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#1668529
Pemuteran
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Live Plant Care 
I am putting together my new tank in preparation for a tokay. I obviously want to make the tank look appealing to him as well as to us humans and am looking into a few plants mentioned in my research. However, no where have i found info on lighting to keep the plants healthy. Ultra violet lights aren’t necessary for Tokays (in some readings i’ve done, not recommended in Tokay enclosures) so if i just use a heat lamp, how will my plants survive? Anyone out there have live plants in your tank- how do you maintain them? Thanks!
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03/20/08 11:31am
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#1669332
Osiris1980
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Message To: Pemuteran In reference to Message Id: 1668529
 Live Plant Care
i still use lighting. They will get use to it eventually; i turn them on before i leave for work, then after diner, i turn them off. Then they have all night to roam in darkness. Often times, when i come home they are out and about regardless of the light.
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03/20/08 10:05pm
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#1669402
Pemuteran
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Message To: Osiris1980 In reference to Message Id: 1669332
Live Plant Care
ok, but i assume that you don’t use this lighting for heat purposes while it’s on during the day... do you use something else (heat mat) in conjunction with the uv light? I live in NY and my house during the winter is kept cool while i am not home (50’s). I was going to use a red light 24/7 with a thermostat as some of my reading has suggested, but of course that doesn’t help the plants much.
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03/20/08 10:48pm
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#1669680
Brien224
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Message To: Pemuteran In reference to Message Id: 1669402
Live Plant Care
Use the red bulb w/ a thermostat, and the UVB bulb. Heat mats don’t do much for tokays as they are arboreal.
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03/21/08 10:02am
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#1670144
Pemuteran
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Message To: Brien224 In reference to Message Id: 1669680
Live Plant Care
Excellent, thanks to both of you!
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03/21/08 05:28pm
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#1671701
Greggecko
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Message To: Pemuteran In reference to Message Id: 1670144
Live Plant Care
"We aim to Please!" lol ... Seriously, I am impressed the way this thread unfolded. The asker definitely did his research first and the questions were very clear and right to the point. The answers were based on personal knowledge and a sincere attempt to help get a Tokay enclosure functional so it can have a long healthy life. I’ve seen a lot of similar situations end up like some sort of horror story by not so helpful answers forcing the question asker to learn by "trial and error." That can lead to a Tokay suffering needlessly and some times ends with the death of the Tokay and a waste of $$$ too. Thanking the guys for taking the time to help you out the way you did, positively reflected that you were satisfied and happy with their advice. Don’t be a stranger and let us know how it worked out for you! I Bet it Does!!!
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03/22/08 07:35pm
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#1671741
Pemuteran
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Message To: Greggecko In reference to Message Id: 1671701
Live Plant Care
Wow... thanks greggecko!
Yes, i have done lots of research on the entire tokay issue, as well as other geckos. I lived in Indonesia for over 6 years and fell in love with the sounds of the tokay. The nickname given to me in Bali was "gecko" because of the endless hours i’d spend watching them (various types) in the wild. I am very thankful to the knowledgeable people here who are willing to take the time to help newbies like myself. I hope to repay at some point in the future to others. I will not be a stranger :-)
By the way, I am a "she" !!
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03/22/08 08:08pm
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#1673301
Greggecko
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Message To: Pemuteran In reference to Message Id: 1671741
Live Plant Care
Your certainly welcome and thank you too ... BTW, welcome to the Tokay Forum!...It’s always nice to get new posters to liven the forum and swap information with. I think your decision to go with live plants for your Viv is a good one that definitely adds another dimension to the hobby. There hasn’t been a whole lot of live vegetation discussion here lately but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t like too. I know we have at least 2 or 3 people that are very knowledgeable with live plants but usually post at forums that are dedicated to live plants for reptiles. I love getting a Viv going with live plants but have opted for the artificial plants in some of my enclosures. Here’s a link to one site with some pretty good info on herp plants, there are lots of sites and you likely already visited this one, but if you haven’t I hope you enjoy... http://www.anapsid.org/resources/plants2.html That’s cool that you lived in Indonesia, I’m living in the Philippines at the present and I am very interested in the different locality coloration patterns of the Tokay’s. Do you have any pictures of any from Indonesia? if not, maybe you could describe some of the patterns that you observed there. Thanks again and take care.
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03/23/08 09:19pm
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#1673454
Pemuteran
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Message To: Greggecko In reference to Message Id: 1673301
Live Plant Care
For me, plants can really make or break the surroundings- for animal or beast. Thank you so much for that site, I have bookmarked it to research some of those later. No, i hadn’t come across that one. What i did find on other sites though were 2 plants that I did not see listed on your site- Croton and wax flower. These are supposedly very hardy and friendly to climbing geckos. You are so lucky to have geckos and live there in the Philippines as you can go out into the wild and gather your own plants- kind of trial and error to see what works. Probably most of what you find will be fine, don’t you think? But then again, plastic always works well!!!
As far as the geckos i saw in Indonesia (none of which i photographed) there are only 3 different kinds that i came across. The Tokay, which looks exactly like the ones seen all over the web, the house gecko which they call a "cicak"- very abundant in all households. They are cute! Small, maybe 4" in length at most, light tan in colour and slender. They are little devils to watch, so clever. Even more fun to try and catch (they don’t bite). Then there was the skunk gecko or white-lined gecko that was also slender, darker in color, kind of light brown, and about 10" long. Very pretty- has a white stripe going down its back. Like the Tokay, i only saw them from a distance. I was told that they also bite and are very aggressive though not quite as aggressive as the Tokay.
What type of geckos do you keep? While researching the Tokays, I came across the many varieties of day geckos, from Madagascar. They seem pretty cool although they lack the vocalizations.
Bye for now... ;-)
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03/23/08 11:22pm
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