The Reptile Expo in Manchester is the largest reptile show in New England and is run by Bruce Lowder who also orchestrates Reptile Expos in White Plains and Long Island New York (www.reptileexpo.com).  The recent show included over a hundred vendors.  Gecko Time spoke to eight vendors representing all different levels of the hobby and asked them to respond to these four questions about 2/3 of the way through the show:

1. What is your name and, if applicable, your business name and contact information?
2. Approximately how many geckos did you bring to the show and of what species?
3. How have your sales been at this show and compared to other shows?
4. What would you like gecko keepers, prospective breeders and customers to know about the hobby and the market?

Granite State Geckos
Bill Anderson and Rhona Anderson
www.gsgeckos.com

We brought 11 leopard geckos to the show and have sold 6 so far.  This show is a lot busier with a lot more activity and interest than previous shows in Manchester.  I don’t know if it’s the time of the year, or people just needing to get out since it’s the end of January.
I feel that people should know more abut the care of the leopard geckos they buy.  I always print care sheets so people can know if it’s something they can handle or feel comfortable with. I don’t want those impulse buyers who just come by and get something without knowing anything about it.  I want people to know how to care for the animals they buy.  We brought a huge stack of care-sheets and now we only have one left. Another thing: a  lot of people still have a misconception about keeping leopard geckos on sand.  We try to educate people about not keeping them on sand; keep them on paper towels or on tile.  Tile is easier to clean and holds heat better.

Samantha’s geckos
Samantha Harrison
samanthasgeckos.com / facebook.com/samanthasgeckos

I brought 14 crested geckos to the show. I sold 6 geckos, about half of what I brought. The show is going better than the October show here in Manchester and a million times better than the Bangor (Maine) show. I also did really well at the Portland (Maine) show in December.

What I want people to know is that crested geckos are the easiest, most low maintenance geckos.  They don’t need bugs to eat, they can live on powdered crested gecko diet.  An interesting factiod is that crested geckos don’t grow  their tails back. Another big thing: do not feed baby food ever. Make sure when going to get a crested gecko  to research multiple sources. Regarding breeders: the market is pretty full. Crested geckos breed easily but it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t go into breeding  to make money; you will likely not be successful.  Personally, I want a hobby that will provide enough revenue to support itself.

Northstar Herps
Kevin Smith                                                                  Northstarherp@gmail.com

I brought 3 gargoyle geckos to the show.  I didn’t sell any animals but sold a lot of Repashy MRP.  This has been a good show in terms of product sales. I want people to know that it’s important to ask questions of the person you’re buying from. You want to know where the gecko you’re thinking of buying came from, who produced it, and what are the care requirements.  Sometimes people just buy something and don’t know how to care for it.  You may come to a show and see something you like, but don’t  just buy it. I want my customers to ask about things. They need to  find out about which items it  needs. You need to be discriminating about whether the vendor knows about the animal’s care or cares how the animals will be treated.  If you do your homework before you get to the show you’ll know if the seller is honest and knows what they’re selling and how to care for it.

Matt Casazza                                                                      mattycaz85@yahoo.com

I brought 5 gargoyle geckos and a sikora to the show.  Two of them had been promised to someone in advance.  This is my first show selling geckos. I  sold 4 geckos and an egg.
I feel it’s  important that the animal get a good home and not be sold  to someone who’s going to be sick of it down the road and neglect it.

GeckoholicReptiles
Steve Hoch
www.geckoholicreptiles.com

I brought about 70 gargoyle geckos, 4 chahouas and 30 crested geckos to the show. This has been a really good show. At the last show I didn’t sell to anyone other than vendors but this show has been great. I’ve sold a lot to customers and to the vendors as well; I’ve sold about half of everything I brought.
It’s important to make sure you do the research before you buy. If you buy a crested  gecko and ask me if it lives on sand — I don’t want to have that conversation.  As far as breeding goes:  Why not breed?  It’s fun. There’s nothing like seeing eggs, watching them hatch. It never gets old.

