Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking about putting some curly tail lizards in with my granite chucks. The Curly tails are wild caught Florida introduced and so is my chuckwalla.Wild caught not Florida introduced that is any thoughts?

I would be very careful about mixing species period, but especially mixing two species with drastically different care requirements. Curly Tail lizards need higher humidity and lower temps than do chucks, their diet is very different, and their size is significantly different. Then there is the added difference in activity level that could stress both species out. If you had said chucks and desert iguanas, I would say that is doable because they come from the same place and have very similar dietary and environmental needs, but not chucks and curly tails. JMHO.

Here is another thought. You just got those WC chucks stable, but they are probably not completely adjusted. That really takes up to years, and they could turn any time if they get stressed. Why would you risk upsetting them again by putting a potentially incompatible species in with them? I wouldn't.

I see what you are saying.Part of the reason for trying curly tails is they were reasonably cheap and healthy animals.You are right about different temperature requrements but they are in the room with the chuckwallas and uromastyx.I was kind of thinking of them as a test subject to see if they could get along with smaller lizards from their own habitat such as collared lizards or horned lizards.They have been in with my female chuckwalla on a temporary basis and I saw almost no interaction but I did notice more trying to get out of the cage by the female chuck.They are seperated now and I don't plan to reintroduce them.In the long term I may consider putting them in with my pair of Saharan Uromastyx but only if I put them in a very large cage. I am concerned about mixing animals from different continents due to disease potential so I may not do it.

Horned lizards should never be kept with ANY other species because they are even more stress prone than wc chucks, and they must eat ants. They are designed to tolerate the presence of ants and ant venom whereas chucks are not. But they stress and die if you so much as look at them sometimes. Having an animal three times their size in the enclosure is almost sure stress and death.

Collareds are also not a good choice with chucks because they are very active lizards and their diet is very different.

Putting the curly tails with the uros is also a risk because if you are keeping your uros properly, then that is not a suitable environment for curly tails. Uros need a hot dry environment and those conditions would be harsh for curly tails.

Please reconsider mixing species, especially full desert or semi desert with tropical or sub tropical. These two environments are just too different. I don't understand why you would be compelled to do this at all, especially with wc chucks that need a stable environment for at least a year or more.

It is never a good idea to mix species especially from different continents. I would not mix anything with them like she said in her first post. It seems like maybe you have already made up your mind to do so anyway but I would recommend against it too. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Why would you want to chance it? You have chucks that are on their way to settling in quite well. I would leave well enough alone.

Tom

Alright I am not going to mix my lizard species. I was thinking that putting some small lizards in the tank would add a little exitement to the set up but the rules foe mixing lizards appear a little strickter than mixing fish.With fish if you put a smaller but non eatable species in a tank , it makes all of the occupents more active without a big chance of ill effects.