I put 32 adult mourning geckos into this tank. The next morning, 24 were left.
Video · 6 min watchWritten by Brian
This follows my earlier review of the Thrive Crescent Vertical Terrarium. I had already gone through its pros, how good it looks, and its cons, the background and the lid. After that, I set the tank up as a display cage and moved my entire mourning gecko colony into it: 32 adult breeders. The next day I found a serious problem.
What happened
When I came into work the next morning, an adult mourning gecko was sitting on the outside of the glass. At first I assumed one had jumped out while I was moving them in. Then I saw a couple of small tails hanging down at the top, on the outside of the glass, and realised they were getting out of the cage.
The gap
Above where the glass door sits there is a crevice, and when the door is closed the crevice is wider than the glass. The geckos climb up into it, go around the top edge of the glass and come back down the outside. I didn't notice the gap when I set the tank up, and I didn't realise it was big enough for them.
The count
I took every gecko out that morning and put them in a deli cup. Of the 32 I put in, 24 were left, and one of those was the gecko on the outside of the glass. So 9 escaped overnight.
I searched the facility. I found two under the cage, where there was a gap underneath it, one on a nearby wall, and one behind a folding table leaned against the wall. With the one on the glass, I have found five. Four are still loose. I expect I will find one or two stuck to a wall or the back of a crested gecko cage, and I may never see the others.
My advice
This is a big red flag. Do not use this tank for small animals. I would not risk anything shorter than about 10 cm (4 in), or anything smaller than a half-grown crested gecko. I would not be surprised if a hatchling green tree python or Amazon tree boa could wiggle out too. It is a good cage for bigger geckos. For anything small, stay away from it, or at the very least use it with caution.