Anybody working w/ Chinese Cave Geckos??

[Katatonic]

I would like to know if anyone is working w/ Chinese Cave Geckos, also known taxonomically as "Goniurosaurus luii"?? I've had a colony of them for just over a year now, and I'm attempting my first breeding of this species *I THINK MY GIRL'S GRAVID!! : ) *. If anyone is, I'd be interested in swapping any info available that you've found, or on your own successes w/ this species. Alright, talk to y'all later.

[ReptileHQ]

Neil meister of Nova scotia has had success with this species.
You can reach him through www.gekkota.com . He is the promotions secretary for the Global Gecko Association and the president of the Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society.

Let me know if you can't find him

Chris

[Katatonic]

Thanks Buddy. Much appreciated.
LATER.

[Clownfishie]

I think that Tarzet's is working with them too...

[Youkai]

::Waves::

I'm working G. luii and G. k. splendens.

[HQReptiles]

Youkai do you have any pictures of the G. k. splendens?

A few years back we had a couple of females but were never able to locate a male.

Thanks,

Matt.

[Youkai]

I've got quite a few actually...

There are three different cameras at work here..lol.

A bad shot of them both:

<img src="http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/133dscn0022.jpg">

This is the female:

<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/gonihead.jpg">
<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/abx.jpg">

The male:

<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/abz.jpg">
<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/acb.jpg">

Some babies:

<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/aby.jpg">
<img src="http://uroplatus.net/albums/youkaispics/aca.jpg">
<img src="http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/133juviegoni.jpg">
Where did you get your females from? If you ever produce them again let me know. I haven't found anyone in the country to swap babies with yet. :/

[Katatonic]

CHRIS @ REPTILESHQ: Could you please e-mail me that contact for Neil Meister?? I couldn't figure out how to get a hold of him thru gekkota.com, lol. Thanks in advance.

YOUKAI: Obviously you've had a number of successes w/ splendens, what about w/ luii?? I'm interested particularly in regards to incubation temps for 50/50 sex ratios on them... I can't find anything specific or informative.

[Youkai]

I haven't actually been able to breed my luii yet. I got them in ROUGH shape and they are just getting out of the woods now.
From what I understand however, they are not TSD. Much like some Coleonyx, temperature plays no part. So basically...you'll get around 50/50 either way.
I'll PM you Neil's e-mail.

[Katatonic]

Oh... really, they're not TSD?? Damn... This is what I mean, I'm getting contradictory information from most sources on Goniurosaurus... From what I understood, all Eublepharines were Temperature Sex Determined during incubation. I've found this to be true with coleonyx brevis, coleonyx mitratus, coleonyx variegatus, leopards, fat-tails... All of those atleast. Which coleonyx are you under the influence are not temperature sexed??
Hopefully I have some success w/ hatching some luii in the near future.
LATER people.

[Youkai]

Well, I was told and also experienced that C. mitratus was not TSD. I hatched dozens and dozens of them. I tried different temps, and always got a 50/50 ratio of males to females. I also was under the impression that at least C. elegans was not TSD, but don't quote me on that one...

I might post this question the gekkota list serve :/

[Katatonic]

Go ahead and post it... Just be sure to keep me informed on the answer you receive!!
Yea, I couldn't particularly find info on elegans... Heck... I couldn't even successfully raise mine for whatever reason... CB... yea right. Oh well *I'm kinda bitter about that one*.
But, C.mitratus, I've been breeding them for a while now, I find that at about 78F, I hatch all female, 82-84F I'm getting 50/50's and anything about that favours males... But I get a LOT dying from what I suspect to be heat stress on the embryos. These are just my observations however.
As I think it over again, post it on gekkota, I'm curious as to what they've found.
LATER.

[Youkai]

Elegans are super sensitive to vit. D3....that might be part of the problem...
But yeah, I'll post to the list!

[Katatonic]

Believe me, I was well prepared for the Vitamin D3 sensititivity... I had done research on a number of herpetological journals and other physiological articles regarding the genus coleonyx. I was prepared for that ahead of the time... But my elegans wouldn't feed properly... At all, to be more precise, despite, to the best of my knowledge, a flawless husbandry. To this day, I still don't understand what went wrong. The only other aspect I can think of is a bacterial/viral/parasitic infection that could have knocked them off. All of which I was lacking sufficient cash to have them checked for. But that was supposed to be the UPSIDE to buying Captive Bred. Hey, we all lose out now and then.

[Katatonic]

When I had posted earlier, about not being able to acquire knowledge about the elegans, I meant that I was unable to find anyone to relate personal knowledge, and the only thing available were cold, sterile scientific writings, which offered nothing in regards to breeding. Just felt like clarifying further. Thanks for putting up with the babbling.
LATER!!

[Tarzet]

I have been working with a small group for the last 3 years.. (G Luii). I have been incubating the eggs in my Leo incubator at 80-82... So far I have hatched all females. I just love them! The are my little vampires..lol:eb:

[Katatonic]

THANK YOU SO MUCH TARZET!! That's precisely the temp that I'm cookin at this very second!! It's nice to know I can expect some success at that temperature. What incubation medium are you using?? Ever use perlite on the luii eggs?? THANK YOU!!

[Tarzet]

Your welcome :) :D lol
I have always used Vermiculite....although I have found that they really like to lay thier eggs in "eco earth" ...it comes in brick form and expands in water....thats what I keep them on. I gave up using a lay box with verm in it....they never used it. I just make sure to keep one side of the substrate damp. They are not as prolific as Leos....I only average 4-6 eggs per female a season. The hatchlings are so cute! they are banded black and white...whith the deepest red eyes...so cool!
Best of luck with them :)

[Katatonic]

Yea I've got them set up in a fairly naturalistic enclosure *in contrast w/ my leos*, and I've been using 50% eco earth, 25% repti bark and 25% sphagnum moss on top of that, add in a bunch of cork bark halves to hide under and they're livin' it up!! Observing their behaviour, I figured they wouldn't even look twice at an egg box.
Thank you for the info regarding your successes, I really appreciate it. I've had much success w/ other Eublepharine species, and I was pretty much going on common sense in relation to the other species I've worked with... Since, as you've probably figured out, there's not a whole lot of info out there on these guys.
I love the look of luii, it's such a menacing look, yet they're so timid and almost noble... If you can use that adjective w/ reptiles... lol. I'll have my fingers crossed the entire incubation. *crosses fingers already*. Thank you again!!