]

Cassia,

Take a look at Geckos Unlimited - Powered by vBulletin or this one Vivarium Forum both are sister sites to OB and the members will be more then happy to help with suggestions for plants and geckos. I hope this helps.

Melanie

[Cassia]

I'm actually a member on both those forums. Vivarium Forum sent me here; I am getting some great ideas on Geckos Unlimited, though! I'm one of those people who likes to gather as much info as possible from a variety of sources before I spend a lot of money on something; plus, I don't want to kill either the geckos or the orchids, so more info is better. Thanks, Melanie!

[phearamedusa]

You're welcome, I tend to do the same, especially when it comes to live animals. I might be upset that I killed an orchid, but killing an animal would devastate me.
Another forum is http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/, they have some absolutely awesome tanks with all sorts of plants. Some will use Ludisia discolor, or some of the other jewel orchids because they will grow in just about anything, and don't require alot of light. I know it is mainly for frogs but you can use a lot of the same technics and plants for a tropical reptile tank.
Good luck and let us know how it goes, posts lots of pictures of your progress.