Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today I received a full grown 2 year old male leo from a customer at my store.

He was housed in a 55G with 2 other males and a female. Well, to make a long story short, he caused many problems for the other males, including lost tails and one lost leg on another.

Anyway, I have 2 Leo Females, both about 8" and 17 months old, and a 9" AFT in a 30 gallon long. Anyway, I put the male with the females and he mades his way about the tank, checking everything out. Everytime he approached a female, he would rapidly twitch his tail and lick the head of the female.

On the last pass, he picked out a female climbed over her and then got behind her. Wiggled his tail some more, then bit the very tip of her tail... She turns around and bites him on the neck.

Is he going to be no good as a breeder? He just seems to damn aggressive to be included in my collection. Are there any hopes for him as I'd like this to be a Harem? The last thing I need is for him to kill my 3 big females.

Was this male housed with other males? Cuz ALL males will be aggressive to other males. Its a given that you CANNOT house males together.

he didn't house him with other males, one of his customers had housed him with males, causing all the aggression etc.
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1.2.0 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

Snark,

That's obvious. Unfortunately, some people don't understand. She brought me in 3 males, 1 female, and a golden gecko. All housed in a 10 gallon... I took the largest male. My manager took the mangled male and the male and female are now left alone.

This big male seems to be super aggressive. He does nothing but tail wag at my females and then either bites their tail or stand on all fours...

i mean i guess the only thing you can do is separate him from the others
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1.2.0 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

sounds like he;s just not experinced jet ,how long have you had them in for
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pipatic.tripod.com/carrotaildreams

He's been in there now for just under an hour. I've been keeping a close eye on him just incase he got a little too aggressive.

One female seems to be taking to him, but I still dont' trust him so I'm always pulling up whichever hide he sneaks into and starts to wag his tail.

I plan on taking him out tonight so I don't have problems while I sleep, but I'm going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully, it's a different outcome.

best to do that if only for your peace of mind,but i ed give it say 2-3 days try again,as you poss know there quiet argresive in mating,
almost cave man like lol
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pipatic.tripod.com/carrotaildreams

I know exactly what you're talking about...

Although, the last time I saw something aggressive was what I believe was a savannah monitor (on TV, couldn't tell and Irwin sounded confused). The male literally clamped down on the neck of the female, was extreme...... Hope the male takes to the females... Would hate to get rid of him, I'll post pictures later because he is very very light in color... Interesting to me...

I am sorry to budge into this thread, but i would take the male out for the night like you are doing so. Then even try to keep him out for about a week? So maybe he will settle down some. He maybe one of those males that can be with the female for a little while then after they mate you take him out. If he has a great color ( light) then i would try to breed him next year, By then he would hopefully cool his temper. I dont know if this is true or not but the older a leo gets the harder it is to change his ways- as it is said - Cant teach an old dog new tricks
I would take him out of the tank and let him have his own for a while..

TLC- that is just what i think

>On the last pass, he picked out a female climbed over her and
>then got behind her. Wiggled his tail some more, then bit the
>very tip of her tail... She turns around and bites him on the
>neck.

From everything I know and have heard, this is normal. Unless his behavior is more violent than what your description makes it sound.

It's normal for them to bite at each other - now, if they start leaving marks, drawing blood, leaving skin hanging, etc., well.. That's bad.

ALSO, you've mentioned a couple of times about how you're picking up the hide right after he goes in, wagging his tail. If you keep doing that, you're going to keep interrupting his putting his "moves" on her.
Just think - if you've got a date over, and you keep trying to put the moves on them, but then your parents keep walking in to check on you, are you ever going to DO anything? (Most people here will probably answer "no"...

I've watched some of mine breed.. The males start wagging their tails, and then they tap their tails really fast (it's really startling if it happens at midnight and you've never heard it before lol)... Tapping their tails shows that they're interested in breeding with the female.

~~Dusty Windom
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

This is VERY normal...no need to panic of take the male out
its a normal mating "ritual" the male rapidly vibrates his tail because thats how they sometimes tell eachother apart, if 2 males are house together..one male will vibrate his tail, and then the other will,then they fight, its normal, he does that to figure out what she is, the tail biting is courtship after about 3 1/2 minutes of this..if the female accepts him he'll bite his way up to her neck and then breed with her

SO its all very normal

Just a couple of comments, helpful advice, take it or leave it......

1) First thing, you really shouldn't be keeping Leopard geckos and AFT's housed together.

2) The animal is likely stressed about his new environment, lifting the hide every time he goes in isn't helping.

3) And most important, you should be more concerned about what you have just exposed your females to, not whether they will breed. By not keeping the new male quarantined, you have put your current geckos at risk. Any parasites or diseases the new gecko may have had are now a risk to your current geckos. It is obvious that the customer had no idea what he was doing by keeping the males housed together, so i have to wonder what type of husbandry he practiced, my guess would be it wasn't very good, I hope you haven't just infected all of your geckos.
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Sam
Gecko Den
Email Me

Leos and AFT's have different husbandry needs...they shouldn't be kept together.

I would recommend removing the male from the tank ASAP! Quarantining is very important to protect your current animals...especially when a new animal comes from a questionable source... You need to remove him and keep him separate for AT LEAST a month...3 is best Some diseases they may have can have an incubation period of over 2 months...so he could have a deadly disease and just not be showing symptoms yet. As far as his behavior with the females...it sounds like normal mating behavior to me...although I've only seen it a couple of times.
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

-ignorance is not to be punished when one is trying to gain knowledge...what scares me is the vast number of people who, when given the information to gain knowledge, choose to ignore it.

He was removed and is now residing by himself in a 20 gallon long.

As for the AFT, the only reason she is with the Leo's is because I temporarily ran out of room for tanks and setups. I decided to sacrifice the AFT's spot for a Carpet Python grow out tank. She will be back by herself in the next month or so, the carpet has a nice new Vision waiting for her.

Now if only I could convince the folks to let me move all my reps and myself into the basement.. It could lend to endless possibilities.