Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi all. i have a pair of sikorae's and know that my female is a samieti, but think my male is sikorae. i was under the impression that there wasnt a great difference between the two ssp. and that they could breed and their care was the same. a buddy of mine and i were talking and he said he thought they couldnt and upon looking in his uroplat book said that they couldnt and that sikorae needed temps between 60-70 F and samieti 77-82 year round. i thought i had read here that the differences werent substantial... please advise!

Scott

open the mouths of each. the sikorae sikorae should have a black buccal cavity. the sikorae samieti should be pink.
when fully grown the samieti will generally be larger, and many people on here have seemed to notice that the samieti have more yellow around the eyes. ( not in the eye, around it)
checking inside the mouth should tell you which is is/isn't
also, i wouldn't imagine that the two subspecies would have that great of a temperature difference, but i guess i don't know that for sure.

i keep mine both like 75 degrees
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1.0 Cork Bark Leaf-tailed Geckos (Uroplatus pietschmanni)
1.1.1 Lined Leaf-tailed Geckos (Uroplatus lineatus)
1.1 Mossy Leaf-tailed Geckos (Uroplatus sikorae sikorae)
1.0 Mossy Leaf-tailed Geckos (Uroplatus sikorae sameiti)
0.0.3 Gargoyle Geckos (Rhacodactylus auriculatus)
0.0.2 Crested Geckos (Rhacodactylus ciliatus)
1.1 Tucson Banded Geckos (Coleonyx variegatus bogerti)
1.1 Flying Geckos (Ptychozoon kuhli)
0.0.1 White Spot Geckos (Tarentola annularis)

Henry Doorly Zoo in lincoln nebraska has bred hybridized versions. To be honest, the uroplatus book was filled with a few false truths. Don't read it and believe everything it says as it also states that u.phantasticus doesn't neck bite when mating, but all of mine have employed the bite and mate method as well as a few other people's phants.

jason

agreed
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-Mike Martin
North Carolina

I strongly agree......

My male always bite the neck or leg.

Very dangerous and agressive.......LOL

so bottom line is keep 'em as i have been? the temperature might peak around 80, but very infrequently. most of the time it does go above 76. as for breeding.. they will/should/could breed?

if so, that leads to my next question. i've had them since mid april and no signs of breeding. is there anything i should be looking for to encourage that or any factors that discourage it? i'll post a pic of the enclosure below. i've since taken out the fake plant at the bottom left and placed two decent sized branches that span the corners.

Scott

all you can really do is set them up right and hope for them to go at it. several people on the board have seen increase in activity when a uvb bulb is used. i have not tried one, and i've also had a 1.2 group of mossies for almost 18 months with no activity. you may also want to try a 2.2 group.

what size enclosure would be appropriate for 2.2? i'm in the process of starting to make some new ones and maybe i'll rethink my direction and work on that.

Scott

You should use something in the 60 gal size for a pair of mossies. Out of every one I know who has successfully bred them, they use 55 -70 gal sized enclosures for 1.1. Mossies are like ebanaui when it comes to breeding... they will a lot if they are comfortable.

b.-jason

with mossies, the eyes dont give anything away. i have four mossies and all of their eyes are different in respect to the yellowness. my male sikorae sikorae has the thickest line of yellow around his eye and my one female sikorae sikorae has a little bit of yellow but my sameiti has no yellow. i think that the sikora sikorae might prefer cooler temps because my sikoraes are always resting on the metal screen which is always cooler. my sameiti is always curled around the branch. i have one male for all three females and theres been no action from him. my one female that i have for like two years layed around 8-10 duds this year. at the show this weekend i might try to pick up a couple males.