Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got in a trio of " common name is " Blue Mouth Mountain Horned Dragon . I'm not sure the common name or where they are from . The male is mossy green with black diamond patterns down the back and the two females are rusty brown / red with black diamond patterns down the back . The two females are very gravid of course . I know they all need deworming but I may wait till the females lay eggs. My other question is cage . What is the best set up ? Do these " dragons " spend most of their time sitting verticle on trees ? Any help , pointers or tips on getting them started would be greatly appreciated . I'm mostly an asian turtle / tortoise guy but lizard man at heart . Naturally I was attracted to these Mnt Dragons.

I know either FroggieB or Jobi is going to out do me, so I'll just give you a quick reply.

The blue mouthed MHDs are either A. lepidogaster, or A. coronata. I know for a fact A. coronata have the diamonds, which is most likely what you have.

You definatly need hieght. They spend most all of their time on verticle branches, as they are arboreal.

Mountain Horned Dragons (common name) are from south... east(?)Asia. Anyway, Vietnam, Malaysia, those sort of places.

They are from the forest, where he humidity ranges form 60% to 80% on average (about). So that should give you an idea of how much humidity they need.

The temps can be anywhere from 72F to 85F, roughly. Recent data concludes a basking spot is a plus, not nessecary. Basking temps should average 85F to 95F, maybe a little higher once in a while.

You should try to provide a large water area, moving and preferably filtered. You will find yourself changing water a lot due to feces so filtration is not all that important. Moving water atracts MHDs, espeacily when dripping of a leaf. I find that "falling water" works best, although Bubblers and other means of moving water are ideal. (By faling water I mean large scale drippers or a water fall of some sort)

And real quick, blue mouthed is not normal whith other speciese such as A. capra or A. Armata. Nor is the black diamonds.

That is all for now.
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Ryan

Maybe they are Acanthosaura, but they also may belong to an Aphaniotis species.
These do display blue mouths 8inside)

You should check that out.

regards

Ingo

They do have a blueish hue in their mouth , one of the females is quiet aggressive. http://markmlucas.com/images/Agamids/Acanthosaura 3.jpg is what they look like .

Yes they have a blueish hue in their mouth since they are abit fiesty . At the bottom i posted a link hopefully it works , that's what they look like . I assume noone knows what they are ?

http://markmlucas.com/images/Agamids/Acanthosaura 3.jpg

They are Acanthosaura cornata. Better known as mountain horned dragon. I have a pair just like that, and they have the bluish mouth.

I know of six specie of MHD: Capra, crucigera, lepidogaster, armata,coronata, and nataliae. All are referred to as Mountain horned dragons.

So, what you have is A. coronata, or MHD.
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Ryan

Are they common ? What temps do you incubate the eggs. I was thinking of putting them on the shelf like I did with Uroplatus eggs a few years back .

Are they common? Hmm... well, yes. They are not rare, as Petsmart sells a lot of A. coronata along with other petstores. Certian speciese of Acanthosaura can be rather diffucult to find, but MHDs as a whole are fairly common.

There are still a lot of people who have never heard of mountain horned dragons. But it definatly isn't a rare dragon if that is what you are thinking.

I haven't really tried my hand at incubating MHD eggs. If you noticed, I just asked this question on a seperate message.

I appears that they should be kept at a normal room temperature and should handle large temperature variation
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Ryan

They probably aren't rare but these aren't the ones that regularly come into the US and end up at PetsMart , LLL Reptile , Reptile Depot, etc etc ... or at least I've never seen this species . I really dont give a crap about the rarity of an animal as I've kept $30 animals to $600 animals and in the scheme of things , both are very enjoyable . Anywho I have them in a cube breeder tank with several verticle branches and a nice medium size Phelidendron plant . I'm probably going to put a very small fan on the screen lid facing down to circulate air . I know by experience aboreal agamidae and iguanadae must have the air flow in a " tank " envorionment or they will crash and burn with a week or shortly there after .

I know by experience arboreal agamidae and iguanadae must have the air flow in a " tank " envorionment or they will crash and burn with a week or shortly there after .

I need to know more about this, some of my observations lately seem to correlate in this sense. However my cage are basically air tight, yet my dragons fair well and reproduce in them. But I am sure they are not perfect in anyway. Nevertheless I do think air movement may have a physiological benefit.

Id like you to share your ideas on this if you don’t mind.
rgds

Jobi , I think basically you just have to replicate a herps environment in the field as much as you can in captive settings . A Chondro found 35 ft in a tree where the air is constantly moving , would make sense to have lungs and even have red blood cells shaped to carry as much oxygen as such a high microclimate provides . Why would a tree dragon be any different ? The only problem I would see using a small fan is it would dry out the dry and decrease humidity level which you'd have to make up for by adjusting your mister system more times a day . But it's better than stagnet moist air where mold could grow .

I have read about using small computer fans in the vivs. Is this what you use?

I know that I always keep the top and a strip across the top and bottom of the front of my vivs open as I do want to have some air flow. I don't know for certain if I am achieving it but my animals do look good and have definitely made it well beyond a few weeks!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

I am presently experimenting with fan-cages, in the past I did use larger fans in my condro and emerald room, however when iv stop using open tops and fans my production was not affected, but this doesn’t mean much, especially sins I made no observations in this sense at the time.

I am convinced that air movement acts in the thermoregulation process, at what level? I don’t know, is it necessary for our captives? Again I don’t know.
However I do know that without experimentation no progress will be made.

Also what makes you think the oxygen level in blood cells would vary depending on microclimate?
Only altitude changes the oxygenation process, saturation has very little impact.

Heat transfer oxygen from water molecules of the lugs to feed the blood protein.
A well hydrated habitat will only favour this transfer.
The increased hart rate and oxygenation allows these lizards a brighter coloration.

I invented my thermal cages on the basis of atmospheric pressure, a high pressure habitat has opposite effects then high altitude, in higher altitude your blood oxygen levels drops, at sea levels its 84-90% when inhaling pure oxygen its 100%, when in a high pressure chamber you can quadruple your blood oxygen level.

How this affects my husbandry?
Well not so simple to explain, however picture a cage 2-2-2feet with little ventilation, heat this cage with a low energy 25w bulb 10-12h a day, you create higher pressure, not much but enough to allows all cardio respiratory functions and alleviate pressure on eggs. Les pressure helps the vascular system in both female and eggs. Better blood circulation, better growth and overall health.

Pleas keep me informed on your husbandry and success, I find this most interesting.

Rgds

produced 100s of condros in this room.

These were both bought at Petsmart
Acanthosaura coronata

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Ryan

You have a good petsmart because the ones in North Texas and SO Cali suck , all they get is the mainstream herps ( green iguanas , beardies , anoles , and a hermit crab or two ) common or not , they are neat animals . If you have interesting observations or pointers , much would be appreciated .

I guess I do have a pretty good Petsmart. I actually requested Mountain Horned Dragons and they got them for me. One day, out of the blue, they call on the phone and tell me they have MHDs, so I went there and bought them!

I guess you get treated like a VIP when you are their best customer!(as much as I hate to say it)

The best way to get pointers and good info and stuff is reading all the conversations that go on in these forums.
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Ryan

I would love to go back and read all the archieves in the forum but I dont think I have the stamina to stick with all 3 pages. I'll just stick with the basic caresheets for Mnt Dragons .

I´d say, definitely

Regards

Ingo