New Phelsuma robertmertensi, female klemmeri, & borbonica (agalegae) mater

[mkschaefer]

I just acquired 1.1 Phelsuma robertmertensi , 0.1 Phelsuma klemmeri, and 1.2 Phelsuma borbonica (agalegae) mater this afternoon from Kurt Lance (The Rep Room... your source for fine reptiles.). I'm thrilled.

I have been searching through the archives on this site and others to better understand the borbonica complex as I do not always know what I am looking at.

I generally keep my animals in pairs, but does anyone keep or recommend keeping borbonica complex in trios? I know some recommend swapping the male between two separate females.

The pictures I took are not very good, but I thought I would share them anyway.

Phelsuma robertmertensi

Female:

Male:

Female Phelsuma klemmeri (for pairing up a lone male):

I acquired 1.2 Phelsuma borbonica (agalegae) mater. They are very beautiful and very fast!

Male:

Terrible picture, but definite male:

Females (these pictures might be of the same animal, they are very temporarily and individually held in critter keepers until I figure out how best to put them together. I don't remember which females were which in my sequence of pictures):

 

[adamkwas]

Very, very nice! Best of luck with breeding and keeping them! However, I am not 100% certain you have borbonica agalegae mater, as I think they posses blue rings around their eyes and have a reddish head. I know JohnWoodard keeps a lot of borbonica; perhaps he could chime in? :biggrin:

 

[Sgvreptiles]

Hey Matt
Awesome pick ups man. The borbonica look very good. Alot more green then Ive seen in most going around. Which does make me think they are agalage(though they seem to be missing the brownish heads). Regardless beautiful animals, cant wait to see some more photos of them once they settle in!

 

[John_Woodward]

great picks up man, they all look nice and healthy. as far as the borbonica are concerned, The animals you have most resemble some of my borbonica borbonica, but i put a decent amount of trust in kurt lance and his opinions. The previous post did state some correct facts about mater identification, but i also know the variability is insane within this complex. the following two pictures are both animals that fit the mater identification that is generally accepted.

 

[Sgvreptiles]

I think ive posted these here already, but ill throw them up again so you can get some more comparisons.
All of my animals are maters.
Female

Male

Other female

They mostly vary in blue hues, the first girl will get greenish, but no were near as green as your animals though. But who knows, these guys are all probably inbred,

 

[mkschaefer]

Some more pictures (I am working on hiding the wires-next project).

Two females:

Male:

Phelsuma robertmertensi (These are really stunning):

Male closeup

Female:

 

[baugh]

Very nice borbonica. I have a trio of agalagae I will get pictures posted the next time I'm around a computer. Mertensi are some nice geckos still wish I had mine.

 

[baugh]

I was going to load a few pictures of my p. B.n agalagae and post them but its going to take way to long on my phone. Since I'm not sure when I will get to a compture to post them I will just post a link to my photot bucket account.


Pictures by baughphelsuma - Photobucket

 

[daggekko]

Wow they are all so beautiful!

 

[reproom]

From the breeder

Figured I would chime in as well since they came from me. What we have found is that some people call them agalagae mater and some just mater. The b. agalagae is definitely different from the mater. The confusion in my opinion is between mater and b. borbornica. These two are really close with slight differences. The color on Matts was just off because they were getting settled in but they look just like the pics posted by John. BY the way that first pic was a great looking animal. One of these days I will make time to take pics and try to describe what I think the differences are in my humble opinion. I don't claim to be an expert just a hobbyist who has been lucky enough to acquire some very cool geckos. I have all three subspecies( I think) and one day hope to be able to build my colony enough to be able to continue the species for a long time. Anyway thanks for the nice comments from all. It is nice to get recognized by your peers even though we don't have a fancy cool new website. One day I will get working on that too. LOL

 

[mkschaefer]

I will try to post some better pictures under some better lighting. I have two fluorescent fixtures, but one is a T12. I will be replacing it with a T5 or T8. Anyway, the geckos are fantastic and I am really impressed with them. They presently do not look like they did in the first pictures. Those pictures were taken at night, in a spare room in my basement that has poor lighting. I use that room because I can recapture the geckos in case they escape.

I have been viewing countless references for borbonica in trying to figure out what I can. Regardless, I am grateful for the opportunity to obtain these animals. The robertmertensi are spectacular as well. I'm very pleased. Thanks.

Kurt, I apologize for spelling your last name incorrectly all this time. You have great animals!

 

[jeroen de kruyk]

@reproom:

i too have all three subspecies, and i can show you a very big difference between borbonica borbonica and borbonica mater.
an borbonica agalegae is very different from the others.

here are they:

Phelsuma borboncia borbonica

Phelsuma borbonica mater

Phelsuma borbonica agalegae

 

[Sgvreptiles]

I would love to see how your babys look from your WC adults. I want to see how they compare to most of the CB we see in the states. WC animals and CB animals are like night and day. Great animals though!