Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have owned and cared for a wide variety of reptiles my entire life. About three years ago, I was forced to find homes for my entire herp collection due to a forced move, new duty station, and training. I am now home, have plenty of room, plenty of tanks, and will be here for many years to come. I have always loved the TOKAY gecko. I understand it is not the best choice for handling and I have no want to do so. I have read up on everything I could find (so far). Most of my herps are in large tanks and I just enjoy caring for them and breeding them.

I have a 25 gallon (only 18" high) and a 90 gallon tank I was hoping to put some Tokay's in. How many Tokay's can I put in the 90 gallon and can I put one male and 4-5 females together? I have plenty of heating sources, water bowls, hides, branches, etc. I would love to breed them. Most of the caresheets online were very vague and not too detailed. Also, do they eat frozen/thawed pinkies well? Thanks for any help and advice.

So many animals? No way.
A 90 g is a decent size for a pair, even though I prefer to keep them in bigger tanks.
Tokays are hardy and survive decades even in shoebox sized enclosures. But they are agile runners and animals in large tanks show a completely different baheaviour than thier collegues in tiny 20-50g.
After all, tokays in big tanks are mamong the least aggressive gecko species at all-the same animals which can be that fiesty in small tanks!
Tokays also do show pair bonding. In a considerable percentage of cases, a pair accepts a second female which then may also lay fertile eggs. But in many cases, the female fights all other females or the male does not mate with additional females.
If you add 4-5 females in a 90g, the tank would be so overcrowded, that animals quite liklely won´t fight, but its far from apt keeping.

Ci@o

Ingo

Well put, Ingo. Tokays were among the first species of geckos that I ever got into, and I breed them now, they're an incredible animal. They do work best in pairs, because I've found that even in trios, oftentimes they form hyerarchies (I know I just butchered that spelling...), with one female at the bottom. I kept a trio together for a while, the two that I had in the tank previously continued to produce eggs, but the female I added lost weight, and as far as I know, the male never mated with her. Once I bought another male, and added that female in with him, she put on a lot of weight, and as a result, is a much happier little gal. Anyway, long story short, pairs work best, and with tanks, the bigger, the better. Most of my tokays completely ignore frozen mice, but put live pinkies in there, and they go nuts. Hope this helps,
Kevin

I think you are right about this. Tokay do show totally different behavior in larger tank. When I first got my female 2 months ago, she was in a 10 gallon; then i bought a 29 gallon for her, and now, she seems to be enjoying it..walking and jumping around. Tokay are animals meant to roam some around; males and females have territories that they defend against other intruders. And I think it's partly due to the way i feed her also. I change from putting crickets in a small tray to feeding ones that can jump around, and she seems to enjoy hunting them.

Yeah, and these guys have a special place in my heart. I love tokay gecko. They are probably my favorite gecko. I like their personality and their size. What can i say...I love big animals.

Posted by: Ingo at Fri Mar 24 00:50:16 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

So many animals? No way.
A 90 g is a decent size for a pair, even though I prefer to keep them in bigger tanks.
Tokays are hardy and survive decades even in shoebox sized enclosures. But they are agile runners and animals in large tanks show a completely different baheaviour than thier collegues in tiny 20-50g.
After all, tokays in big tanks are mamong the least aggressive gecko species at all-the same animals which can be that fiesty in small tanks!
Tokays also do show pair bonding. In a considerable percentage of cases, a pair accepts a second female which then may also lay fertile eggs. But in many cases, the female fights all other females or the male does not mate with additional females.
If you add 4-5 females in a 90g, the tank would be so overcrowded, that animals quite liklely won´t fight, but its far from apt keeping.

Ci@o

Ingo

That was very interesting . I was looking into a tokay and pet store guy told me a 20 gallon high was more than enough as not active at all but after reading the posts here and yours see that a 20 high is terrible way to small.
They carry much larger extra high size tanks think thats my best choice.
Do you find a sexed pair does better than a single tokay in large enough tank ? I was under impression solitary by nature and better to keep single but I would prefer a pair .

Thanks

Lia

Hi,

Tokays are among the very few lizard species which show true pair bonding.
While it is easy to introduce am arbitrarily chosen female to a single male tokay, it is problematic to change the partners of a pir which is living together for quite some time.
The partners know each other individually and often do not accept other tokays, neither females or males.
Single Tokay males try to find a mate and thus often call a lot.
Males of bonded pairs do call much less often.
However, if you remove the female and add a female which is unknown to themale, he will start calling again as often as a single male, because he definitely misses his mate.
( BTW:He won´t bite the other female and sooner or later accept
it)
So other than for most lizards, the most recommendable way of keeping tokays is to keep them as 1,1.

Hope that helps

Ingo

Thanks decided to get a pair . Thinking of geting a 70 gallon extra high tank that saw at pet store .
Problem is I cant reach the bottom to clean it as I am 5 ft 2 inches but will probably get it and use lower stand or use foot stool lol.
havent got the geckos yet but going to order the tank and get thick branches,etc.

Lia