Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all, i have had my largest tokay for 7 yrs she is a 15" giant and has laid eggs many times, well one of these eggs survived and turned out to be a female, they lived together for another 3 yrs, last yr i bought a new male and the 3 got on fine, then over the xmas period there was an increase in activity and lots of chasing one another.
As a result the smaller female was killed by the larger female, now this isnt the first time she has done this, when i first got her she killed a male tokay and has eaten another of her brood before i could intervene., so far the male gets on fine with her...as always, so i am a bit stmped.

my only thoughts are....

1- she is psychotic

2- the smaller one was ill?

3- its a territory thing although they are in a 3ft high 2 ft by 2 ft tank, with plenty of logs etc...

4- she has eggs and felt threatened.

any help people? many thanks

Im gonna go w/ 1... she's psychotic. Tokays are mean, but not that mean. Maybe a male, but... she's just psycho.

They're supposed to protect the eggs and their young. 3 yrs old is not young. I would have seperated the younger at 5 months...

I know your problem. Whereas most tokay female do tolerate any other tokay, some females can be very territorial and tolerate no other tokey with the exception of their mate. These females do start chasing their young once these have reached 6-8 months. Theres no choice but removing all babies at that age and never add any additionla Tokay specimens.
With the years I had two of such females.

Hope that helps

Ingo