Leapin’ Leachies
Steve Cemelli
www.leapinleachies.com

I brought mostly Rhacodactylus geckos to the show –about 90% of my show inventory.  I also brought a few day geckos and a few rare species of gecko.  I had had some pre-sale commitments so that was fine and I had a couple of other things going.  It was better than the first show I did here though not as good as the show in White Plains (New York).  There were  a lot of people with a lot of questions.  At the White Plains show, a lot of people are buying their first reptile. Here, people are just asking questions but not buying as much.
Hobbyists should know that the stuff  I sell is fairly easy to care for and buying captive bred animals is much better than buying wild-caught animals. Taking stuff out of the wild is not a good idea.  As for the  breeders: it depends on what you want to breed.  It’s tough to make a living out of it and that can cause it to become  no fun anymore.  If you love working with the animals, great and so what; if I did it as just to make money I’d hate it. If you really enjoy them and want to work with them reptiles are awesome to work with; Rhacs are really easy and you can do quantity without it being a nightmare.

Jabberwock reptiles
Steve Ayer
http://jabberwockreptiles.com/

I brought leopard and crested geckos: 12 leos and 8 cresties.  I found sales at the show pretty good.  I sold all but one of the leos and no crested geckos but we sold a lot of supplies.  It’s been better than the average show lately.

It’s encouraging that there are a lot of people breeding leopard geckos and that there’s a lot of interest and more people seem to know more about leos. It’s a fun hoobby to be in. I’d like to get involved with more different species of geckos so I can offer a wider variety. I’m currently expanding my collection. I’m adding gargoyles and day geckos, also pictus gecko – I have a breeding pair. In the store people are looking for the smaller species.

Tom Barone
Azoreptiles
www.azoreptiles.com

We deal in lizards and snakes.  We brought 9 fat tails to the show and sold 8.
That’s about average in terms of gecko sales (we usually sell 90-95% of the geckos we bring).
In my opinion, if you’re going to get into geckos because you  love them, by all means buy as many as you want.  If you do it because you think you can make a lot of money and it’s simple don’t do it: it’s not as simple as you think.  You can end up producing a lower quality animal to put into the trade which we do not need.

As you can see, there is a surprising amount of agreement among the vendors about certain issues.  Based on what this representative sample has to say, do you think the enthusiasm is gone?  Has the market tanked?  We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Question 1:

I have a female leopard gecko that will not use the moist hide to lay her eggs. I have it over the heat set at 90f and she keeps laying them outside. What do you think is up with her?  She’s a snow raptor  about 14 months old and it’s her  first time being bred.  Is it me or is she just weird?

Aliza Arzt answers: Some egg-laying rookies just take awhile to “get it” and will lay eggs in the wrong place at first.  On the other hand, it’s not unusual for young, first-time breeders to lay infertile eggs, and some geckos seem to know when their eggs are infertile and lay them in the wrong place.  So . . . she’s either really clueless or really smart.  If you catch the eggs in time, meaning before they shrivel up, you could candle them to see if they’re fertile (look for a red “bulls-eye” shape inside the egg) or incubate them to see if they hatch.  If you feel she is laying fertile eggs and just doesn’t “get it”, you can also consider putting her in a smaller enclosure with a coco-fiber substrate, essentially a cage that is all “lay-box”.  That way, no matter where she lays her eggs, they’ll be in a good place.

A 14 month old female gecko would be considered old enough to breed assuming she weighs at least 50 grams.  Some geckos, however, may be technically the right weight, but have really not reached maturity yet.  I experienced this with one of my leopard geckos last season.  She was the same size and weight as another “rookie” but looked longer and skinnier than the other.  Sure enough, the smaller, fatter gecko laid 16 eggs all of which hatched.  The longer, skinnier gecko laid 12 eggs –all in the water bowl.  At the end of the season she put on 20 grams and is now, 1 season later,  ready to produce.

