Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Currently I have a 1:2 sikorae set up in approx. a 50-60 gallon terrarium. Great setup might I add. WOuld it hurt to throw in another 1:1 with that size tank or would that be too many in a tank that big. I think its a 60 gallon terrarium. Dimensions are

36 long, 25 tall, and 18 deep. Thanks

Scott

thats a big tank for them--you could probably put like 15 mossies in a tank that big. that would definitely be big enough for all them. the problem with having more than two or three animals in one cage is not the size of the environment but making sure each animal gets the right amount of food and water. i personally prefer keeping geckos in smaller environments. i have a trio of mossies in a 15gal and if i pick up another male i might put them in a 20 or 30 gal. but i think its easier to keep closer tabs on their individual health that way. i probably wouldnt keep a trio of henkels in a anything bigger than a 55gal. the only real benefit to having a larger enclosure is that they maintain their humidity longer.

I was told to put a pair in a 60 gallon just a few weeks ago...

And I thought smaller enclosures maintained humidity better, not larger ones...

BOY? Whats your opinion, cause now I'm confused...

smaller cages do maintain humidity better and 3 mossies in a 15 gallon tank is not ideal... a pair in a cage that size isnt even good... one animal is doable, but still not ideal...
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Ben

for the first 6-8 months i had my trio of mossies i had them in a 29 gallon tall aquarium and that almost seemed too small for them. now i have them in this.... which is about 18x18x48
i have more mossy bark in both sides now, and some more bamboo in the left side for the lineatus.

a larger environment maintains homeostasis longer, and if it is more humid to start with it will stay humid longer. it takes more to get a bigger cage humid and at the same time it takes more to dry it out. i have dart frogs and i keep a little d.auratus in a little pint sized plastic cage and it will dry out every day if i dont spray it. but my one gal frog cage stays humid for almost a week with the same ventilation. and with the cage size, thats my personal opinion. theyre reptiles, not mammals. they dont bother eachother. i d be a little more hesitant to keep the three of them together if the male was a lot larger than the female but thats not the case.

jadrig...

that is completely inappropriate. first off you don't even make sense with this post because it is contradictory about which would stay in homeostasis longer. larger enclosures are much more difficult to keep in homestasis because they have higher demands to maintain all the levels required to have a homeostatic environment. the enclosure itself has more space and more air, if the ventilation is minimal it will stay humid longer. if the ventilation is maximized, it will dry out faster.

Second - "i have dart frogs and i keep a little d.auratus in a little pint sized plastic cage and it will dry out every day if i dont spray it. but my one gal frog cage stays humid for almost a week with the same ventilation. and with the cage size"
a pint sized container and a gallon sized container is not the same thing. they are not the same size. unless you have excessive amounts of ventilation ports cut on that pint sized container it shouldn't dry out that quickly.

third - keeping a trip of ebanaui in a 15 gallon is tight, a trio of mossies is a joke. yes they do bother each other and yes they will impact each other's lives. Get a clue about animal behavior before you go off spouting poor husbandry information. a trio of mossies should not be kept in anything less than a 40 gallon. they require a good amount of space and will make every bit of use from it. how many people have you heard of successfully reproducing mossies? not many that post on here and certainly not many if they use that 15 gallon enclosure.

-b.jason

hey calm down boy. i was just saying that they can be happy in that size tank. my female layed a bunch(8) of infertile eggs this year so she must be healthy. they all eat good and are healthy. all of the mossies that i did aquire were more then three quarters dead when i got them. i nursed them all back to health. im not "trying" to breed them, im just keeping them. theyre happy and healthy right now so thats all i care about. i dont think that its detrimental to their health. if i saw that they were not happy because of their cage size then i would change it right away because they are my animals.

...and youre not my teacher, so dont act like that to me or talk like that to me or anyone else on this forum.

i am not saying your animal is not healthy, but just because a female is laying infertiles (cycling) does not nessarily mean that she is healthy... unhealthy geckos will still cycle, its a natural process...
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Ben

and it is obsurd to keep an adult trio of mossies in a 15gal... how can you take three geckos from a forest and force them to live within inches of each other and tell me that its not stressfull... this is NOT ideal...
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Ben

