Lygodactylus williamsi appreciation thread!!!

[chuckwalla]

Nice thread you've started here Dave! L. williamsii is a great species, and as many have commented, it is worthy of all the attention and praises received.

I'm curious to know if anyone has had success keeping two or more males with multiple females in a large planted vivarium? Any comments on enclosure dimensions to pull off such a feat would be appreciated.

RN

 

[Dendro_Dave]

Nice thread you've started here Dave! L. williamsii is a great species, and as many have commented, it is worthy of all the attention and praises received.

I'm curious to know if anyone has had success keeping two or more males with multiple females in a large planted vivarium? Any comments on enclosure dimensions to pull off such a feat would be appreciated.

RN

Thx..... I happen to be keeping both my pairs in a 30 cube. I've had them since Dec and it was probably a month before any eggs appeared atleast. They've all been in that tank together since Jan, i believe. One male was unknown but im about 90% sure it is a male now, its just to bright compared to the females and i think i finally saw some femeral pores, and its getting more orange underneath.

I havent witnessed much aggression between the two males, the older/brighter one today walked by the other kinda tentatively and bobbed its head and carefully went by. Most of the aggression i've seen is from the dominate female who pushes everyone around when she wants something they've laid atleast 8 eggs so far, but im just getting to the point that i may start finding hatchlings, assuming the parents dont eat em first, which i've seen with my flying geckos. I think both females are laying, but im not sure the younger male is breeding or not, so far i've only seen breeding with the older one. I was going to seperate the pairs when i figured out sexes, but they seem to be doing well, fat and happy and laying so for now i guess i'll leave em be.

Here is their tank...and a guest appearance!

 

[chuckwalla]

Thanks for the quick reply and info. That is a great looking vivarium! I really like the substrate. What have you got growing there in the foreground (lower portion that looks to be sloping into the H20)?

I hope you start finding hatchlings!
Cool fennec bt the way! Not the standard canine companion.

 

[Dendro_Dave]

Thanks for the quick reply and info. That is a great looking vivarium! I really like the substrate. What have you got growing there in the foreground (lower portion that looks to be sloping into the H20)?

I hope you start finding hatchlings!
Cool fennec bt the way! Not the standard canine companion.

Thx, originally the tank had tropical moss from T&C terriums, but this tiny tiny liverwort that looks like moss has taken most of it over...The plants growing near the water in the pic are a mix of small ferns(or something similar) that tend to pop up from the t&c moss, and then some micro sword aquatic that does pretty good in a marginal area like that. I cant remember the exact type of aquatic grass it is though. Im not sure its actual micro sword, but something like it.

 

[cat_named_noodles]

Finally got some batteries, so here's my little trio. They've just been introduced to the terrarium, finally mite free, and are settling in well.

 

[cat_named_noodles]

And I know they are underweight- the just flew in over a week ago and are still settling in. It's terribly hard to get any feeders small enough out here so I just ordered a bunch of fruit flies.

 

[Zippy]

I love this thread, and I LOVE my L. williamsi!!! I can't get over how adorable these critters are, and the blue of the males is just astounding. It's like one of those colors you could never imagine on an animal till you actually see it, you know?

I've had my pair for about 2 months. I stumbled on them by accident. We had a RES turtle, Lulu, that I got tired of cleaning up after (man, they're stinky animals). I took her to the pet store (I know they have a good ongoing business in RES, and plenty of people that are always building bigger tanks and adding turtles, so I knew she would find a home.) I had promised the kids that I would find an animal or animals to put in the tank to take the place of Lulu. It had to be small, because I didn't intend to keep something that needed a 100 gallon tank by the end of it's growth!

Oddly, about a week earlier, they had been expecting dwarf newts or something, but ended up with 3 L. williamsi, by accident. Expensive little guys, so they just weren't selling. It was kismet. So I cleaned the tank, set it up as a terrarium, and brought the little ones home, and I've been in love ever since. We've had an egg since mid-March, so maybe we'll have a baby!

Now I want to put together a really nice vivarium, like the ones in this thread, and around the other threads here. I'm getting a Zoo Med 12x12x18 ...should be plenty big enough for a pair, maybe add a female later, no? I'm also trying to re-sort my furniture around the house to make room for another vivarium, maybe a bigger one, to have some phelsuma.... haven't decided on exactly what phelsuma I want yet..

If anyone has a female to sell, let me know.

 

[Tokaybyt]

I just got a pair of these guys yesterday and just got done sitting with a pair of pocket knife tweezers pulling mites. Everything I've read for the last 6-8 months about them and then having them in person is just awesome. I had both licking pear baby food cut with Rep-Cal off my finger tip right after the tweezing and local olive oil spot treatment session.