Question 2:

I have a crested gecko who is really ill.  He had trouble sticking to surfaces and when he tried, he just fell off, but this has been solved now since he shed.  He is only 6 months old and I”m unsure of the sex.  He is still unwell and his symptoms are shaking, agression and instability.  He is eating because the pet shop has been hand feeding him  but he is still losing weight.  I’m desperate as it has been 6 weeks now and he has been on a high calcium and vitamin D3 supplement as we thought it was MBD.

Aliza Arzt responds: I’m sorry you’re having so much trouble with your gecko.  You’re correct that frequently an arboreal gecko about to shed has temporary trouble sticking to surfaces.  I’m glad that’s cleared up. 

 The difficulty with your question is that it brings up more questions: How do you know your gecko wasn’t eating?  In what way is it being aggressive and unstable?  Is the gecko being kept at the pet store, or are you bringing it to the store to feed it? 

The answers to these questions may determine what the problem is and how to treat it.  For example, it can often be difficult to tell whether or not a crested gecko is eating.  When my crestie was young, I virtually never saw it eat.  However, the crickets disappeared, gecko poops appeared, and the gecko was growing.  A gecko that’s stressed out, including one that is being moved from place to place, or that is being checked on often out of worry, may demonstrate aggressive behavior.  My suggestion is to give the gecko a week in a stable environment that has places at ground level and above for it to hide if desired.  Provide regular food –Crested Gecko Diet (CGD) or equivalent and crickets or roaches– and leave it alone.  If there is no change in behavior, or if its behavior worsens, your only option at that point, in my opinion, is to take it to a reptile vet.

(Note: the Reader asking the question about the crested gecko informed us recently that the gecko had passed away from chronic kidney problems, as diagnosed by a vet, for which there was no treatment)

The Breeders

So in a few weeks I’m going to move forward with the Sunglow and Hypo pairings to at least get things started. Hopefully we’ll get a number of Sunglow RAPTORS with nice color. The Tremper Patternless and SHTCTB females will be used to fill the small local pet offers so I need to get started with those as well. I don’t usually sell animals to a reseller but I know the owners of the stores so I’m comfortable with  the care they will receive in addition to the coaching the owners will be given. I’m hoping to get between 15 and 25 dollars for each animal so it would be very helpful to the bottom line as well.

The Feeders

I recently had an issue with my Dubia colony. I found three male roaches outside of the tank and began to get a little paranoid about others that might have escaped. After a lot of research I’m pretty sure I know how they got out. I used hot glue to affix the ventilation screen to the top of the container that I kept them in. Since the males are able to flutter up a little I believe that they ate away at the glue a little and caused a corner of it to come unglued. From there the males were able to flutter up to the screen and walk out.

To avoid this issue I highly recommend using packing tape to secure your ventilation screens on the inside. The roaches cannot climb onto it so there is no chance they will chew on it and it keeps the screen protected so they can’t chew on that either. I have heard from some people that they will chew on the fiberglass screening and create a hole so I would use aluminum screen if you can.

Since it was males only I have no worries about any breeding happening especially with the temperature not being high enough. For anyone on the fence about using Dubia roaches I would say that it takes a lot of getting used to but I think that in the end it will be worth it. It is also kinda fun to know that you are “farming” your own feeders and you aren’t having to pay to feed your animals.

While I’m on the feeder topic I’ve set my mealworm colony up in a three drawer setup to increase the efficiency of the colony. The idea is that the top drawer is modified to have a screen bottom. Oats and beetles are placed in the top and and eggs or small mealworms that hatch fall through the screen and end up in the second drawer to grow. The bottom drawer is used to house the current feeding colony. It is very efficient and I can already see baby mealworms in the second drawer so it appears to be working quite well.

I have so much more to do to be ready to start breeding. I’m planning on building two incubators from old mini refrigerators but haven’t even gotten the fridges yet. I also plan on making a rack from another video that was posted on YouTube that starts with some plastic shelves and makes small modifications to create what looks like the perfect reptile rack. Since I’m out of space I am going to need at least 48 hatchling tubs to feel like I have enough to what could come. If anyone has some proven incubator plans, a Mack Snow male for sale or anything else they’d like to contribute just comment down below!

The first thing that is clear when talking with Jeff is that he has in-depth knowledge of, and passion for, gecko genetics.  My mission for this interview was to pick his brain covering JMG Reptiles’ results in breeding the White & Yellow (W & Y) morph. The forums are rife with good information on this gene, but I also have discovered misinformation and incomplete information. So I asked Jeff.

Early on, the Europeans breeding W & Y’s pegged this morph as being a simple dominant trait.  Then others offered that it might be a semi-dominant or co-dominant trait. Here in the U.S. and in Canada the top Leopard Gecko breeders proclaimed on their websites that the W & Y was, indeed, a dominant trait.  JMG did; TUG did.  And that’s exactly how the inheritance of this morph worked. Or did it? Jeff concurs with others that this gene enhances other morphs when crossed with them. He is most pleased with the Snow crosses they have made. Here W & Y cleans up the ground color. They are brighter and prettier than the average Snow.  Although JMG hasn’t produced any Super Snows (SS’s) to date, Jeff says he has seen SS’s produced by others.  His impression? They are even better looking than the single-copy Snows. The spots become fainter and there is a distinctive look to the morph.

Upon hatching, W & Y’s have weird patterns and color on the top of  their heads and reduced spots on the bands. Some have the Enigma-like white nose and most develop high white sides, exhibit high contrast colors, display a white band at the nape of the neck, have distinct dorsal striping, whiter than usual tails, and reduced/faded spots. To Jeff, the W & Ys appear to include a new type of hypo, although he is still examining that aspect of this morph. He also notes that although the W & Y crosses early on appeared to be dominant in nature, he is now more convinced that the gene is a polygenetic trait. This is based upon the results he notes after hatching over 40 W & Ys. His main example is that they are similar in breeding characteristics to the JMG Hyper Xanthics.  Hyper Xanthics, when out crossed, strongly influence the color of the resulting progeny; the Hyper Xanthics are a line bred polygenetic line JMG started in 2003. He also offers that, when W & Ys are crossed with normal wild-type geckos, the only effects are that the bands and spots are visually different from the normal wild-type coloration– but they did show some influence of the W & Y parent.  W & Y outcrosses tend to have the black spots hypo out, if I can use that term, to become grayish or lavender in color. This is also true of morphs combined with W & Y.

W&Y Bell, Produced by Sasobek's Reptiles, Owned by Michael Ecklund

Jeff doesn’t consider the W & Y morph a sister morph to Enigmas, even though the W & Y gene does have some similar effects as noted above. The enhancing effect alone should make this gene a valuable addition to any gecko breeding program. Try some!  You just might like the results.

Lead photo credit: Produced and photographed by Matt Baronak of SaSobek Reptiles. Owned by Carlos Valadez of Animated Geckos.

The genus Gehyra contains several large gecko species, including the true vorax gecko (Gehyra vorax). Marginatas are often imported under this name, but no true vorax geckos have entered the United States in 30 years, and there is only one known elderly pair currently residing here. It’s usually safe to assume any gecko labeled vorax is unlikely to actually be that species.
Marginatas are usually cream or light brown in color while resting and darker or with more cryptic moss or lichen-like coloration while active. Juveniles are often brown or pinkish. Fully mature adult animals have jade-green eyes with black reticulation, and a black vertical pupil. Their feet are also particularly unique in having sickle shape appendages tipped with claws.

Housing

Halmahera geckos grow large and are very active, so should have adequately spaced terraria. They are most at home clinging to branches or vertical surfaces, so a vertically oriented cage is better. If a glass aquarium is being used, a 30 gallon tank on its side would house a pair. Commercially available terrariums with front-opening doors are also recommended. Substrate can be coconut fiber, newspaper or paper towel. They will drink water from a dish so providing fresh water at all times is a good idea, as well as nightly misting. They seem to prefer high humidity. This species also enjoys leafy cover so live or fake plants are recommended, as well as ground based caves or tubes for sleeping in during the day. They are not a particularly aggressive gecko, and female/female or male/female pairs can often be housed together, but, as with most lizards, not male/male pairs.

As for lighting, they do not require UVA or UVB lamps, a situation common to nocturnal species. They are also not particularly needy when it comes to heating. Most of the year, we keep them at room temperature, or around 72 degrees with a slight drop at night. During colder months, a small low wattage red heat lamp can be used (I usually use a 50 watt bulb), and they will occasionally bask under it. The warmest spot in the cage is not more than 80 degrees F.

Diet

When I first acquired this species, I had mixed information about proper diet for them. What seems to work the best is a staple diet of Repashy Crested Gecko Diet (sometimes referred to as “CGD”), which is a powdered meal replacement food that can be mixed with water. They will also eat as a treat most types of insects, and particularly seem to go after large crickets. We dust the insects and give them those about once a week. The CGD food is offered about every three nights. Very occasionally (not more than once every month) they are offered some fruit and in particular they greatly relish bananas. They also enjoy honey.

Handling

These are very fast geckos. Couple that with a peculiar defense they have of sloughing off big chunks of skin, and you have a potential recipe for disaster. Wild caught animals especially are known to be flighty and distrusting of human hands, although unlike tokay geckos, marginatas are not known for being aggressive biters. This is why most wild caught halmaheras are profusely scarred animals. As with most reptiles though, they are absolutely tame-able animals.

Do not restrict the animal in your hands. They are very fast, so attempting to handle them in the cage (especially front opening terraria) is the easiest way to start. Starting with younger, captive bred animals tends to make this easier as well. Mine were hatchlings bred in Florida, and tamed within a few months of regular handling. They are still more skittish than any of my crested or gargoyle geckos, but will allow me to hand walk them and will usually lick honey off my fingers. (This is a good way to get them to trust you actually).

Even if you don’t plan on attempting to tame them, they make really rewarding captives. They are some of my most active geckos, even moreso than my giant day geckos. They’re always prowling around their tank starting around 9:00 in the evening, and are often inquisitive about what I’m doing in the room, and not at all shy about coming out into the open once the lights are dimmed.

Breeding

I am still working with this species regarding successful breeding, and hope to have more information next year. Other keepers have communicated to us that breeding is induced with a slight cooling off and photoperiod, but may wll breed without taking this step. They prefer to deposit two eggs glued to the inner surface of a tube structure, such as a hollow piece of bamboo or PVC pipe. The eggs can be incubated in situ, or moved to an incubator and kept similar to Rhacodactylus eggs (i.e. room temperature). They take a good deal longer to hatch than many familiar species, sometimes as long as 6 months. The hatchlings, and I can confirm this firsthand, grow slowly and may take two or three years to fully mature.

What are they?

Grain mites are tiny (0.013 to 0.026 inch long) arthropods that infest grain or other food, usually in humid, warm conditions.  They are difficult to see individually without magnification, but, due to their high reproduction rate, manifest themselves as a brownish or grayish dust on some surfaces, and with a wavelike motion in the grain they have infested.  If you ever see your gutload heaving and wiggling, believe me, you don’t have a population explosion of baby mealworms, as I thought the first time I saw this; you have grain mites.  Grain mites generally have a life-cycle of about 2 weeks (longer at temperatures below the high 70′s).  Females are estimated to lay about 800 eggs during their lifespans.  If grain mites become too crowded for the food source they’re infesting, they will spill over in search of other nutrition.  This is likely the reason that some reptile keepers have reported infestations that have gone beyond their gutload and appear on their shelves and other furniture.

Preventing Grain Mite Infestation

Grain mites may arrive via contaminated food items.  Presumably, they could also be airborne from more remote contaminations, since all my grain mite infestations have occurred with no corresponding infestation of either my gutload or any food in my house.  Since grain mites thrive in warm and humid conditions, it’s important to keep gutload and bedding cool and dry.  This can obviously be difficult in hot and humid areas where there’s no air conditioning.  In this case, gutload and feeders could be stored in a basement or other cool place.  Many people keep their reptile rooms at relatively high temperatures year-round.  If this is the case, feeders may need to be stored in a different location.

