Juvenile Grandis aggression

[KingOfTheNorth]

I noticed signs of my female grandis being aggressive towards my male about three weeks ago. Both are about 5 months old and had gotten along perfectly until I moved. When I moved, I also moved them into a larger tank, so they were in a completely new setting.

Ever since that move the female has been aggressive towards the male, snapping at him and chasing him. I removed the female, who was slightly bigger due to being aggressive and taking all of the food, and put her in the old tank that I had them in. After two weeks my male caught up in size and I felt that this might help the aggression.

I rearranged the bigger tank that the male was in and then moved the female in today. As soon as I did the female snapped at the male and chased him away, taking the best basking spot from him within 2 minutes of being in the tank. The male is now hiding constantly, just like he did before I took the female out two weeks ago, and the female won't let him near any basking spot under the lamp.

I'm kind of confused since they got along so well before moving them to a bigger tank, often times seen sitting on top of, or next to each other under their favorite basking spot. Any ideas? Will I have to keep them separate until they're older?

 

[Aerio]

I would separate them im no phelsuma expert but it almost sounds like there's some dominance issues between them your positive its a female?

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[KingOfTheNorth]

Yep I'm positive on the genders.

 

[daggekko]

I've heard female grandis get aggressive more around when they are going to lay eggs. I'm not sure on how old the grandis are when they start laying, but I had a P laticauda lay eggs just at 6 months old. Do you have 2 basking spots?

 

[KingOfTheNorth]

I don't believe the female is pregnant, like I said they're only 5 to 5 and a half months old if I'm not mistaken they reach sexual maturity at around 9 months to a year. This is my first pair so I'm no expert though. There are two basking spots, though one is a bit farther from the heat lamp. The female also bullies the male about food..still.

It's stressing me out a bit because I don't have money right now to buy a second UVB lamp for the other tank.

 

[daggekko]

So you really only have one basking spot then. If you had 2 lamps on the top of the tank you'd have 2 basking spots. If you can get another that might be helpful.

As far as the UV goes-it is not criticial to keep the gecko living to have it as long as your supplementing. If it is just for a couple weeks the gecko will be just fine. Don't stress out about that! (The UV does provide a ton of health benefits though)

I think your probably right on the age, but like I said, I wasn't sure at all. Just another thought!

Try taking her back out for 3-4 weeks then putting her back in. I did this with my P pasteuri and it worked. I did not rearrange the tank though. Took the male out(he was being mean) and let the female relax for a month, then put him back in and haven't (knock on wood) had any problems since!

 

[KingOfTheNorth]

Alright, thanks a lot. I'll definitely try taking her out for longer. Hopefully then they'll get along, and I'll see about getting a second heat lamp before putting her back in as well. Thanks again for the help I feel a lot better now

 

[ankan333]

My first thought was that the couple is quite young.. I'm not an expert, but the advice I got when I got my grandis was to wait to introduce them to each other until they are over a year. To prevent the "stress" of reproduction too early in life. Or as in the case of my female, when she started to lay infertile eggs on her own, that was quite a good hint.. ;-)

 

[JIGSAW818]

5 Months sounds a little to young to me to sex the geckos....... The geckos sitting on top of each other is a dominance action.... they can be ready to breed at about 6 months...... You should have let them get a little bigger.. your female could become egg bound and die.. unfortunately... some geckos just don't like each other dude you might have gotten a bad pair. the gecko that is getting picked on will have a lot more wounds to come if a solution is not decided quickly.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[KingOfTheNorth]

5 Months sounds a little to young to me to sex the geckos....... The geckos sitting on top of each other is a dominance action.... they can be ready to breed at about 6 months...... You should have let them get a little bigger.. your female could become egg bound and die.. unfortunately... some geckos just don't like each other dude you might have gotten a bad pair. the gecko that is getting picked on will have a lot more wounds to come if a solution is not decided quickly.

Thanks,
Mike

Oh I separated them already, right after I made this thread, and I didn't know they would breed before they were sexually mature. I'll keep them separated until they're old enough then. The gecko getting picked on hadn't been injured at all actually, which is good. I just noticed chasing, and him acting timid while the female was in the vivarium with him.

Hopefully it's not a bad pair, they got along so well in the first 2 weeks I had them.

 

[daggekko]

Yeah, I didn't even think about them being too young to accurately sex. That is a possibility. If you can get a couple of clear photos of their vent areas you'll have a bunch of people on the forum that can help give their opinion. I would leave them seperate until you actually get a set of dud eggs.

 

[KingOfTheNorth]

Yeah, I didn't even think about them being too young to accurately sex. That is a possibility. If you can get a couple of clear photos of their vent areas you'll have a bunch of people on the forum that can help give their opinion. I would leave them seperate until you actually get a set of dud eggs.

Ah okay I did not know this. I did a lot of research and found out that sexual maturity is reached at 9-12 months, but nothing I found about them having to be kept separate until then. Thanks again for the info

 

[daggekko]

Yeah, babies usually don't get along for long! Take a look at the More babies thread!

 

[jadrig]

They should be separated...when I first started breeding phelsuma, I used to keep clutchmates together. It is not a good idea. The are NEVER equal in size/aggression.
100% of the time, you are doing one of the two a disservice. I have raised clutch mates in the past with out one dieing, but it is less than ideal, regardless of enclosure size. I had two klemmeri hatch together and the one is simply not a doer. At 2.5 months old, the one baby is more than 2X the size. If they were kept together...the little runt would have been dead by the 4th week.
All geckos will do better if they are raised by them self until they are adults.