Mixing Species

[Mantisdragon91]

Because of limited space and wide animal interests, I have for years experimented with keeping diffrent species together. Some of the successful combinations I have worked with are as follows:

1) Phelsuma Klemmeri and Uroplatus Ebenaui in a 20 Gallon Extra Tall Tank
2) Cat Geckos and Marbled Walking geckos in a 30" by 12" by 16" enclosure
3) Black Tree monitors and Solomon Island Ground Skinks in a 4' by 2' by 5' enclosure
4) Saharan and Ornate Uromastyx in a 6' by 2' by 30" cage. 3.4 saharans and 1. Ornate kept together for 3 years with no sign of aggression and annual egg layings by the saharans.
5) Chinese Flying Frogs and female Giant River Dragons in a 260 Gallon Reptarium. Thinking about adding some type of large rainforest gecko to the mix.. (Tokay, Giant Walking, Gehyra Vorax) Open to suggestions.
6) Green Basilisks, Malagasy Plated Lizards and Giant Day Geckos in a 65 gallon Reptarium.

My experience is that many animals will do better in larger multiple species enlosures then they will in smaller species specific cages.

Who else has tried to keep multiple species together and what have your experiences been?

 

[twitch_doberman]

currently i have a flying gecko ( ptychozoon kuhli) and a golden malaysian gecko(geko ulikovskii) together. and they do great. both are male to.. well i'm pretty sure the maylaysian is male but no aggression sometimes they sit next eachother. and of course each has their own hide space

 

[Animal34343]

Mantisdragon91, some of your enclosures sound pretty nice, can you post some pictures so we can see them? I would not suggest a tokay for # 5, they can be pretty aggressive.

 

[beege_3]

I would second that request, always been interested in mixed terraniums but never wanted to run a big risk with it.

 

[Ingo]

Hi,

I have a strong interest in naturalistic vivaria. Naturalistic to me includes size and complexity.
Thus I also try to mix species by providing individual niches for the respective animals.
Also in some tanks, some animals can help a lot to keep the system running. In large rainforest setups, toads for example help to prevent feeder insects, namely roaches, to multiply excessively. Some geckos are of similar help. A society of small arthropodes helps to remove feces and other detritus. hermit crabs are great for removing feces of large amphibians and so are land crabs, large millipedes do remove rotting vegetation..... and so on.
I do have mixed species tanks ever since and I do have animals which thrive since 12, 18 and even 23 years in mixed species setups. Carefully chosen, mixing species does not necessarily harm and does not reduce proliferation of the affected animals. I do have many successful breeders living in mixed species setups. Also mixing species can reduce intraspecific aggressivity, especially for some phelsumas. It also can add some behavioural enrichment to tanks which are otherwise very poor in external stimuli.
After all, the respective species still have to be selected very carefully and the tank not only has to be big but also has to provide all the essentails for all species involved.
Nothing to be recommended to a beginner, but a challenge for experienced herpers.

With your examples, I do feel a bit unconfortable with the cage sizes you use for such experiments.....I strongly recommend to not try to safe space by mixing species

A few pics of some of some of my tanks. All somewhat older, sorry, I do not have a lot online

Sorry, wrong exposure...too dark (otheriwse, desert tank would be too bright)

 

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

nice job Ingo!!! now i have to go cheer up my tanks, you made them feel insecure!

-Nate

 

[lessthantito]

Very nice vivariums Ingo what do you keep in them?

 

[ryan]

Amazing, If only I had the room!

 

['stoph]

Ingo's 1200g community tank - Basilisks and tokays

http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/162610-post13.html

 

[Ingo]

I admit its more in there.....basilisks, tokays, anglehead dragons, rokoko toads (the female is 770g), giant hermit crabs, halloween crabs and lots of self reproducing feeder fisch and shrimps.
The toads prevent roaches from multiplying too much, the crustaceens do feed on lizard and toad poo-and so does a plethory of small arthropods inoculated from forest soil.
Maintenance of that tank costs me 20 minutes a week plus an additional hour every month.
A drawback is that I do not find all eggs. Just yesterday, a basilisk must have deposited a very large clutch but I did not find the respective place. But not too bad....in 3 months I will just have too be quicker thasn the lizards in catching baby basilisk from the tank. So its a reduced yield, but still okay. There is no market for too many basiliske anyhow in my area.
In the other pics posted above you see a few of my medium sized tanks, the larger are in the 300g range or have large floor space (> 40 square feet).
Therein I keep diverse lizards ranging from oustalets, jewelled lacertas, Uromastyx to diverse geckos, including Ptenopus, Gehyra marginata and most available species of the genus Gekko (Ok , quite some of these I do keep in smaller tanks not depicted so far in the pics.)

Ingo

 

[Ingo]

Here are better pics of the other larger tanks

 

[Turtlestork]

Hey, Ingo, I love your tanks! I am designing a larger tank, And I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of branches you use? In the last pic, I love the branches used on the farthest tank and closest. And how do you support them or attach them? Thanks.


TS

 

[lessthantito]

Ingo what do you house in the 3 large tanks in your last pic? those are some of THE most incredible mini enviroments ever I would love to see those in real life

 

[Ingo]

Hi,

in the left one, male oustaleti plus pair of Bufo regularis, right one, female oustaleti plus pair of Gekko siamensis, middle, Pair of P. mad grandis, pair of Gehyra marginata, some Archispirostreptus plus their offspring.

Cheers Ingo

 

[lemonjello]

Another one you could do is leopard geckos with armadillo lizards or African fat tailed geckos with anoles. Another one that I think would work is pink bellied swifts and banded geckos. Gotta love herps!

 

[Mikhail F. Bagaturov]

Ingo, I wonder, do You have some place at Your home where to throw some garbage to sleep on?

 

[Ingo]

Oh, I do have...just between the parrot cage and an aquarium :biggrin:

 

[Ingo]

Hey, Ingo, I love your tanks! I am designing a larger tank, And I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of branches you use? In the last pic, I love the branches used on the farthest tank and closest. And how do you support them or attach them? Thanks.


TS

I prefer branches from red beech. They withstand rotting very long and even without bark their surface is not too smooth for climbing. Branches are either just stabilized by each other or connected to each other with nealed wire. Some are suspenden on the tank top using the same stuff.

Hope that helps

Ingo

 

[John Z]

These are my kinda keepers.I am currently mixing Paroedura picta male,Chondrodactylus angulifer,Albino Leopard gecko,Teratoscincus Przwalski and a African Fat Tail striped in a 29 gallon tank with deco-replicas castle volcano in it.Look at my post for pictures.Ill post picts here also.Im Gonna be adding a Teratoscincus roborowski and maybe a oedura marmorata..Mixing species is a really exciting to watch different walks of life get along & interact of only different Gekkonids with similar temp & size. Ps Do not mix anything else with Varanids.I have a dwarf ackies monitor seperate.

Dont the geckos you have housed together have different requirements? Why would you cram all of them in one cage? This just doesnt make sense to me.

 

[PassPort]

Eli,
price was not an issue when I refused to sell to you. lack of common sense and an obvious inability to comprehend what you're being told were the big issues, along with a blatant disregard for the total welfare of the animals in your possession. unfortunately LLL doesn't really care who buys their reptiles as long as their credit card is good.