Cohabing a Pink Tongue Skink and Crested Gecko

[Aztec4mia]

I've looked at other topics. This one is by far the most interesting I have found, and it isn't horribly expensive by comparison to the cheaper options. It will run me around $600 a price I am more than willing and able to pay. I do care about the animals of course. I wouldn't base my capstone about reptiles if I didn't care about them. A capstone is a big project, and if I want to make it good I can't just make a vivarium, or anything else with my snake. She is far from breeding age, and buying more ball pythons for breeding purposes would be cheaper, but also significantly harder, and I'm just not as interested in it. The cage will be a little smaller than planned at 36x 18x 24x, but I'm going to have more than enough objects and plants for the crested gecko to hide in if it ever feels threatened. And yes of course for the pink tongue skink too(My experience makes it hard for me to believe that you can keep the temp low enough and the humidity high enough to reasonably accommodate both species using an external heat source, maybe if you added the heat lamp inside focusing on one narrow basking spot, but them you would have to worry about the gecko climbing on a hot lamp cage when lights go out.). I haven't ever owned any of these species, but after hours of research I couldn't find one post to suggest they would show aggression to a crested gecko(I would imagine that the people who have done this likely have experience/kept one or both species, how would you know what to look for when you don't know how each species acts alone?.). There have been multiple people that simultaneously breed the species in a cage together without any problem. I cannot find a single person that has actually owned these reptiles in the same cage and had any problems. I know it sounds like a bad idea, but in practice it works well. Either failed attempts aren't posted, or I can't manage to find them(that's a no brainer, trying something that is usually shunned in the hobby and failed at it, I doubt they will be posting the negative results for the world to see.). If my tone comes off as aggressive it's not supposed to be(It is not, it sounds like you are eager to learn, i'm just not sure what it is with this project. Right now it sounds like "lets see if I can keep two animals together from different continents and hope they don't die). I'm hoping to have every thing ready by the end of November this year, and I'll be making another post(yes for more attention) documenting the process online, and how everything goes. Thank you for your responses because I did take them into consideration with this project. I made sure to do plenty of research before hand. And the learning point of this project is to learn how to keep these reptiles happy and healthy in one cage while also maintaining a vivarium with everything inside of it. I forgot to mention that and a few other things so I'm just adding them at the bottom.Their temps and humidity levels aren't far off from each other. There is a potential problem in the heat lamp, but I'm hoping I can reach that basking temps with uvb bulbs in certain locations while the crested gecko can get far away from it. Worst case scenario is the uvb lights are too hot. I can prop up the uvb bulbs to ensure they keep the plants alive, but without the heat covering the whole cage. And then I will have a single small basking spot for the skink on the opposite end of the gecko's side.

In closing, I think some better(not more) research before hand would be more ideal. try keeping them separate first and note any differences when you put them together. You said you do not want two cages, what happens if you get a "bad apple" for either species and they don't get along, how will you separate them? How will that effect your project? because right now it does not sound like you have prepared for a negative outcome for such an important project. If you are interested in what is best for the animals, you have to know what it is like to keep them alone before you can try to co-habituate and you can not get that by reading a bunch online, at the very least I would actually talk(actual phone call) to someone with experience in doing this. Just my observations, hope all goes according to plan.