Since it HAS been a while, I feel I need to organize my thoughts and experiences, so to begin, I'll give some status updates.
Rocza
He's doing well in terms of health, so far as I can see. He's noticeably bigger than when I first got him and from what I sometimes hear at night and by the droppings left strewn around his tank, he's not shying away from exploring his habitat.
Still, though, he doesn't much like being handled yet. In all fairness, the times I have handled him involved putting him in his carrying tank to clean out his habitat, so it was probably pretty stressful. I've been interacting with him when I see he's awake, so hopefully, I'll one day be able to get him out of his shell, metaphorically speaking, because he's a gecko, not a turtle.
I fed him some crickets yesterday while I had some company over, and he's just as vicious to them as he used to be (not sure if I logged this, but I had tried giving him crickets a week ago and he didn't so much as taste it). He's also going through about 1/4 teaspoon of Repashy a night, so I'm really not worried about his diet.
And lastly, I think he's molted again, and happily, his orange colour isn't dulling! I'm fairly psyched about this. Since I started looking around online, I haven't really seen many other orange harlequins, so I guess he's something of a special little guy.
Natural Habitats
I've been looking into ways of turning my future habitat into a natural one. Or, as natural as I can. What I'm worried about though is cleaning. I don't really know how i would clean out a terrarium without having to replant the fauna each time. I figure that if I find a way to compartmentalize the substrate, I could get by this problem by being able to leave the plants rooted while cleaning out the rest of the tank. I'd have to look into this a bit more before getting a decent idea.
I also thought about stacking some rocks and branches and filling in the crevices with substrate instead, but this idea leaves me nervous about weight issues. I've seen some really nice foam-based waterfalls on YouTube (that I will post a link to presently), and that principal could really be used to make some custom backdrops, and maybe even some designated planting zones with adequate drainage. I'm even trying to think about ways to incorporate natural elements like wood and stone into the foam construction to create a hybrid natural/artificial backdrop and base combo.
I should probably draw some sketches. bitches love sketches, and so do I. While I contemplate that, boom, video. The narrator and I assume creator has what I think is so far the best YouTube review/how-to voice so far. Kind of like a Southern Jeff Goldblum. Or not. The video is put up by Lizard Landscapes. I'll definitely be looking into these guys.
I also saw the first desert habitat that blew my mind. This guy made a sort of "Temple of Doom" look with a human skull as the entrance to a burrow that had a red heat lamp behind it. Sounds cheesy but it looked super cool. I'll try to find the link and post it as well. It kind of renewed my hope of getting a bearded dragon, or maybe a leopard gecko.
Now in terms of plants, I've been told pothos are great, and I'm definitely noticin Rocza favouring his amapallo over either of his croton. I'd love to get some of Exo-Terra's big, broad-leaf plants for the sterile setup, but they're just too big for my current habitat. I'd also like to add a splash of colour. I will definitely do a little digging (haha, pun) into some live plant species that I could use. Maybe stop by one of the local nurseries. I know the daughter of the owner of Harvest, maybe I'll stop in and say "hi".
Oh, and one more video. Boom.
Future Pets
Well, I've been watching Oasis HD some more. I found this awesome doc on monitor lizards. I guess they're some of the most intelligent lizards out there. They showed this amazing dragon at the London Zoo that would actually let his handler pet him and rub him. He jsut showed no signs of hostility. If I had to compare it to something, it looked liek a big scaly dog. Now don't get me wrong, I know Komodo dragons are not pets, but there are smaller monitors out there.
Not only do I find them really cool to look at, the also climb, swim, dig, and actively hunt for food rather than waiting for it to come by. All in all, they just look like a cool pet to have. Definitely something I'm considering for a the distant future (like when I have a really large amount of space to dedicate to it).
Also looking into what I want to put in my current tank once I have my new one to contend with, and though I would love some tree frogs or poison dart frogs, I also have to take into account what my current cohabitants will allow in the house. So, I'm thinking a day gecko. Not only are they diurnal, they live in very similar habitats to my cresty. They're also really nicely coloured. So far though, they're pretty hard to find around here, from what I can tell.
Miscellaneous
So I've been contemplating my future from time to time and I'm really feeling that I'd be much happier goign for something related to the environment over video game design. The same college I was planning on attending offers an environmental technician course. I think I might shift over to that.
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Well, I think I'll call it for now, but I will come back tomorrow with a product review, the promised pictures of Rocza's current habitat, and maybe even some research into further tank-scaping techniques I might look into.
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