[loggerboots]

Hi Folks,

I’m new here.

My kids have 3 leopard geckos that we keep in a 29 gallon aquarium (30X12). We started with a pair (from the same batch at petsmart) and got a third a few months later. I don’t know their exact ages, but the older two are around 40 grams and the younger one is about 20 and all 3 are healthy and growing well. Presumably all female. The two larger ones are Meeps and CocoaBean, and the youngest is called Maple (kids named them ).

The three have been living together for months and we’ve never had a single problem with aggression. However, last night, there was a problem. Meeps “attacked” both of her tankmates within a short timespan.

It started with Meeps and Maple eyeing the same cricket. Maple caught the crick, and Meeps seemed to try to steal it from the smaller lizards mouth. It failed to do so, and then as Maple began to walk off towards the hide, Meeps started gently licking/nipping on her side. As The smaller lizard entered the hide, Meeps grabbed the fat part of her tail and seemed to be really going for it. I lifted the hide and broke it up, no one was hurt.

I short time later, Meeps did a similar thing to the other older lizard (CocoaBean). This time, there was no hunting involved, though. Meeps trailed Cocoa across the tank, did the nipping thing, and then it was just a blur as the two thrashed for a second or two, then it was over.

I put Meeps in a separate 20 gallon aquarium for the time being. CocoaBean and Maple continue to peacefully share the 30 gallon.

After doing some research, the common wisdom is to separate. However, I don’t want to overreact, as this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I re-arranged their tank earlier in the day and they were just stressed out?

I really don’t want to keep them separated - but If situations like this tend to get worse, though, I guess I can keep Meeps in her own tank, though that’s not ideal.

Any advice?

[sajane]

that sounds a little like mating behavior.are you sure they are all girls?

[loggerboots]

Thanks, that crossed my mind as well. I'm as sure as I can be, with my limited experience. None of the 3 have the dark pores underneath, which (to me) would seem the most obvious indicator. They all have roughtly the same 'build' (Meeps is the largest, but only by a few grams). They are young, though (If I had to guess, I would guess the two older ones to be about 6 months), though I think they are large enough (40-ish grams) that I should be able to tell at this point, right?

[sajane]

i'm not that good at telling but if you post pics of their undersides the forum experts will know for sure

[loggerboots]

Well, uh, I figured it out. Took out meeps today to double check and, sure enough, there's a chevron down there. Oops... ( and good guess sajane).

The pores were not visible last time I checked, though that was probably over a month or more ago.

Cocoa still looks female and the little one, I think it's still too early to tell. Hopefully, they both are females or I'll have to get a 3rd tank!

So, I guess Meeps is going through the equivelent of puberty and the aggression was a byproduct of that? I guess he stays seperated!

[sajane]

sounds like you could have little ones in your future

[JordanAng420]

Definitely mating behavior....if your gecko becomes gravid, and you don't want to hatch babies, you can always freeze and toss the eggs, if that becomes an issue. Definately keep him separate though! Glad you got it figured out.

[loggerboots]

thanks folks,

Do you think that they could have possibly mated? I'm hoping that since the female are so young (best guess is 5 months, and she's only 40g), that she wouldn't have been mature enough to be receptive and/or conceive.

Should I do anything to ensure that, if he did manage to mate with her, that there aren't any problems?

[panthergecko]

lol gecko abortion or gecko day after pill? nope your best bet is to feed one more day of calcium with d3 as this will help just in case she is pregnant.

[sajane]

I feel that if they were in a scuffle , the female was not receptive and nothing happened