Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired two baby cbb acanthurus monitors. I tried to achieve a 1.1 ratio, and with the physical characteristics of both lizards I can almost be a 100% sure that I do have a male and female pair. I have them now housed together in a 20L. They are still young born about a month ago. I received them Tuesday the 14th early morning, I observed them basking together and apparently getting along. They were provided a photo period of light till around 8 PM. They burrowed down and again reappeared after the lights came back on approximately 7 PM. After they warmed up with the basking, I then noticed the male "sniff" the female,(back and forth down her back as well as some tail shaking), I have not read this or it may have never been accounted for in behavior. I then noticed the male actually bite the female. He seems to "attack" the female, not always but at certain times. Is this normal behavior for newly introduced month old ackie hatchlings. The male was born on the 2nd and the female was born on the 1st both in September. Cage ambient temps are 80'F, Basking temperature variations from 90'F to 120'F depending on specific spot. Soil is kept humid and water kept clean and filled. I have not yet fed them, although I tried to feed meal worms last night to no avail. I will try crickets either later or tom. They are both quite active and seem to be doing fairly well. I am worried though about injuries if their behavior does not change.

Sorry for the long post and Thank you for your time and any help.
Any good acanthurus books that i should know about is also appreciated.

Behavior sounds pretty normal for socializing animals. You need to start offering food though. Skip the mealworms, offer crickets or roaches, and mice. We feed day old hatchlings thawed out crawlers and hoppers, we just chop them up when they are halfway thawed.

As for a book, we still have a couple copies of the Australian Goannas book, that is as close to an Ackie book as you are going to get. It has been out of print for years, we bought the last 200 copies years ago, I think we have 3-4 left. Get it while it lasts.

Get the Savannah book by Bennett. It covers modern monitor husbandry (the Goanna book really doesn't) and is very applicable to your Ackies. Also out of print now, but I have found a dozen new copies. Get it while it lasts.

As for the poster below that suggested that PE write a book on Ackies, no, that can't happen. I recently did an article on Ackies for Reptiles USA, on the street now I believe, but that is just a simple article.

We have hatched hundreds of Ackies at PE, and had lots of success, but also lots of failure. Writing a book is not only a huge time undertaking, but I would think you should be a TRUE expert to write a book.

Sure, Dopey McDopersons write reptile books all the time, 90% of the reptile books I have seen, including recent titles, are horrible, and I wish they didn't exist, because they only serve to confuse people or encourage outdated husbandry.

So, with PE being an "Ackie expert" what do we achieve? Well, we recently hatched two more clutches...

But we also recently lost a number of clutches. The incubator moisture levels were allowed to get too high, the eggs got too swollen, and all started bursting.

That is incubation 101. Dumb mistake, not easy to overlook. Embarassing. Frustrating. But what are you gonna do? Try to be better, try not to miss the small, yet incredibly important details.

That is just one example of setbacks that we see. There are others. You continually try to get better, and then someone makes a mistake that I wouldn't expect from a keeper with 6 months of experience.

Maybe Frank could write a book. I know he doesn't want to. And I don't know how he would organize all his tangented ideas and theories into a book, but all I could do is write a small contributing piece.

Sure, we have good success with Ackies, better than most, but who is the real expert? I don't know : )

(Good reptile books include those listed on our site, Savs by Bennett, Kevin and VPI's ball books, Klingenburg's Parasite book, there are a number of them, they are out there.)
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

I have just offered them crickets and the larger of the two readily ate, I have yet to witness the smaller one eat, but he did just come out of hiding and there are still crickets in the cage so I hope it eats. One question, what are your experiences when it came to introducing adult ackies for breeding purposes and also trying to form a group.

Thank you,

Hi

I'm not Robyn but I can offer some advice on this subject. Introducing adults that are not familiar with each other can work but may be more risky for lack of a better term. I have introduced adults and had them turn out to be some of my best breeders. On the other hand, I've also ended up with males that just don't pair up with any female and end up having to be housed by themselves.

Working with animals that have been raised together makes things easier on you since they have already established dominance and are familiar with each other.

Either way, the important thing is that there is no rule that applies. Each situation will have to be assessed as a one off.

Robyn is correct, in saying that there are a number of books that get published that make you wonder how they ever got published. My book (The Savannah Monitor) has received favorable response and we are happy that it has helped keepers.

Hope that helps.
--Ravi--

The Monitor Spot

Hey Ravi, you know, I am just being lazy in calling it the Sav book by Bennett. I should absolutely include you in that, and I will make more effort from now on : )

Speaking of the book, please email me any info on availability, everything I have heard is that it is out of print. We have sold hundreds of copies. It is going to be a great detriment not to have it available once my last few copies are gone.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles