What should I fill these tanks with?

[hhw]

Well, I've been hunting around the basement and garage trying to find all my old herp stuff. I've decided I'm more than adequately equipped to handle a few more herps. I have never successfully bred herps (just some boring old crayfish, lol) and I am considering the following as breeding projects:

-Spanish ribbed newts (this species just because they're for sale in the local classified's at a reasonable price)
-Crested geckos
-Corn snakes

The breeding enclosure(s) would either be a 20 gallon tank, 1 of 2 105 quart sterilite containers, or a combination of the above. I have heatpads, thermometers, and lamps (regular incandescent, halogen, and infrared) already. I also have a 10 gallon tank with screen top I can house offspring in; there's also a store nearby that has sterilite containers on sale, lol.

If anyone would like to recommend any of the above, please post and explain why they would make good breeder animals. Basically, the criteria I'm looking for most are:

-Not overly expensive to purchase a breeding pair ($300USD max)
-Easy to keep/low maintenance
-Can be kept together even when not breeding
-Easy to breed
-Reasonably high in demand so I can find homes for any babies I produce

I'm not looking to get too fancy here. I'm also in no hurry as there's a reptile show in less than a month which may be the ideal place to pick up my breeding animals.

[JamminJonah]

Well- from a business standpoint - I would go with Crested Geckos and here's why - the corn market is a nice one but it seems a bit flooded right now. I really don't know a lot about newts so I really can't give advice there- but as far as cresteds go here's why:
1. they are pretty darn easy to maintain as far as I have read/ heard
2. They have incredible "cute factor" going so they aren't a hard sell
3. I personally know a crested breeder who just increased his breeding stock from 10 to 60 just to meet demand in the Nashville area. I personally think Cresteds are a great species- cute, handleable, relatively easy husbandry in relation to other geckos, and popular at the moment. Plus who wouldn't want a bunch of those cuties around? I don't know how difficult they are to breed - I do know that a good CB pair could run you some decent bucks but I'm pretty positive it's under 300

[hhw]

A local breeder has 4 (1.3) Crested geckos, including light and enclosure for $350CDN which according to xe.com is $259.528 USD, which is the reason I lised them in the first place ;P

I'm just a little worried about their fruit eating habits; I remember taking care of an iguana for a friend once and there was EXTENSIVE food preparation for its vegetables on a daily basis (involving lots of chopping and cuisinarts).

[MJ]

Cresteds are great and fairly easy to care for. If your house is a comfortable temperature or you just have a warmer room in the house then you don't even need a heating system. I have a bedroom that stays around 82 degrees during the day and then in the 70s during the night and that's all my crested needs. They don't do temps over 85. A few mists a day for moderate humidity, big leafy plants, some crickets and baby food and they're happy campers. And totally cute

[The_Godfather]

Cresties, because they are just so awesome.

[JLC]

Gotta go with the cresties, too! I'm looking forward to having some myself sometime this year. As for food prep...things are easier than ever. They have a commercial gecko-food that they can do well on. Crix aren't that difficult to do, but if I understand right, are not a necessity. And you can use baby-food to give them their fruit. If you do feel like you need to chop fresh fruits and veggies, you can prepare a few days' worth at a time and keep it in the fridge. (That's what I do for my beardie...just grab a handful for him each morning. )

[hhw]

Well, I guess the recommendations are pretty unanimous making it an easy choice, =)

I already e-mailed the breeder I was going to buy them from about some of his other animals, and I'll wait for him to reply before I tell him I want his cresties!!!

[JamminJonah]

Oh yeah I totally forgot about that- most breeders I have read about and the one breeder I have talked to (mentioned above) feed exclusively commercial Crested Gecko diet, though they often start with gargoyle diet when the cresteds are young - my guess is that it has either higher protein or calcium. Judy is right commercial crestie diet is good- also Marla knows a TON on cresteds. In fact she has her own little community!

[Marla]

LOL thanks for the recommend, Jonah! The gargoyle gecko diet is higher in protein, and that is exactly why it's often better to start with that, because the cresteds tend to eat more bugs as babies and increase fruit intake as they grow in the wild.

[JamminJonah]

oh and also- I learned this caring for my sugar gliders - as far as fruit prep goes I used to buy just tons of whatever fruit was on sale (and of course acceptable for their dietary needs) and chop it up into little pieces and freeze it in a big zip lock then whenever I fed them fruit I would just chip out a spoonful and toss it in their dish - and of course clean the dishes each day because obviously old fruit is not desireable in open air haha. Yeah it took a lot of time to chop up all that fruit but in the end it was WAY easier and WAY more convenient than doing it daily - I had to do it like once every two weeks or so - easy way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.