Poimandres
New member
Greetings,
I have kept many species of herps for close to 20 years now, and am now mainly working with Poison Dart Frogs; thanks to my girlfriend's passion for geckos I have rekindled my interest in these awesome animals. We recently hatched out 5 R. ciliatus and have begun working with this pair of U. ebanaui. Our collection has been growing rapidly and we are both very excited about the future.
I posted this exact thread a few days ago on another forum, so apologies in advance if I am "spamming" this, but I figure it is a good way to introduce myself to this forum and share with you some of our husbandry practices.
We caught this pair of ebenaui mating on a few occasions but have yet to find any eggs.
They are in a 20 gallon vertical conversion natural vivarium with automated misting, centralized draining, and enclosed air circulation system. We use t5 lights for the plants and seed the vivarium with springtails and other "janitorial" microfauna to control the waste and mold buildup.
The shots of the vivarium are pretty old, the pothos and other vines have really started to fill out the space.
vivarium on the left
side shot showing drainage system out the front. Taken during a misting session hence the condensation all over the glass.
Air circulation fan
The air circulation system is something that we have used with great success keeping dart frogs. It serves two functions: 1) Circulate the humid air and keep it from become stagnant thereby keeping fungus and diseases in check and benefiting the overall quality of life of the vivarium; and 2) Cool down the enclosure. As a side effect it also helps dry out the vivarium a bit between misting cycles. It is controlled by a central fan and temperature controller that handles 5 separate units (a modified pc fan controller).
Shot of the controller on a very hot day (shows extreme high temp, ebenaui viv is unit # 2)
The ebenaui viv is unit #2. Even with the fan not running at 100% it still manages to keep the vivarium several degrees cooler than the Oophaga pumilio vivs (3,4,5) that we allow to reach the lower 80s for breeding. The probes are located at the top of the vivarium where it is the warmest and it gets a few degrees cooler around the leaf litter. Overall the max daily temps are 76º F at the warmest point (late afternoon, summer months) with roughly a 10º night drop. These are the extreme temps, on average the viv is kept in the low 70s during the day and mid 60s at night. At least with my frogs I have found that allowing for greater fluctuations in temperature (within their acceptable range of course) and replicating wet/dry seasons through increased frequency of misting serves a catalyst for breeding behavior...we will see if this holds true for these ebanaui and if any fertile eggs come from this pairing.
thanks for viewing and thank you for having us here!
- Leo
I have kept many species of herps for close to 20 years now, and am now mainly working with Poison Dart Frogs; thanks to my girlfriend's passion for geckos I have rekindled my interest in these awesome animals. We recently hatched out 5 R. ciliatus and have begun working with this pair of U. ebanaui. Our collection has been growing rapidly and we are both very excited about the future.
I posted this exact thread a few days ago on another forum, so apologies in advance if I am "spamming" this, but I figure it is a good way to introduce myself to this forum and share with you some of our husbandry practices.
We caught this pair of ebenaui mating on a few occasions but have yet to find any eggs.
They are in a 20 gallon vertical conversion natural vivarium with automated misting, centralized draining, and enclosed air circulation system. We use t5 lights for the plants and seed the vivarium with springtails and other "janitorial" microfauna to control the waste and mold buildup.
The shots of the vivarium are pretty old, the pothos and other vines have really started to fill out the space.
vivarium on the left
side shot showing drainage system out the front. Taken during a misting session hence the condensation all over the glass.
Air circulation fan
The air circulation system is something that we have used with great success keeping dart frogs. It serves two functions: 1) Circulate the humid air and keep it from become stagnant thereby keeping fungus and diseases in check and benefiting the overall quality of life of the vivarium; and 2) Cool down the enclosure. As a side effect it also helps dry out the vivarium a bit between misting cycles. It is controlled by a central fan and temperature controller that handles 5 separate units (a modified pc fan controller).
Shot of the controller on a very hot day (shows extreme high temp, ebenaui viv is unit # 2)
The ebenaui viv is unit #2. Even with the fan not running at 100% it still manages to keep the vivarium several degrees cooler than the Oophaga pumilio vivs (3,4,5) that we allow to reach the lower 80s for breeding. The probes are located at the top of the vivarium where it is the warmest and it gets a few degrees cooler around the leaf litter. Overall the max daily temps are 76º F at the warmest point (late afternoon, summer months) with roughly a 10º night drop. These are the extreme temps, on average the viv is kept in the low 70s during the day and mid 60s at night. At least with my frogs I have found that allowing for greater fluctuations in temperature (within their acceptable range of course) and replicating wet/dry seasons through increased frequency of misting serves a catalyst for breeding behavior...we will see if this holds true for these ebanaui and if any fertile eggs come from this pairing.
thanks for viewing and thank you for having us here!
- Leo
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They are awsome geckos