Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i want to get my baby leo a friend. i have him in a 20 gallon long tank.i herd i can put 2 leos in a 20 gallon long tank.but i dont want to end up with 2 males that fight.how can i tell if my baby is a boy or a girl?

First, how old is that baby? How old is the leo you're thinking of making its roommate?

If the roommate is an adult: Never put an adult & a baby together - the baby usually ends up being bullied out of the food. Even if they look cute, and the baby "curls up" with the adult, it's not a good idea because it's actually a bit scary for the baby, since the adult could possibly eat it at any moment, or since the adult is the one who's going to eat all the food. Most babies will be too scared to eat. I'm not lecturing here - I'm giving you my own personal experience. I did this once and ended up losing the baby because I didn't know any better.

2nd - you can't really sex babies. You won't be able to sex a leo until it's about 2-4 months old (I can't remember exactly which at the moment). It's okay to put a couple-few babies together. They don't quite have their "gender identity" yet. The only way to have some idea of what the gender will be is to know what temperature they were sexed at. Sometimes, eggs are T.S. (Temperature Sexed) for male or female. But, even when they are, it's not always 100% that that's what you're going to get.

3rd - a 20 gallon is really WAY too big for a Baby. Too much space can be very intimidating to baby leos. Until they're a couple of months old, the better habitat for them would be a shoebox sized home, with half (length-wise) of a "dooter tube" (the cardboard tube in the toilet paper - I call it a dooter tube because my daughter used to sing with them).

Good Luck!

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

would 20 gellon long be too big for 2 baby leos?

Honestly, I still wouldn't recommend it. It's too much space - too intimidating. Think of it as kind of like putting a newborn human baby in a crib the size of 2 king beds.

Just run to Walmart and go to the storage containers aisle. Find one about the size of a shoebox, and that has a lid that locks down - baby leos can get out of the smallest cracks. Then, before you get everything set up, punch several holes in the lid, for air. You can do this by pointing an ice pick or nail to the lid & then hammering it through with a hammer. Then set up your habitat.

It's not the "all-natural" look, I know... But, what I learned and what I was told was that smaller spaces were better places for babies.

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