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My son has a trio of WC juvenile male collareds collected from the Albuquerque area in NM. I noticed an interesting phenomenon regarding their body color -- their color changes quite dramatically depending on the angle you view them. If you are looking at them straight across at their level, they are a very pretty aqua blue-green color. If viewed from above, they have virtually no blue-green coloration, only a brownish cast with white spots. Is this an adaptive mechanism (i.e. camouflage) to make them less conspicuous to predators from above (birds of prey, etc.)but very visible to other collareds? We are fairly new to the collareds but have kept many other species of reptiles and I have not seen this before.
Any ideas?

An interesting idea and quite possibly correct on the adaptive camoflage harder to see from airborne predators but yet can be seen by other collareds at ground level.

How big of a tank are the three males kept in, as males will fight over territory.

The males have been separated into different tanks. They were initially housed together when they were young. We never saw any aggression between the three but we knew we were playing with fire if we kept them together too long. I have been told by one of the highly regarded herpers on this forum that permanent psychological damage can be done to the less dominant males if housed together too long. Does that mean suppressed hormone levels or inability to breed in the future?

I don't know about that, but it probably makes them feel like they're getting wedgied and toilet-dunked a lot. That could lead to psychological damage.
You did better than me. I kept my baby males together just a little bit too long, because I hadn't seen dominance issues and was over-confident. The first warning sign consisted of a bloody bite mark on the back of the smaller one's neck. (I did not wait for a second warning sign.)

I can certainly see how for many of them, the bright sides and camo-style top are a good mix of both worlds, but there certainly are both dull-sided males and males who are bright everywhere, even on top. It's all pros and cons. I mean, when they're running up and down rocks all day the "top" isn't always what's on top, you know? But as a "usually useful" way of combining colors, your theory does make sense.
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)

Hey Brian,

I have never noticed that with my collareds but it sounds like you have compiled a sound theory here. It makes perfect sense to me. Predators from above getting a different visual. My collareds always seem to be more paranoid of movements from above when I keeping them outside, especially from overhead airplanes. They eyeball those planes until they are way out of there field of vision....crouching down!! I think naturally in the wild they get picked off by more birds and such then by any other natural predator.

Steve Bozsik
www.hardcoreherps.com

I started to question that, but... yeah. I mean, no matter how many sidewinders and Gila monsters we could sit here and think of, I doubt any of them have the dailly caloric intake of a good-sized bird
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)