To further prevent grain mite infestation: keep an eye on the food in the house meant for human consumption to insure that it’s not infested.  There’s a greater likelihood that food purchased from bulk containers, as opposed to pre-packaged food, may have grain mites.  Grain bought in bulk could be temporarily stored in the freezer or refrigerator to kill the mites.  Gutload bought in bulk should be similarly treated.

De-bugging

Despite all the precautions taken to avoid grain mite infestation, sometimes it happens anyway.  I have an “early warning system” which I hope will keep my infestation from getting to the “heaving grain” phase: I keep nearly all my feeders in covered containers, as opposed to open plastic drawers.  I inspect the inside of the covers regularly for little white dots.  If I see them, I check with a magnifying glass and, if they are grain mites (as opposed to wheat bran chaff, for instance), they’ll be moving around.  That’s when I spring into action.

If the feeders are on the larger side, like adult crickets or superworms, I  move them individually to a new container with new grain.  For smaller feeders and breeding colonies, like mealworms and mealworm beetles, (or for the larger ones as well) I isolate the affected container and continue to feed them off until they’re gone.  All containers that have been emptied and all lids, whether or not they’ll be re-used immediately, are washed with very hot water which will kill the grain mites.  When the weather is cool enough, I place the washed containers outdoors for awhile to kill of any mites which have miraculously survived.  The containers could also be placed in a cool basement or in a refrigerator or freezer.  As mentioned above, it’s important to move the feeders to a cooler area if they’re sharing a warm room with the reptiles.

Once I’ve isolated the “problem” containers and washed the containers and lids, I monitor all containers daily by inspecting the inside of the lids to check for grain mite return.  If I find mites inside the lids, I repeat the steps of isolating, switching containers and washing the lids in hot water.  As long as I can keep the grain mite population under control through frequent washing, cool temperatures and isolation of affected containers, the “plague” will eventually disappear as the feeders are used.
Fortunately, I’ve had grain mite infestations only every few years, usually in the hot and humid New England summers.  My most recent grain mite infestation was in late October and early November and affected my crickets, mealworms, mealworm beetles and superworms.  The only feeders I lost was one container of mealworm beetles when I unthinkingly stored them temporarily in my heated rack.  One day later, the entire surface was heaving and into the trash (outside garbage cans, of course) they went.  Other than that, I remain mite free at the moment and didn’t have to replace any of my feeders.

Note: information about grain mites was gathered from the following websites: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef629.asp
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/flour-and-grain-mites

Lead image from Wikipedia.

So I’m looking at what I’ll have available for pairings during the upcoming season and I’m excited. I’m thinking that I’ll pair my original Sunglow het RAPTOR male with my SHTCTB and my Sunglow het RAPTOR females and then start line breeding the best of the bunch to see how bright I can make them. I also have an outlet for high yellow geckos at a local family owned pet shop and I hope to make more connections like that so I have an easy outlet for some of the more standard genetic combinations.

I’m going to breed both the new Mack Raptor females to the new male Nova. This will have an even split of RAPTOR, Nova, Mack RAPTOR and Dreamsickle. If the third Mack RAPTOR female I have is up to weight this year I might add her to this list so I can maximize this combination. My plan for the Mack Snow Enigma female is a little up in the air. This will be my first time working with enigmas and I have read that you shouldn’t breed enigma to enigma but I have also read that it is just a myth. If I can’t breed her to the Nova then I’ll try and find an inexpensive male Mack Snow to try and make Super Snow Enigmas.

I also wanted to update you on the progress with my roach colony that was started back in September. I thought by now that I would be feeding almost exclusively Dubias but I made a very simple mistake, I didn’t heat the bin up enough for them to breed. At least I think that is the problem. I don’t have tons of little nymphs running around but I do have a load of adult male and female roaches. When I checked the temps they were just about 80 at the highest point during the day. I watched some YouTube clips and settled on wrapping the heat tape up one side of the bin and taping it. I also decided to close the door to my reptile room so the heat from the Turtle tank and the racks would raise the ambient temperature in the room as well. I now get temps no lower than the mid 80s and no higher than about 90 so hopefully in a month or so I’ll see some breeding activity.

