Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I used to breed a pair of Grandis Day Geckos I had, but I acquired them both as adults. Now I would like to get another pair, but prefer to get juveniles or babies. I want to put a young male and either one or two females together in a 2x2x3' terrarium. Will there be any problems when the geckos mature to breeding age, since they are "growing up together?" I assume there won't be.

Also, will there be any problems with having such young (small) geckos in such a large enclosure?

Will there be any problems with tank dominance? I know it's best to let the one of them establish his/her territory first, then introduce the other, but what about when they are introduced at the same time as juveniles?

I know community tanks usually are bad ideas, but what about a Grandis pair in a tank with small fish?

With as much food as these guys can gobble down, what is a good food source that is easy to maintain a colony of, and therefore a constant, renewing food source? I'd rather not deal with noisy ass crickets, but what about silkworms or superworms, or others?

Thanks!

In a fish magazine thye had a floating island in a tall aquarium and the island had 2 madagascan giant day geckos on it,with small danios and guppies swimming on the bottom of the aquarium.
-----
-The guy who posts messages(Kevin)

Tarentolas@hotmail.com
Geckos
1.1.0 Gekko gecko(Geico and Gekko)
2.1.0 Eublepharis macularius(Leo the male Blizzard and Cleo the normal female and Geo the snow/hi-yellow male)
2.0.0 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus(Gex the striped male and Bandit the banded male)
1.0.0 Tarentola mauritanica(Croc the light phase)
1.0.0 Hemidactylus turcicus(Med)
Other Lizards
0.1.0 Basiliscus basiliscus(Bassie)
1.0.0 Physignathus cocincinus(Louis)
0.1.0 Anolis carolinensis(Apple)
1.0.0 Chamaeleo calyptratus(Ace)
1.0.0 Iguana iguana(Rex)
Boidaes
1.0.0 Python regius(Lenny)
0.0.1 Boa constrictor imperator(Carl)
Turtle
0.1.0 Chrysemys picta(Painty)

Hi,

I put some of my grandis hatchlings into a 100g tank immediately after hatching. They do better and grow faster than in small enclosures. Thjere is no "too big". Nature is bigger.

You can raise them together, but more thahn 1,1 seldom works out. In most cases the inferior female is stressed to death by the dominant one.

Best is to introduce them togehter, but some fighting will always occur. Thats the case even after changing tanks for speciemens which have been living together for years.

Small fish will be eaten.

Grandis do not need much food. Most specimens are way too obese. 5-6 medium sized feeder insects per week are fully enough for egg producing adults. Anyhow, the easiest insects to breed are roaches. For grandis, I recommend Rhyparobia. These are prolific and thereby much softer than most roaches. Also they do climb more than their relatives and the grandis love them.

Hope that helps

Ingo

I agree that 1.1 is all you want for the larger phelsuma. The smaller phelsuma seem to do better in harums but this is due to the agressive male breeding behavior (e.g, guimbeaui). With teh larger phelsuma the female dominance is too great and eventually you will have problems. Very few 1.2 groups remain intact for life and I have never seen any bigger groups work out at all. I keep them 1.1 and have pairs that have been together for 10 years and more with no problems.

Regards,
John

Hi John,

maybe you find it interesting to hear that I do not select grandis for colour but for low agressivity. I´ve done that since 1984 and the result is that I keep a group of 1,3 together since 1997. The male hatched 1989 and both females 1996.
Last year this group produced 46 fertile eggs.
This year I finally disrupted the group since I have started to follow the wishes of themarket and select for high red. hence I am composing new groups. But since also the high red females are from my low agressivity bloodline, so far the new 1,2 seemas to work and I will ad another female once she is big enough.

Ci@o

Ingo

Hi Ingo,

I had a 1.2 group that I raised from hatchlings together. They were together for 5 years and laid 24 to 37 eggs per year. Then two years ago the bigger female just started tormenting the smaller one and I had to seperate them. Funny thing, since they have been seperated they have increased egg production. So they were probably a little stressed as a trio even though I didn't see the classic signs.

It's interesting that you were able to get 1.3 groups. How big of a tank did you use? I know that you can stop aggressive intaeractions if you "crowd" some species. That is put too many females in one tank and they stop fighting for territory because they would be fighting all day long. This is not to say they aren't stressed but merely overwhelmed. I don't think 1.3 would fit that scenario, however.

I also breed for high red. I often wonder if the higher red females are more agressive due to a more "male" look. If you are familar with leopard geckos, you can get a "hot" female. That is a female that hatches at a high temperature (were you would expect all males). She will be very aggressive and have much more masculine behavior. In fact, they often can't be bred by any other than the most aggressive male breeders. I wonder if the color pattern is linked to some steriod or other behavior linked genetic factor. I certainly have seen that the more colorful the female the more dominant she seems to be. Although the same is not always true of the males.

Regards,
John