Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have a male and female gecko in a large (25galon) tank.

i was first told to put lots of plants and moss, as these geckos supposidly come from a rainforest in Vietnam, so i did exactly that.

Then i was told they are actually more rock dwellers, from a savanah dry environment.

Can someone help me find the real deal on what these geckos need for a habitat: what kind of substrate ( I have both black sand(in a package) and forest mix), what light arrangements (is UV really needed?) and what to put in there?

i've searched and called and surfed and i still can't find a proper source of information on G.ulikovskii.

Please, anyone, help me out if you can
thanks

They seem do do best in a rainforest/tropical enviroment.
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Tarentolas@hotmail.com
groups.msn.com/KevinsReptiles
Geckos
1.1.0 Gekko gecko
1.1.0 Eublepharis macularius(ghost and normal)
2.0.0 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus(normal and striped)
1.0.0 Tarentola mauritanica
1.0.0 Hemidactylus turcicus
Other Lizards
0.1.0 Basiliscus vittaus
1.0.0 Physignathus cocincinus
0.1.0 Anolis carolinensis
1.0.0 Chamaeleo calyptratus calyptratus
1.0.0 Iguana iguana
Snakes
1.1.0 Python regius(Lenny and Elizabeth)
0.1.0 Boa constrictor imperator(Carl)
0.0.1 Opheodrys vernalis blanchardi
Turtles
0.1.0 Chrysemys picta bellii
Coming Soon!
1.1.0 Elaphe guttata guttata
0.0.1 Lampropeltis triangulum campbelli

According to Darevski and Orlov (1994)* the holotype and all paratypes were collected in rocky habitats at the border between Rainforest and Savannah like vegetation.
Since then nothing has been published on the natural habitat of this gecko and the importers do not give us much information either.
Thousends have been imported in the last years and most, if not all of these were kept under "standard" rainforest conditions -and very few keepers had breeding success.
I think, that already suggests that their true needs are slightly different.
Not to say that they don´t stay healthy in such a setup.
But considering their very close relationship to Gekko petricolus and having in mind, what Darevski and Orlov* report, I´d suggest (and I do it myself) to keep them very similar to that species.
That means fake rock walls in the cage with overhanging rock shelters and vining plants covering the walls. You may add branches and the like, but the geckos will under that conditions almost exclusively spend their time hanging on the walls and under the shelters and they will glue their eggs quite likely onto wall areas underneath the leaves of the vines.
To stay close to their natural habitat, I´d go for imitations of sandstone, which are easy to construct.
They seem to dislike rouggher rock structures
In summertime, its quite humid in their homerange. Hence I´d mist once or twice a day. In winter, there is a significantly dryer and cooler period, which I would try to imitate.
Thats my 2 cts

Ingo

*

Darevsky, I.S. & Orlov, N.L. (1994) Eine bemerkenswerte neue, großwüchsige Art der Gattung Gekko: Gekko ulikovskii sp. nov. aus Zentralvietnam. Salamandra, 30(1): 71-75.

Hey man, thanx. I cant thank you enough. I will aply what youve said, but first tell me, you mentionned you have golden geckos??

How are they dooing?

Do you have males and females?
Do they mate?

And is it easy for you to feed them, do they eat much.

I my the criquets simply hide in the tree bark and they are never eaten.

Im speechless, any additional information you could give would never be too much.
Thanx a million.

Hi,

ist extrmely difficult to find females here.
Hence I had a lonely male for quite some time.
Some months ago I have aquired a captive bred yearling.
I am still not sure, whether this will turn out to be a female, but I keep my fingers cross.
I mainly feed raoch nymphs (Blaberus, Blaptica, Rhyparobia) of apt size, Zophobas, Locusts and crickets.
Occasionally I give honey enriched with Ca citrate and vitamines.
I always give bird grit and dust all feeder items with a mixture of Ca-citrate and a local (german) mineral/vitmaine dust)
The goldens are rather secretive feeders and do not need a lot to stay in good condition.
4-6 feeder items a week keep them well fed.
So do not wqorry, if you don´t see them feed.
In general its not easy to find females of many species of the genus Gekko.
From this genus I do regularily breed marbled geckos (G. grossmanni), Tokays (G. gecko) and Gekko monarchus.
I am still looking for females of goldens (G. ulikovskii) and Green eyed geckos (G. siamensis).
Also I do only have two females of G. vittatus these days, so also no breeding there.

