[WingedWolfPsion]

My trio just arrived yesterday, and I thought some folks might be interested in a few observations.

The male is quite shy, and has spent most of his time black--he's very skittish, and dives for cover whenever one of us moves outside of the viv. He's paled to blue a couple of times.

One female is extremely dominant, bright green, and is displaying aggressive and territorial behaviors. She is the most bold of the three geckos.

The other female is brown, smaller, and is displaying submissive behaviors.

So far, the dom female has staked out the bamboo as her territory. She reinforces this with head-bobbing, back arching, and nipping.

I've watched an interaction between her and the sub female--the dom puffed out her throat, arched her back, and sidled toward the sub, bobbing her head vigorously. In return, the sub slowly shook her head from side to side (as if saying 'no'), and followed it up a few moments later with a tail swish. The last half of her tail was swished back and forth moderately fast. The sub female has tested the dom female's attitude several times by deliberately wandering into the area she staked out--the dom female has chased her away.

I also observed the dominant female head-shaking until the sub responded in kind, then the dom morphed the gesture into a head bob/back arch.

The dom has been aggressive toward the male as well--she will nip him if he wanders close, and will display with head-bobbing and back arching. If the male refuses to back down and responds with a throat-flare and back arch, she will approach, and they will lick each others' faces. The male has won a few dominance altercations with her, but she appears to be ahead in that game.

On day 2, now, I am becoming concerned that this female is far too aggressive, and might have to eventually be removed from the group. I am reluctant to do this too quickly, but she has shown a tendency to stake out and guard the food dish. The sub female, the thinnest gecko, has managed to sneak by and feed herself, but the shy male hasn't yet been observed to actually get to the food, though he had shown interest in it.

Any advice on this would be welcome--am I worrying too much? The male is larger than the dom female. Does he just need more time to gain confidence, or should I consider removing the dom female? These animals were WC, so I want them to have the best possible environment.
On the other hand, the dom female is clearly a superior specimen, and it would be more desirable to breed her.

[DanaD]

I have had similar problems with my mourning geckos group - dominant female guarding the food dish, and the answer was pretty simple: more food dishes. You could just try that for a start, to make sure all tree of them get to eat.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Thanks. I've added this nifty "Mushroom Platform" I got from Pangea - it's magnetic, and holds 2 food cups. I've spotted the male on the platform this morning, so this may have solved the problem.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Here's a photo of the trio:

[Chum]

I can't help thinking that this green female of yours might be a male - unless you are sure on the genders ofc. If you take a look at the caresheet on this site there is an example of a trio of young animals where the male is still green and actually look alot like your green female.

Can you get a good picture of the underside of that green female of yours?

A full view of the underside and a closer view of the vent area would be nice.

You can find the caresheet here:
Lygodactylus Williamsi

[DanaD]

Yes, Chum may be actually right. My male, for example, is still green, even though he is more than 1.5 years old. And it's definitely male, the pre-anal pores and the bulge are quite obvious. It stayed this color because he's alone and don't have any females or male rivals to display to. I'm still searching for a female for him for quite a while now (I had one, little juvie, and died apparently for no reason - today was looking healthy, active and eating, and the next morning I found her dead )

Anyway, I wish you good luck with yours, they are amazing little creatures!

[WingedWolfPsion]

Well, the male perked up and turned blue today, and he must have put the dominant one in her place, because she turned brown and ceased showing off so much. <lol>

They were sold to me as a 1.2 trio. While I cannot be 100% sure they were correctly sexed, there are a few things that lead me to believe that they were--first, the green female was almost as large as the male, so I think they're fully of age. Second, the green female's behavior toward the male when he was in his proper colors was noticeably different from her behavior toward the other female. Last, she really is green, with no real blue tones, and she ranges from brown to green, rather than black to blue like the male--she definitely has other animals present to show off to.

If the opportunity presents itself, I'll snap some photos of her underside, but I'm very reluctant to disturb them again when they've barely begun to settle in here.

[WingedWolfPsion]

No love on the underside photos, yet, but I got this one the other day, of her all fired up. Sorry for the poor quality, but it is just a little digital camera, the glass has spots, and I took it from 5 feet away. <lol>

[lemniscate]

I, also, suspect, by your description and by the photos you've put up, that the dominant 'female' you have is in fact a male. I bought a 'pair' (hopefully shown in two photos here), the beautiful bright green female turned out to be a boy and is now bright blue in another viv with his own more browny green female. The initial Big Blue's second female, who was initially also browny green avoided the male so much and was so easily stressed by him that I removed her temporarily to rest up in peace.. and she promptly turned blue!! I got another female.. who definitely seems to be a female.. for Big Blue and a little female, who'd never thrived from a neighbour.. for the Little Blue (#3) and that pair are also doing Great now.
Maybe not, though. The females do also arch and scuttle and wag.
Sexing these delightful little beasts is certainly not easy!!!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I removed her today, so we'll see. I did take a good look at her underside, and I really see no sign of pores or of hemipenes, so I guess the final test is to watch what colors they all turn. She has been consistantly brown to olive green, only occasionally coloring up to bright green, though. I would have thought she would turn blue in the main viv if she was a male, since she had the male thoroughly cowed.