my agricolae and vieillardi finally moved to new terrariums

[mat.si]

Hi!
Last week I FINALLY managed to move my Eurydactylodes to their new terrariums. (I got the terrariums back in March. :blushing::biggrin

They are still not 100% finished, but I took a few quick shots (not the best ones though).

First two are my E. agricolae and the third one houses my young E. vieillardi females. There will be one more terrarium for vieillardi, when they are big enough to breed.

My original agricolae female. (I caught her yawning.):

One of the younger agricolae females:

My biggest young adult vieillardi female:

Two vieillardi females. One with normal coloration and the yellow one.
(That one gets almost lemon yellow at times. Quite interesting.)

Enjoy!
Matjaz

 

[ori]

Nice setups, Matjaz, thanks for posting. These are very similar to mine

The only difference is, that I got inside flower pot with wet peat, which is covered by dish with a hole on side as an egg-laying place and compact UV bulbs.

Very nice animals!
Ori

 

[Justin]

Great looking geckos and setups there! They look good and healthy

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Love the vieillardi! That yellow female is fantastic! Nice set-ups too. What are the things that looks like jars full of dirt in the enclosure pics?

 

[van_veen456]

Vey nice, thanks for posting!

 

[mat.si]

The terrariums still need some finishing touches.

I will also give them some egg-laying boxes with moist peat.
Although I have to say, my agricolae almost never laid eggs inside the box in their old terrarium. I was quite frustrated, when I always had to carefully observe the female, while she was digging in different places for a few days.
Eggs were often laid in the plant pot or even in the dry substrate, despite the box I provided.
If I wasn't careful and caught her laying eggs, they were rather hard to find, because she covered her tracks very well.

I use one 30W (90 cm) full spectrum/UV light tube per three terrariums.
They also get some heat from the tube bellow.
During some hot sumer days, I have to turn the lights off, because the room itself gets almost too hot.

What are the things that looks like jars full of dirt in the enclosure pics?

I knew somebody was gonna ask about that. :lol:

These are glass baby food jars, filled with sand and peat. Their purpose is, to hold the bent plastic spoons, which I use for serving baby food.
Something like this (in my old terrarium):

Mystery solved. :biggrin:

Matjaz

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

The terrariums still need some finishing touches.
These are glass baby food jars, filled with sand and peat. Their purpose is, to hold the bent plastic spoons, which I use for serving baby food.

Ahhah! Now I know your secrets! :evil: Great idea. Simple and practical.

 

[oli]

nice setups, and geckos, hope things go as planned and they start using their nest boxes for once, lol.

 

[ori]

Although I have to say, my agricolae almost never laid eggs inside the box in their old terrarium. I was quite frustrated, when I always had to carefully observe the female, while she was digging in different places for a few days.
Eggs were often laid in the plant pot or even in the dry substrate, despite the box I provided.

got the same troubles with both species and am pretty sure that most of us. So here are few tips that might help how to find eggs easier and avoid dry eggs.
First observe your females - pregnant female of vieillardi is much easier to spot, because you can see white eggs through belly. With agricolae females it is harder, as you can spot just a shape of eggs and not colour. Of course females of both species are rounded when they are gravid.
To avoid eggs laying into pots with plants I use simple trick - 1 centimeter bellow substrate surface I put 1 centimeter thick layer of seramis - females dont dig through and if so, you can see few pieces of seramis on substrate.
I keep substrate in tanks pretty dry, but sometimes females lay eggs there instead of using covered pots with peat. You must find eggs as soon as possible, so I made a calendar with expected dates of clutches - under my conditions agricolae lay eggs every 20-24 days, vieillardi 20-23 days.
And last suggestion - copulation takes place after each clutch and is quite loud. Most frequently occurs after evening spraying with water.
Ori

 

[mat.si]

Yes ori, I had exactly the same observations as you.
I still haven't bred my vieillardi, but it's indeed very hard to see when agricolae females are gravid. Yes, they are more round in the belly, but it's quite hard to notice, specially if they are well fed.

I keep very detailed notes on all my species. I write down every even slightly important event, including all eggs being laid.
It helps immensely to predict, when the next clutch is going to be laid.

Also the things like the age of babies at which I start noticing first slight differences between males and females. If my assumptions about sex are later confirmed, I get the age at which individual species can be sexed.

Matjaz

 

[ori]

Also the things like the age of babies at which I start noticing first slight differences between males and females. If my assumptions about sex are later confirmed, I get the age at which individual species can be sexed.

so what age is fine for sexing them? I always wait till preanal pores appear. But one friend told me, that he recognize sex during first three weeks of life and then again from third month...

I think that white scale on sides of hemipenal bulbs could be useful too...

 

[van_veen456]

I think that white scale on sides of hemipenal bulbs could be useful too...

Thats what I heard as well.
We'll have to wait and see I guess

 

[mat.si]

I've gotten quite good with sexing some species I've been breeding for years.
I think it takes at least two breeding seasons of observations, to get better at sexing babies. With most species it usually takes between 2 and 4 months so the babies can be sexed.
I have to admit I'm still not so good at sexing agricolae babies, because this will only be my second breeding season.
I haven't even looked for sex in agricolae in the first couple of months.
I would say probably about 3+ months to sex them as well.
Even experienced people can make mistakes with early sexing.

 

[van_veen456]

Defenitly!
This year I'm also 'experimenting' with early sexing. I'm having a look every 2 or 3 weeks now and I'll keep all of my offspring till December (most will be sexable then)

I'm also writing everything down. From feeding or non feeding to laying eggs. Copulations, digging, shedding, everything.
I personally think its way more fun if you really understand you're geckos and you're able to 'predict' things. It makes things a bit more personal

 

[ori]

I just checked Eury offsprings from this year and found, that vieillardi seems to be easier for sex determination.
One month old offsprings got well developed pores and white scales on hemipenal bulbs...both :? But they are simply great and growing very well.

 

[mat.si]

new laying boxes for agricolae

I just added brand new egg laying "boxes" to my agricolae terrariums today.
Now I just have to wait and see, if females will like them.
Thanks for the tip ori!

And while I'm at it, here's another photo of my yellow vieillardi female.

Matjaz

 

[ori]

that yellow female is very very nice. Congratulations.
To the egg laying boxes - these work very well, especially for my Strophurus. It worked well for Eurydactylodes too, first few clutches were laid there without exception, but then females started to lay into substrate around...
...next year with new pairs I will try to leave eggs in these egg laying sites for two or three days and hope it will help to keep them laying eggs inside. It looks like females quarded eggs and when I gather them up too early, they decided to use another places...
As I mentioned above, I use this boxes for Strophurus too and observed interesting behaviour of one Strophurus female, as first few clutches she laid into this egg laying box and made very smooth surface as usually. But after she saw me extracting eggs several times, she just digs eggs into substrate and doesnt waste energy on making smooth substrate. She did that four times in a row, so it wasnt an accident...pretty clever animal, isnt she?
Ori

 

[Justin]

I really like that yellow vieillardi. Those guys are next on my list for sure.

 

[mat.si]

Well, one of the agricolae females started digging again today..........around the plant. :? :roll:
She never even looked at her brand new "cradle". Damn.

 

[mat.si]

Two nights ago I removed the cover from the laying pot and last night she finally went to dig in it and laid a single egg clutch. I hoped for two, but one is better than none.