Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this may be the wrong place for this but i was wondering, would it be possible to keep uroplatus geckos with phelsuma??? i was thinking about this the other day and it occured to me that they both come from the same country and some of the species are of similar size. one is day active and the other is nocturnal. just wondering. the species i would like to mix if its possible are sikorae and neon day geckos peacock day gecko. thanks for any advise - Joel

most people are against mixing species in an enclosure.

and i dont know how aggressive day geckos of that species get, but youll wanna look into that.

main thing my understanding was that day gex prefer higher temps, which you wont be able to accomplish when housed with any uroplatus, granted ive heard species like lineatus and fimbriatus can take temperatures way higher than the low 70's most people keep them at.

just do some research by looking at caresheets for each species, then only you can decide whether or not it's worth trying.
-----
-Mike Martin
North Carolina

I have thought about "mixing" the diffrent species. I know that in the zoo where one of my male babies lives he shares the vivarium with mantellas. I currently how a hatchling with a baby pygmy chameleon and one pair of my phants resides with an adult pair of pygmy chams. they dont apear to bother each other during the day or night. I would not mix neon day geckos or peacock day geckos with the smaller uros (phant, ebans)because of their need for very high temps(high 80's low 90's basking spot) you might be able to mix standings or giant days with fims,henks or linned.They do like heat but the whole tank does not need to be warm. I was thinking of mixing in a very large vivaria my pair of linned, a pair of standings and a pair of jacksons chameleons all in on tank. I have mixed jackons with anoles (green and brown) and they did not bother them at all. You see the chams would stay mostly on the plants, the day geckos and leaftails would hide on the glass/ in the plants but they are all active at difrent times and access diffrent areas of habitat.before mixing do as umop_apisdn suggested andread alot of care sheets and think before you mix. Hope this helps.

yeh it just occured to me that the temps are a bit different. im gonna have a look for day geckos with lower heat requirements. the only reason i considered this is becasue i use to keep gold dust day geckos and although would not normally mix species they exist in the wild together. thanks for the advice. i need to have a carefull think. im not going to jeopardise the health of my uro's - Joel

id be careful how your saying that one statement...they both come from the same continent, but i seriously doubt an animal that needs a cool habitat would overlap distributions with animals that need 80-90.
-----
-Mike Martin
North Carolina

yeh, im gonna do some research as to distributions of all the animals, but i doubt it will be possible though. thanks for your help - Joel

ok, im not going to attempt it, theres gonna be too much risk to the animals. one question though, ive been looking at my uroplatus book by svatek & duin. in the section on sikorae, it talks about the climate where they occur and it says

"high daytime temperatures prevailing all over the year. from october to january, the respective values may exceed 86f"

why are they so high when in captivity heat has an adverse effect on geckos? thanks for the help - Joel

you got a page number on that? for some reason, i cant find my uroplatus book at the moment, but that doesnt seem right.

maybe in lowland areas, but high in the montane forests?
-----
-Mike Martin
North Carolina

page 132 and 133.

In fact many Uroplatus have the same distribution as many Phelsuma. The difference is that Phelsuma live on the edge of the forest or the top of the canopy. The Uroplatus live in the dense underbrush. The temperature differences are markedly different. Usually the temperature difference is ten degrees or more. In the Uroplatus book I have it gives maximum tempertures for all the locals that Uroplatus can be found, some were as high as thirty five degrees. It then also makes it very clear that the area that you actually would find Uroplatus would be at least ten degrees celcius different. All the thick brush overhead blocks much of the suns rays as well as the heat that comes with it. Having said all that I mix many Uroplatus and Phelsuma but only temporarily. I am in the process of building a Uroplatus room. Housing them together for long periods of time together will probably not hurt but you most likely will not create ideal conditions for both genus to breed. My success breeding Uro's this year is terrible. Between moving and building this room for them they have not had a chance to settle. Next year when the Uroplatus room is finished I hope to have much better sucess. My Phelsuma on the other hand have been doing very well for me. If you do mix species use extreme caution. I tried to mix P. standingi with U. lineatus and the standings beat the hell out of them. Always make sure the Phelsuma are smaller than the Uroplatus.
-----
Regards Ryan Beitle