One final exciting update is that our website, http://www.longislandgeckos.com has been completed. It took longer than it should have but I think that it came out great. The most interesting feature is the ability to become a member through your Facebook account. By doing that you become eligible for member only discounts and sales as well as having first look at any of our available high end geckos. Our top shelf hatchlings will appear on the members only page for a week before being made available to the public. We will also have member only auctions on the site. You can follow us on our Facebook page for any interesing updates.

Please comment below and let me know what you think about the site, enimga to enigma breeding or anything else you’d like. Thanks for reading!

Imagine the gecko hobby without the Halloween Mask (HM) morph. You know, the one with the bold head pattern.  Albey Scholl almost didn’t get the chance to develop the Halloween Mask trait. Yes, that’s right.  Although I happen to think that would be a loss for Leo breeders, others would simply poo poo the notion and yawn. Well to each . . . you know the rest of that passé phrase.

In 1997 Albey was at the National Reptile Breeders’ Expo in Orlando and stopped by to see what Ron Tremper had at his table.  That’s when Ron told Albey an interesting story. Seems he had one-hundred plus Leos with him and he was in a bind. That large consignment was supposed to be picked up by a Japanese buyer. In a twist of fate, (OK, sheer luck for Albey, and those of us who value the HM trait) that buyer attempted to smuggle some protected turtles through Canada and was caught. Needless to say, but I’ll say it, he didn’t make it to Orlando to pick up his order.  Since Ron hadn’t been paid for the geckos, he did what Ron is good at.  Put them up for sale at his table.  Most of the Leos were in the $400 to $1000 each price range, typical at the time for a Ron Tremper Leopard Gecko.

Albey Gets Lucky

Ron had several Jungle geckos on the table that had strong head markings, but Albey noticed one with an odd, really heavy face mask pattern.  “Sort of like an Iron Cross pattern,” is how he described it. Ron called these geckos “Halloween Masks.”  Albey thought that the little female had such an interesting look that he bought her. In addition to the distinctive face mask, she also had a jungle pattern. In those days the Leo hobby was rather restricted in regards to the morphs available. Oh, yes, I remember my fascination with the few boldly marked, distinctive jungle-patterned geckos that could be found online or at herp expos.  Slim pickings, indeed, but that pattern morph made up one of the two groups of Leos I bred in the late ‘90s.

Line Breeding

According to Albey she was a slow grower, quite slight of frame, and it took two years before she reached breeding weight. When she did, he selected one of his robust Tangerine males as a mate. He notes that the distinctive face mask trait mostly disappeared in the resulting F1 offspring. In turn he bred her back to a son, and from the F2 cross he selected the best male to cross back to the F1′s. From that point on he simply did what Albey is best at—line bred the Halloween Masks to set the trait. Think of his Line Bred Snows, Torrid Tangerines, and Tangerine Dorsal Striped Leos, if you will. Now you’ve got it!

Although other breeders bought Halloween Masks from Albey, he passed the project on to Paul Allen at Bright Albino, around 2008 I believe, where they reside today. So . . . if you have a Leo with a Halloween Mask, thank your lucky stars.  That trait might have wound up in Japan, only to be lost to us. It could  happen!

Editor’s note: Thank you to PacHerp (Pacific Herpetoculture), owned and operated by Brittney Gougeon, for the photos and video in this article. According to Brittney she is the first breeder to produce halloween masks after Paul Allen of Bright Albino.

What I Need to Know

Curiosity can be a great asset in being successful with any new, unfamiliar gecko.  Since Colopus kochi are extremely rare in captivity it’s difficult to acquire different perspectives on husbandry and breeding.  To my knowledge, Jon Boone is the only  person has successfully bred and produced this species in captivity.  That being the case, I have only his personal experience to go by, and due to this I have resorted to other means of obtaining information on this species in order to get a better understanding of them. 

