[mikew1234]

I've been reading info on this site for a while now, and recently realized I had a username on the site.. Haha. Well to the matter on hand. I got a pair of n. Wheeleri a few months back. A sexed pair, one around 6 inches, the other around 4 or 5. They have been doing fine for a while, but recently I noticed the larger of the two has lost weight. As the previous owner had kept them together in a small rack, I figured a nicely set 20 gallon long would be sufficient to do the same. I chose to seperate them in order to reduce stress. The smaller gecko seems to be fine. The larger is currently in a 5 gallon tank with sand substrate, a water bowl, and a food bowl. There is also a small hide for it. The day temp is around 85, and night i let it drop to around 75. I feed mealworms, wax worms, and crickets. The gecko seems to ignore all of it. Can any one give me a hand with what I'm doing wrong here? (These are my first knobtails. I kept solely rhacs until recently.)

[mummabear]

I keep one end constantly warm at about 30-32 degrees (86-89F) with a heat cord running under one end of the tub. How do you heat yours? I would try heating all night with a hide at both ends. This may increase it's appetite. Do you spray the geckos with water or just offer the water bowl? Mine only drink from water droplets when sprayed every 2nd to 3rd night not from standing water.
What were they fed previously? I have some that only seam to like woodies (****roaches).

[mikew1234]

I do mist, the water bowl is more or less just a guarantee they have water. I heat using a lamp and under tank heat. Also when I got them I was told worms, crickets and roaches made up their diet. I'll definately throw the temp up though.

[hognose]

A couple questions:
How long has the larger (I'd presume female) been in the 5 gallon?
I have seen females become stressed from males constantly trying to breed with them.

5 gallons seems like a VERY small tank to me. They have such a small footprint that I just can't see how you can have a proper temperature gradient from one end of the cage to the other. Of course it obviously depends if the tank is a shorty giving it more ground area, but I'd still be concerned about the gradient. As mummabear suggested I'd also think the warm end temp is low. I personally like it to be in the 87-89 range with the cool end in the high 70's to low 80's.

Chris

[mikew1234]

The 5 gallon is a bare tank to keep it separated and to be sure it's eating. As I said, it came out of a 20 gallon long tank so I could better observe it. Also, I believe your right on the sex. I mixed them up when I got them and kind of forgot which is which. Should I switch the two, put the fat one in the 5 gallon so the thin one has a better gradient temp?

[mikew1234]

After I posted last night, I did a little more research as to what may be the problem. I didnt think Of it until earlier today that she is gravid and real close to laying. I didn't have a lay box or anything, but now have a Chinese food container with around 2 inches of moist sand in a 10 gallon dimension tank (not as high.) she hasn't left the box yet.

[mummabear]

If she is gravid then it is even more important to keep up constant heat to her. If conditions are right she shouldn't be losing weight while gravid.

[mikew1234]

So she passed the eggs last night, and has become more active. I have them incubating at 84 F. She looks a little better, much more activity, and I could have sworn she chomped a butter worm down after I put them in. Now it's time to hope she will fully recover from my screw up.. I was able to find an old 20 gallon with a severly cracked side which i replaced with some plexi. She's now in that with 3 hides at different points of the tank. Gradient seems right now, 87 on the hot, around 80 cold side. Night drop is around 84 and mid 70's.

[oli]

Mike, I would recommend incubating at around 82 as 84 is too warm. Unless of course you are looking for a lot of males (which I don't know why you would be) - FYI. They will take slightly longer to hatch but they don't incubate very long anyways. I'd also suggest that you bump up the heat on your hot end, and don't worry so much about a night drop as it's not essential nor is it important for their well being. There really isn't any benefit to that, perhaps when you are preparing to brumate them, but when they are laying I wouldn't recommend it. I set my thermostat accordingly so that the surface temperature of the sand above the heat source (heat tape/rope/pad) is in the mid 90's. They seem to eat better, metabolize that food faster, and do very well with laying and thermo regulating themselves when they have the option to access a very warm area. Nephrurus in tanks (or anything with clear exposed sides is not what I would recommend, but if any Nephrurus could handle it, I think it would be the wheeleri. They just can get stressed if they see people through the glass, especially in a high traffic area of the home. The Nephrurus are not display animals. If they are put in this type of situation they will often be in their hides and will be stressed out. Even if you covered the back and the sides so that the front glass was the only see through part it would help them a lot. A 5 gallon is totally adequate size for any single adult wheeleri as it's basically shoe box sized which is what most breeders use in their rack systems. I've had a few wheeleri over the past few years and have only had a few eat or prefer worms to crickets or roaches. They seem to like the movement of the crickets and roaches as those types of insects are most likely prevalent in their native environment more so than worms so that is probably what they evolved to eat. I've not had good success in getting my gravid females to take the occasional pinkie mouse either, even with pygmy mice pinks which makes me think that their natural diet is likely spiders, crickets, roaches, and the occasional scorpion.