Breeding ebenaui

[geckocrazy]

It looks like there are a few people here that are having success breeding Ebens so i'm curious how they have been getting them to breed. I've had 3.2 for about a year now and have seen no evidence of breeding. I have all 5 together in a 68 gallon tank. The temps are 77 degrees daytime and 73 at night. The are fed supplemented crickets 4 times a week and all appear fat and healthy. The tank has live plants and multiple cork hollows and plenty of branches. I use a mixture of coco fiber, top soil, and sand as a bedding with oak, ficus and magnolia leaves as cover. All were purchased as young adults. I mist heavy at night and lightly in the morning. Any suggestions from people who have had success breeding would be great. Thanks,

Chris Drake

 

[miguel camacho!]

Sometimes, compatible individuals are more important than anything else. Try posting pictures of the enclosure to have it critiqued, if it is necessary to do so.

Were your animals purchased together in one group, or individually?

Take into consideration there is still relatively little known (and that fact established in the scientific literature) about Uroplatus in general, and for what may seem like a single species to us may be somewhat different (either in species designation or subspecific/regional natural history).

From the sounds of it, your enclosure seems very fitting, but an actual look at it may help us reveal any possible flaws.

Off the top of my head, 68 gallons is a bit big for 5 U. ebenaui, and on top of that, it isn't quite breeding season for them. I always suggest altering your light cycle accordingly to mimic seasonal variation, as in many reptiles breeding is seasonal. Climatic cues are often strongly tied to light cycle and temperatures, and sometimes rainfall. In my experience, mating and oviposition occur in our North American season most closely associated with fall/winter, and your light cycles/temperatures are easiest to manipulate for your animals if they reflect the seasons that are actually occurring wherever you're located (i.e. right now, they should have slightly higher temperatures, longer days than nights, and slightly dryer conditions).

 

[jberrigan]

I had some success breeding a pair of ebenaui several years ago. I housed them in a 15 gal. tank with a screen top. I used bed-a-beast for substrate and had the tank packed with live plants and some cork bark pieces for hiding places. I probably only misted the tank at night, every other day or whenever the substrate looked dry. I fed them dusted crickets twice a week. I tried feeding them various fruit baby foods but they ignored them in favor of the live food. The only eggs I would find were the infertile ones which the female would stick to any random surface out in the open singly. I would never find where she laid the fertile eggs and would just see miniature versions of the adults freshly hatched and wandering around the enclosure at night. I did not find raising the hatchlings to be too difficult and I did not lose a single one. Hatchlings were immediately removed when found in their parents enclosure as they would certainly be eaten if left with the adults. They are pretty small hatchlings but they have large heads which makes feeding on fruit flies and tiny pinheads possible within the first week of their lives. I kept the hatchlings together in 1 gal tanks with screen lids, bare bottoms with just a few twigs for climbing. I also misted the tanks but not the geckos directly once or twice daily. I hope this info is helpful, this is just what worked for me. Let me know If you have any specific questions I can help you with. Oh, almost forgot my best tip, try to disturb them as little as possible. They only bred for me when I left them alone with no poking around in their tank. Good Luck!