Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i couldnt find a specific forum for this species, but i figured their requirements are really close to the anoles....

i'm considering getting 3 of these. do they eat crickets just like the anoles do? they dont seem to be as agressive as eaters as the anoles are.

rachel
In Depth Information On Common Aquatic Frogs

Hi, Rachel:

>>i'm considering getting 3 of these. do they eat crickets just like the anoles do? they dont seem to be as agressive as eaters as the anoles are.

Yes, Long Tail Grass lizards do eat crickets like Anoles. But they are just as aggressive eaters as Anoles are, if not more so, since they tend to spend all of their time at the bottom of their tank, whereas Anoles like to stay at some point above the ground in their tank and when you put those live cricket(s) in the tank to feed them the crickets will at least at first be running along the bottom of the tank right where the Long Tail Grass lizards like to hang out and then WHAM! Another one bites the dust!

Not that you said whether you're going to put the Long Tails in their own tank, but you should definitely consider doing that if you haven't already decided to do that. The reason I say that is because I tried to put a few Long Tail Grass lizards in my tank along with just a single Anole and well...it didn't work out well for the Long Tails. Although in my case I really didn't have a big enough tank either for as many lizards as I *thought*
I could put in my tank which only made it worse for all of the lizards in my tank. I, and my Long Tails, learned the hard way.

The common concensus amoung successful long-time Anole/Herp keepers (of which I am *not* one - I'm just offering my own personal recent first hand experience in the event that you have the same "human" idea *I* did) is that there should be at least 10 gallons of space for each and every lizard in a tank. Otherwise lizards will feel crowded which will cause them to feel stressed out and that can be very bad for lizards living in a captive environment since they cannot run off as they could do if they were living in the wild.

Hope that helps. Peace.

E-mail: LizardKing@TechWarrior.Net
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Shark~King

thank you for your reply

i do plan on keeping them in a species only tank, 3 of them in a 30 gallon long tank. i have never been a fan of mixing species, i've kept all types of herps for years, so i'm no stranger to the hobby, just this species so it looks like i've had a good set up in mind. i didnt know they were mostly ground dwellers though, thats neat. my friend has one, and it is always in the plants and near the top...but it lives with 3 female anoles, so maybe thats why...haha

i'm going to set their tank up this weekend, and bring them home monday! thanks

rachel
In Depth Information On Common Aquatic Frogs

"The reason I say that is because I tried to put a few Long Tail Grass lizards in my tank along with just a single Anole and well...it didn't work out well for the Long Tails."

I would be interested in hearing more about this...considering all the questions, on this an other boards, about mixing these two species.

I suspect that anoles can really stress long-tails...people are always worried about the anoles in these arrangements..

SharkKing wrote:

>>"The reason I say that is because I tried to put a few Long Tail Grass lizards in my tank along with just a single Anole and well...it didn't work out well for the Long Tails."

PDXAnole wrote:

>>I would be interested in hearing more about this...considering all the questions, on this an other boards, about mixing these two species.
>>I suspect that anoles can really stress long-tails...people are always worried about the anoles in these arrangements..

Not much I can tell you I'm afraid other than my LTs died. But it really isn't hard to figure out some of these species of lizards. I mean Long Tail Grass Lizards is a name that is pretty self-explanatory. They have long tails and they tend to spend a lot of time in probably tall grass. That would be at a much lower height than Anoles who have and use the ability to run and stick themselves right along the inside walls and inside top of your tank. (In fact in looking through all of the messages posted here in the current collection someone actually posted a colour phto of their Anoles breeding upside down hanging upside down from the inside top of their tank. I sent them a reply to inquire if perhaps it wasn't a case of Anole see, Anole do! )
Long Tails don't walk along the walls of your tank much less hang from the inside top of your tank. At most they climb out onto a branch or limb in your tank to bask alongside your Anole. Even the colouring of the Long Tail suggests that their dark brownish colouring is to help provide them with some camouflage in a brown or darker less green area in the wild whereas with the Green Anole it's obvious they would have that colour ability to provide them some camouflage in a greener area in the wild like treee branches with a lot of live green leaves. Harder to spot helps improve one's odds of surviving a whole lot.
I did have the experience that LTs will drop their tail even if you so much as slightly come in contact with it. And 2 of my LTs were doing perfectly fine and then the next morning the last one was dead. I had three.
One died within days of my getting them at the local pet store. That's to be expected. Animals don't survive the trip to the pet store very well. The second to die looked older and isolated a lot just by himself laying along the bottom of the tank. For a day or two I watched him concerned that he didn't look well. Next morning he was dead. The last one seemed to be doing okay but then one day he looked lethargic. Not looking especially interested at feeding time. Not moving around very much. I thought maybe it was because the other two LTs were no longer in the tank with him but I don't think so. I think now it had more to do with like the long-time herpers say that's it's best to keep each species in their own tank. That can help one focus one's concentration on them when their in their own tank like that without being distracted by the acitvities of other lizards in the tank. Hope that helps. Peace.

E-mail: LizardKing@TechWarrior.Net
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Shark~King

This is very similar to many other accounts I've heard regarding problems with Long-Tails in Anole tanks...they just seem to end up dead at a rate that's otherwise hard to explain. An Anole set-up is clearly not exactly correct for Long-Tails, and I suspect that Anoles cause them a great deal of stress. It occurs to me that Anoles may also be a disease vector...some bug that LTGL's can't cope with.

It would be interesting to hear from someone on this matter who is an expert on LTGLs. I would like to have some concrete things to tell people who are hell-bent on mixing these species.

>>This is very similar to many other accounts I've heard regarding problems with Long-Tails in Anole tanks...they just seem to end up dead at a rate that's otherwise hard to explain.

An Anole set-up is clearly not exactly correct for Long-Tails, and I suspect that Anoles cause them a great deal of stress. It occurs to me that Anoles may also be a disease vector...some bug that LTGL's can't cope with.

Well it's really only natural if you think about it. Very few
species of animals in their natural environment live together.
Some may co-exist in the same general area but each will almost
always stick to their own area with that "shared" area. To try
to make an animal(s) live some way that is not natural for them
is simply wrong. Peace.
Lizard~King

E-mail: LizardKing@TechWarrior.Net

>>It would be interesting to hear from someone on this matter who is an expert on LTGLs. I would like to have some concrete things to tell people who are hell-bent on mixing these species.

PDXAnole,

Simple. DON'T DO IT! Get em a seperate tank. Peace.

Lizard~King

E-mail: LizardKing@TechWarrior.Net
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Shark~King

" Well it's really only natural if you think about it. Very few
species of animals in their natural environment live together.
Some may co-exist in the same general area but each will almost
always stick to their own area with that "shared" area. To try
to make an animal(s) live some way that is not natural for them
is simply wrong. Peace."

You are, of course, preaching to the choir here. As I'm sure you know, many people will not listen to these general, philosphical arguments. It would be nice to have VERY specific arguments against mixing these PARTICULAR species, since it is so widely believed that these two species can co-habitate with no problems.