I'd like to increase my pair to a trio later this year, as well as possibly picking up an additional trio or 2 for diversity. Even my girlfriend is fully on board with them, though not a hard thing to do as she likes the critters i keep. Being the typical girl though, they are "sooooo cute" to her. I have to agree. I dare say their cuteness rivals that of the baby mexican hognose snakes I have, which to me is not an easy task given how cute baby hoggies are period.

Anyhow, enough rambling. I give you "Smurfette"

"Papa Smurf" isn't being as bold as the little girl yet and thus hasn't given me the chance to get a good colored up photo of him.

Conclusion: I've had or still have cresteds, quadriocellatas, lat. angularis, tokays, leos, fat-tails, various Coleonyx, and other species of non-geckos, but these Lygos are freak'n cool as hell!

 

[Zippy]

Are you sure that's a female? "She" is awfully blue for a female, and she has a lot of black around her face. My female has almost no black, and no where NEAR a blue color... I'm wondering if you have a young male that hasn't come into his color fully yet...

Lemme find a pic of my female to compare.... Also, my male is my avatar, so compare his black markings around his face to yours - almost identical! No black markings on my female:

 

[Tokaybyt]

"She" is same size as my male, with no hemipenal bulges, and non-existent pores.

 

[Dendro_Dave]

"She" is same size as my male, with no hemipenal bulges, and non-existent pores.

I'd have to say i think you may have a juvi male there....My "unknown" looked almost just like that. But I finally hit him with a flash light at the right angle and saw the femeral pores, i couldnt see them before. And yours has even more of a "beard" then mine, which is a predominately male trait i believe. The females can get a lil blue/greenish at their brightest, but are mostly brown or olive.

Here is the unknown that im now 95% sure is a male. As you can see mine has nearly no beard, but im pretty sure what i saw were femeral pores underneath. Also its developing that orangish under belly that seems to be more of a male thing.

 

[jpg]

Old photos of my pair .

 

[John_Woodward]

im not so sure it isnt a female, time will tell i guess though. I had a girl that has some AMAZING coloration, most even said it was a girl, but i got 2 clutches of eggs before she died.

 

[cat_named_noodles]

Here's a couple photos I took today

 

[Tokaybyt]

some more photos of the "female"...opinions?

100% shots of pore area

And something neat I hadn't read about. Apparently these guys have a pad on the tail tip like cresties.

 

[Zippy]

Very sorry - I didn't mean to start any tension. I wasn't expecting all this defensiveness.

/explaining my reasoning on

I'm quite new at this, but I have done plenty of research on my little guys... Since I only saw the one pic, I was simply going by the beard markings on the face. The females don't tend to have beards, right?

It really all depends on how old your gecko is, I guess. From what I've read, the pores don't show up in juveniles, and even though it's as big as your other gekk, it could just have a bigger gene pool that him, and still be a juvie, and a male that hasn't developed the pores yet.

And, of course, it could be a female, with a beard. (Thought you only saw bearded ladies at the circus, didn't ya?)

/explaining my reasoning off

If I offended you, I apologize.

 

[Tokaybyt]

If I offended you, I apologize.

NEGATIVE! If anything we're learning more and that's what these forums are for. Please don't take my posting as me taking offense, I'm not.

I'm slightly confused as well, as some readings I've come across stated females had some markings on the chin and males would have a black throat. My definite male has similar markings as my "female".

 

[Zippy]

Whew! I read too much into your posts. Sorry about THAT now. LOL!!

Well, I'm learning a lot too. I have a pic of my two on the side of the tank, and I zoomed WAY in. Very cool! The male has such an obvious dark inverted V. They both have orange bellies, but the female's fades to yellow toward the front of her body. It's really cool to look at. Lemme see if I can attach the zoomed in pics (my computer crashed on and off for a couple months after I got it, so I gave up loading cool picture editing stuff...)

First, I'll post this, then I'll edit if I get the pics zoomed in.

Oh, the tail pad is so cool!! I saw a video of what geckos use their tails for - if their feet slip, they use their tail to lever them back up. Very cool.

 

[crestedtimm]

Ok, first the pic in the pro.breeders series book

Then hearing that they were at Daytona ( for $1000 each like 2 years ago)

And now having seen how BEAUTIFUL they are in every pic all you kind folks have posted, Im gonna need some to maintain my sanity!!!!!!!

BTW, a lot of gex have a pad of adhesive lamelae on the tip of the tail, cresteds just utilize their tail in aprehensile manner, and hold still!

If you ever get the chance, Phelsuma grandis has a small section as well, but hardly anyone tames them so they go berserk if you touch them!

Adding these to my list, or bumping them closer to the top anyways.

Timm

 

[cat_named_noodles]

Eating mealworms...