Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am planning on purchasing many geckos to fill up my awesome 50 gallon enclosure. It is one of those aquariums especially manufactured for reptiles so it is longer rather than taller. I have read that 1 gecko per 10 gallons is a good rule of thumb but I have also seen 3 geckos in a 20 gallon aquarium is ok as well. I have read so much about the harem system and how one male can be placed with up to 10 females. If he were placed with that many would that imply a 110 gallon tank? That seems a bit excessive. Basically, what I want to know is what is the largest amount of geckos that would comfortabley fit inside the enclosure, assuming that there are plenty of hiding spots etc. I was thinking of around 6 (1 male 5 females). Input is much appreciated.

the simple math 10 gallons/gecko seems fine til you have two females that fight with eachother and nip at eachother's tails. Don't be fooled by caresheets that say that multiple females will be fine with eachother, this is often not the case.

If you want a display gecko, maybe leopards aren't for you. They're neat creatures, but deserve plenty of invididual attention.

Hope this helps your decision.

I would definatly not put more than six in there. I have 2 in mine, I couldn't imagine haveing more than 6 comfortably.
GECKO! CORE!!!

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5.10 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Pictus Gecko
0.1 Mali Uromastix

My trios are kept in 38 qt sterlite enclosure. Clear plastic...Space is about the same as a normal 30 gallon aquarium. The more space you have the less each gecko requires in terms of its own personal area. 10 gallons per gecko is for if you have a number of 10 gallon tanks sitting around. When you get up to the floorspace of something like a 3 ft tall.. 5 long (Just a random guess on what size that 50 would be. I have 50 breeders that are 3.5 ft tall and 4 ft long that I could comfortably see at least 7-10 in with no problem as long as there were hides and proper scaping down within the enclosure. They live in limited areas within the wild. They don't travel as far as people seem to think. Only the males do in seeking out territories. Given a territory with plenty of food and no competition for the females, they will stay in an area probably less than 40 square ft. Yes, smaller than an enclosure but still a very tiny area for a lizard. Its getting the right group together to live in something like that. Some females can be bullies.. but making sure there are multiple feeding stations, double the hides one would normally use and maybe even creating a second level for them in something tall enough wouldn't go amiss. Giving each enough space that they can be alone should they choose which means at least 14-20 areas for hiding.. not necessarily hide boxes but areas provided like crevices or a water dish with a false bottom they can get into.. corkboard attached to the walls that they can get in between it and the glass.. doing it right would make it an excellent project. Doing it wrong would make it a miseralbe failure.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)