well no one is going to tell anyone that their enclosure is too big--for leaftails especially. And taking an animal from the forest and putting it in an enclosure the size of a living room is cruel- if the conditions are the same as in the wild. a tank is a controled environment. i "personally" think that the only reason why anyone would "need" an enclosure like a 40 or 55gal for three mossies would only be so that they can fit more PLANTS in the tank. i dont think that theres anything wrong with that but its not my priority right now. now im not going to criticize anyone for keeping their animals in a larger tank--thats part of the hobby--do whatever you feel to achieve success. i just dont feel its necessary for "me" to do so. i have a pair of standings in an inverted 55 and one[female]that runs loose in my room. if the one female gets out of her cage, the room that they are in is not big enough for the two of them. i know im comparing apples to oranges but my point is that it comes down to the animal. if they are socially compatable then they are fine. my male is not very aggressive and he doesnt bother the females at all. AND, no, im not saying that everyone should put their animals in a certain sized cage. these forums are a hundred times better than any book because it consists of dozens of people that breed, keep, buy, sell, and import these leaftails. But in a book, somthing is said and thats final, noncontestable--whether its RIGHT or WRONG. in this forum we have people with different opinions, with different successful methods. there is not necessarily a RIGHT or WRONG with certain things, just DIFFERENCE IN OPINIONS.

i wasnt directing that "dont talk to me like that" message to ben. and i never said i wasnt here to learn. i was just saying that this is NOT a CLASSROOM. this is more like an open experiment and we re all lab partners. i mean yeah there are some people on this forum who ve had leaftails for like 8 yrs or so but they dont have everyones leaftails--just their own. my point is that there should not really be any authoritative figures in this forum with the exception of the forum host ofcourse. a person who has had an animal for one month could have info thats just as important as the leaftail god.

so if you're not here for learning, what are you here for?
jason and ben are 2 of the most informational people on these forums. even if he's critisizing your husbandry, it's for good reason.

Your husbandry is awfully confusing for those of us that are newbies... Do you think everyone should keep a trio in a 15, or is that just what you do??

I'm glad I was here to learn from others before you showed up, otherwise I might have ordered a trio for my 20 gallon instead of a pair. Now that I have them, I really don't think thats adequate at all....

I'm not anything to you and I don't care to be. Your husbandry is poor. If you are insulted, too bad. this is a public forum and I have experience to go with my feedback, if you do not like that please ignore my posts.

-b.jason

I had kept and bred a pair of henkeli in a 225 gallon custom made encloser... the larger the tank size, the better... if they are hungry, they are going to find the food... thats not a worry unless the animal is not healthy...

when it comes to breeding, the larger the encloser the better... this is my opinion based off of a variety of reasons...
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Ben

I think you could add another pair to your group but I would not recommend it for a number of reasons. First of all, even though your cage is big with your cage size you are only allowing approx. 10 gallons per. mossy I think about 15 gallons per. mossy is better. And second of all I think it would make things very difficult in keeping tract of feeding, breeding, and the health of the geckos. I would recommend keeping a trio Mossies in a 15 gallon, something larger would definatly be better. Thats only five gallons per gecko. I maintain a pair of U.pietschmanni, which is similiar in size to a mossy in a 2ftx2ftx2ft cage and keep newly WC geckos single in quarantine in 10gallons.
-Matt
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www.madagascarherp.com

i really dont think you could recommend a trio of mossies in a 15 gal. i keep pairs to trios of satanics in 15-16 gals, and still think they need more space.

if you need something smaller for a short period of time, i would say a 22 tall would be good, but get em up to at least 30 gal when you can.
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-Mike Martin
North Carolina

Matt,

you really don't know what your talking about here. Do you realize how small that is for even a pair of ebanaui?

Before you give info, don't contradict yourself by giving the size enclosure you keep your cork barks in given the cork barks and mossies are fairly similar in size. Would you keep your breeding group of cork barks in a 15 gal? If so, you really need to check yourself and your care because that is unacceptable.

-b.jason

I made a simple grammer error because I was typing fast. In my post I accidentally said I would recommend insted I wouldn't recommend, which is what I mean't to say. If you read my post carefully you can tell I am advising not to keep 3 mossies in a 15 gallon. My post is below and I capitallized the part where my grammer error is.

I think you could add another pair to your group but I would not recommend it for a number of reasons. First of all, even though your cage is big with your cage size you are only allowing approx. 10 gallons per. mossy I think about 15 gallons per. mossy is better. And second of all I think it would make things very difficult in keeping tract of feeding, breeding, and the health of the geckos. I WOULDN'T recommend keeping a trio Mossies in a 15 gallon, something larger would definatly be better. Thats only five gallons per gecko. I maintain a pair of U.pietschmanni, which is similiar in size to a mossy in a 2ftx2ftx2ft cage and keep newly WC geckos single in quarantine in 10gallons.
-Matt

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www.madagascarherp.com

i was kind of wondering if that's what you meant to say. i also would NOT suggest keeping 1.2 mossies, or even a pair in a 15 gallon aquarium.

Sorry. You can see where I made my mistake.

-b.jason