Best regards

Ingo

You can find female goldens from a petshop, you ask the clerk to order them, or is that a terrible idea.
I got my female this way, after caring for my male Ulikovskii for a few months( He needed something to brighten him up; i have never seen him in better shape! ).

They get along, althought i've noticied that after a few days of sharing the same hiding quarters all day, they now tend to take to different hiding nests.

Is that a sign of something??
My night time temperature doesnt exceed 26 celsius with my 50W night glo. Should i get something better?

thanx.

Hope you find a female golden soon.

I went to buy a female tokay and yes they are hard to find lol..................they had over ten tokays and I took the only female.

Why are they so hard to find?
-----

Tarentolas@hotmail.com
groups.msn.com/KevinsReptiles
Geckos
1.1.0 Gekko gecko
1.1.0 Eublepharis macularius(ghost and normal)
2.0.0 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus(normal and striped)
1.0.0 Tarentola mauritanica
1.0.0 Hemidactylus turcicus
Other Lizards
0.1.0 Basiliscus vittaus
1.0.0 Physignathus cocincinus
0.1.0 Anolis carolinensis
1.0.0 Chamaeleo calyptratus calyptratus
1.0.0 Iguana iguana
Snakes
1.1.0 Python regius(Lenny and Elizabeth)
0.1.0 Boa constrictor imperator(Carl)
0.0.1 Opheodrys vernalis blanchardi
Turtles
0.1.0 Chrysemys picta bellii
Coming Soon!
1.1.0 Elaphe guttata guttata
0.0.1 Lampropeltis triangulum campbelli

I wonder if sex is determined by temperature as in Leos and AFT's where you can manipulate the hatchlings sex by the temp you incubate it at. I've tried to find this out on Tokays but have had no luck, not alot of info out there. If this is so it could be a reason for more males seeing they live in a warm environment and don't bury their eggs underground where it would be cooler and produce more females. I havent had much luck expermenting with this idea seeing the Tokays glure their eggs making them more difficult to remove and incubate at diff temps.
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My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.15 Tokays
1.4.10 Leos(13 albino)
1.2.0 AFT's(amel male)
0.2.0 Stenodactylus Petrii(Dune Geckos)

The reason is much easier.
In the wild, females of the genus Gekko are much more secretive and even if the population is like 50/50, often only males are called.
At least her in germany, for WC Tokehs the ratio is like 7/1, for marbleds like 9/1 and forulikovskiis like 20/1.
So its hard to get females.

Odf course there is TDSD in the genus Gekko, but upon breeding its easy to get both sexes in good ratios.
But tostart with it, yxou need a female.
And at least her thats not easy, especially for goldens

thanks for shedding some light. Just wanted to be sure I understood you correct. are you saying that in Gekko species, I'm most interested in Tokays, that sex can be determined by temperature? Sorry I've never seen TDSD before and take as Temp. Determined Sex ....., Dont laugh if I'm way wrong. thanx, this is something I'd really like to know.
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My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.15 Tokays
1.4.10 Leos(13 albino)
1.2.0 AFT's(amel male)
0.2.0 Stenodactylus Petrii(Dune Geckos)

Thanx, i appreciate it.

I have problems feeding them. Every body tells me to let 10 crikets every other day in, and see how much are left.

I would never dare do that, as the criquets simply crawl under the woodchucks and wait till im not looking to crawl out and potentially stress my geckos. besides, i dont have the feeling they are eating at all.

whats the best way to go about getting them to eat normally. a pet shop clerk told me to use a round bowl so to keep the crikets enclosed, but that just left me with the same amount of criquets in the morning.

help, anyone?

thanx