I ask myself vital questions such as: Where is this gecko native?  What is its native ecosystem like?  Is this ecosystem humid or arid?  How often is this gecko exposed to precipitation?  Does it burrow in a humid or a dry shelter, and on average how deep are its burrows? 

Colopus kochi

 Research Results

Colopus kochi is a species from the desert of the skeleton coast of western Africa.  There it is exposed to the harsh extremes of this barren land where the climate will fluctuate from extremely hot during the day to brick cold in the evening.  Like most desert dwelling geckos the C. kochi lives on a sand substrate, and hides in self created burrows in its extremely desolate habitat.  I like to get a nice visual of where the gecko comes from through habitat photos, and I’d like to know what it deals with on a daily basis in regards to predation and by discovering what it primarily feeds on.

Another key step is to obtain climate reports of past seasons.  Temperature averages, precipitation charts, humidity information, and UV indices are all valuable information.  Colopus kochi comes from the Western coast of Africa where dew creating humidity rolls off the frigid ocean and settles in their habitat almost daily, giving them a regular opportunity to obtain moisture.  Knowing whether the species is diurnal, nocturnal, or crepuscular is also very relevant.  Being nocturnal, Colopus kochi does not require any UV light to be successfully kept.  All of these factors go into a yearly plan on how I will keep this species in each season, and will also determine the conditions of their brumation period once winter arrives.  In my opinion this is a great way to start and can be a wealth of information that can only lead to success in the housing, as well as success in the propagation of these lanky geckos.

Generally speaking desert species are simple, easy, and in my experience they all have nearly identical care requirements.  Aside from a thermal gradient, the correct food and water, all that these species tend to need is a hot spot in the 90’s, a sand substrate, and a single hide on the hot side and one hide on the cooler side of their enclosure.  As mentioned earlier extreme, and occasionally sudden climate fluctuations crossed with drought tolerance, are reasons why desert species need to be hardy in order to survive in their surroundings.

In the short period in which I have kept these geckos I have come to truly appreciate their original beauty and their quirky behaviors.  For such a thin and fragile gecko they are not only ravenous eaters but for their size they can devour large prey items.  Coming from such a remote area with no plant life and almost no other life, they can survive on very little food.  These geckos are very intelligent, funny, and entertaining to watch.  They associate my presence with food and will look me in the eyes and beg for food!  In the near future I predict that more and more African geckos will make their presence known in the hobby, and even though Colopus kochi will never be common, there are other beauties from the genus that I’m sure will be!

Geckos for the project have been randomly donated from breeders nation-wide, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests were done to see whether or not they already were carrying crypto.  We also are doing period fecal samples to see what other internal parasites these geckos might be carrying.  After  doing the PCR test on all the geckos, we did find a couple that were asymptomatic and positive for crypto.  From this point we have to systematically infect the healthy geckos in order to test the drug which is still unnamed for research reasons.   The next step is to use different drug dosages and study the effect of the drug on crypto.

Where We Are Now

The project has been going on for a little over a year and we are at the stage where healthy geckos are being infected.  We get to learn a lot about this nasty parasite, like:  How long does it take to transmit to healthy individuals?  How long does it take an infected individual to show clinical signs?  What stressors may trigger a animal to show these clinical signs?  We hope to find answers to many more questions as well.  Even if the drug has no effect on the parasite there is much information to be gained.

Studies like this are very important to our community, for many reasons.  For over 11 years in the hobby many reptile keepers would rather ignore this deadly parasite, than find answers.  We do know a lot of about crypto, but there is still a lot more to learn.  This is an issue we must embrace as a community in stead of shunning it.  A large part of the study is being made possible by online auctions, where breeders from all over the country donate animals/services/ and supplies to benefit the study.  Updates on the project, along with future auction dates, can be found at www.killcrypto.com and the kill crypto facebook page.