Phelsuma grandis entushiast from Indonesia

[aquaplantae]

Phelsuma grandis enthusiast from Indonesia

Hi everyone. Greetings from Indonesia. I've just recently acquired a pair of Phelsuma grandis, and what a beauty they are. 2 hours after being put into their enclosure, they start to mate. Is it normal? I figure that the climate in Madagascar pretty much the same with Jakarta (the city I currently lived).

I use Exoterra 200 for UVB supplies (although the enclosure is semi outdoor) and 40 watt Spottone for heat. The basking area is about 35 Celcius and the "colder" part about 29-30 Celcius.

I feed them with crickets dusted with Zoomed Calcium with vit D3 once every 2 days. Each one will get 5 adult crickets. And every once a week I give them Heinz Assorted Fruit (looks like jam) mixed with honey, bee pollen, calcium with d3 and a little bit of warm water to thin the mixture. My grandis can't get enough of this mixture. But I limit it to once a week.

2 weeks after mating, the female starting to refuse any foods. It will only take 1-2 cricket/feeding and sometimes not at all. Even the fruit mixture seem not to be anymore appetizing for her. Is it normal? And she seems to never go far away or long-time enough from a bamboo tube, wide enough for her.

Well, this is the photo I manage to shot before they start to copulate.

 

[aquaplantae]

finally, yesterday my female grandis laid two eggs. hopefully they will hatch.

 

[aquaplantae]

2nd clutch. yipeee.....

 

[Andre]

Very cool. I can't wait for my female to grow big enough to introduce to my adult male. She is only 6 on this old, so I'll wait until she is 1-1/2 years old. Love the pictures of your clutches. Keep us posted on your new pair of grandis.

 

[aquaplantae]

Very cool. I can't wait for my female to grow big enough to introduce to my adult male. She is only 6 on this old, so I'll wait until she is 1-1/2 years old. Love the pictures of your clutches. Keep us posted on your new pair of grandis.

Thank you. I will surely keep updating the progress. Hopefully yours will also mate.

 

[aquaplantae]

got another clutch this morning. sadly only got 1 egg, instead of 2 like previous clutches before. well, guess one is still better than none. ^_^

 

[aquaplantae]

yesterday got another clutch, too bad it were duds. the eggs weren't laid in usual spot (which is a bamboo trunk), but just laid over bottom substrate.

 

[Tatl]

Prolific little pair you have there! Can't wait for baby pics.

 

[aquaplantae]

Hi Tatl, thank you. I'm expecting the first clutch to hatch within 2-3 week. I'll be sure to post the pic here once it hatched. ^_^

 

[aquaplantae]

Hooray, finally clutch 1 hatched this morning. As of now, only 1 out of 2 that already hatched from clutch 1. Can't wait for the other one to hatch.

 

[Andre]

Very cool! Very interesting watching the progression. Cute little one. Wonder how long it will take for the other one to emerge.

 

[aquaplantae]

Hi Andre, actually it only take 1 day for the other egg to hatch. Currently I put it into 2 separate tanks. This is the setup that I use. It haven't been moved to a dedicated cabinet yet, equipped with UVB light.

To open a higher resolution pic, please click here

 

[Andre]

Aquaplantae,
My female has recently laid a dud egg. I guess that would make her sexually mature? Any advice on introducing her to my male. My male is in a large exoterra terrarium about a meter tall it is heavily planted with vines and has lots of bamboo. In your experience should I remove the male and place the female in the large enclosure for a week or so to get adjusted, or should I just put her in and keep a close eye on the two of them? Here is a picture of the enclosure that I would like them to be together in.

 

[aquaplantae]

Hi Andre, I guess your female already reach the mature age. Being new to phelsuma, I think I neglect a few things from my ignorance. Like how I just put male and female in the same tank from the start. I was lucky enough to be offered an adult grandis and standingi for a start from my reptiles importer friend. At that time, all of them are not a pair yet. Thankfully, both my grandis and standingi pair have never even fight or rejected each other right from the moment they were put in the same enclosure. Sadly my standingi pair managed to flee when I open the cage to feed them. Since my enclosures are semi outdoor, the male standingi successfully fled away.

So if you asked me whether to introduce directly or by placing another enclosure, I would prefer to use a direct method and watch them closely for a couple days.

It is a good thing that your enclosure are heavily planted. It can sustain humidity and would give a lot of cover and hiding places, in case the pair wouldn't go well.

Me myself don't heavily planted the enclosure. I just used several pothos. The humidity and temperature in Jakarta are already within range. And I would like to be able to easily control them and easily check if the female laid eggs.

Right now, I'm waiting for custom cages to be delivered. Once it arrives, I will move my grandis and standingi to this new cage. I designed it so it would help me to do daily maintenance without the risk they would flee. I will be sure to upload it when the cage arrive. ^_^

 

[Andre]

can you describe mating behaviours that you have observed in your experience. What is the difference between aggression and normal mating behaviours?

 

[aquaplantae]

I have only seen it once. The male will approach the female from upfront and then it will shake its head sideways. If the female accept him, she will stay motionless. Then the male will get onto the female's back and bite her neck. Then he positioned himself and enter her. The whole process will take about 5-15 minutes (according to my reptiles keeper on several occasion).

Aggression is when male bite and the female return the bite and both party will suffer injury. Maybe one will be badly injured then other. Or one will flee when intimidated.

I am new to phelsuma, and everyday is a learning day. This is what I can share for now. Surely you have been keeping phelsuma longer than I do. I just lucky that my pair bonded and from that they started to breed. ^_^

Btw, today I'm feeling very lucky. Maybe Harry Potter accidentally drop the Felix Felicis potion into my drink. Hahaha..... My male standingi that have been escaped for 2 months and hide into my neighbor's house/garden, suddenly show up near the female standingi enclosure. Without further consideration, my reptiles keeper just grab it and put it safely into another enclosure for quarantine. He got a few bite though because he snatch it roughly. I was in the office, and my reptiles keeper can't contain his excitement when he phoned me. I do feel that I smile a lot today. :biggrin:

 

[aquaplantae]

I just like to post an update. It is astonishing on how quick these little fellas grown.

for higher resolution pic, please click here or here.

 

[Tatl]

First time breeding Phelsumas can be a little tough on not only the geckos, but the keeper as well. It can be pretty brutal for the female or both, especially in a pair's first season together.

Do you have an eagle eye's view picture of the first two babies? The spotting looks more like freckling and from what I can see - which is interesting since the parents both have bold spotting. (again, from what I can see) Love these little guys and always enjoyed recognizing each by their unique markings.

Also, those plant bottles on the right scare me a little! I'd toss some kinda screen over the openings just in case the little guys should fall in when going for a drink. You can never be too careful right? Cheers!

 

[mkschaefer]

Andre, young females will lay infertile eggs and I would consider age and size to be better indicators, though a female of appropriate size and age laying infertiles is a good sign. I pair the larger Phelsuma at 2.5-3 years old.

 

[Andre]

Thanks for the tip Mkschaefer!
I'm having fun with my grandis'... What do the numbers mean after people describe the animals? Eg. 2.5-1.5