Some Uroplatus Shots...

[luevelvet]

Hey Everyone,

I've finally found the time to take some pics of our Uroplatus fimbriatus. These have to be one of my favorites of all species to work with. Very fascinating to observe and their sheer size makes for a dramatic display. All three are pushing close to 12" now. I also threw in an older pic of one of our female U. lineatus.
Male and one of the two females...

The other female. She's the most active of them all, actually jumping around the enclosure hunting...

One of the other female....

and the U. lineatus. We have a single egg from her incubating for about a month now. We're very excited for it hatch...

Enjoy!

Luis

 

[Syn]

Amazing Luis! I always love seeing the Fimbriatus and Lineatus. The oranges of the U. lineatus just catch my eye every time.

Looking forward to seeing more when possible!

 

[Rocky]

Very cool. What's incubation time on their eggs? And what size enclosure do you have them in? Can they be kept together?

Sorry for all the questions I think those guys are awesome

 

[luevelvet]

We keep 1.2 trios in 2x2x4 screen cages and haven't noticed any aggression with keeping them together. Incubation time is around 100-120 days at 75-78f.

Luis

 

[eisentrauti]

Amazing Luis ! Very healthy looking animals !

 

[celine]

@luis
is it difficult to care this uroplatus??

 

[Orchidartist]

Wow!!

They are soooo COOL!!!! Reminds me of something from Dr. Seuss!!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[jojackson]

Beautiful! A spectacularly well adapted species, must be awesome camo in the natural habitat. (fungi/lichen) Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kent67]

Hey Luis, I noticed you said fimbriatus has to be one of your favorites of all species to keep and wondered if you'd expand on that more. Did you mean of all leaf-tails, geckos, ALL species?? I've never owned a gecko to this day but I think am very close to getting my first. I'm stuck between Phelsumas and Uroplatus, which, of course means I'll probably end up with both sooner than later. Of the leaf-tails I've of course been interested in U. phantasticus but also really like U. fimbriatus and U. henkeli. Could you offer any advice or anecdotes that would swing me towards fimbies over the others? How often are ch or cb Uroplatus available?

Great photos, by the way. But, you already knew that.

 

[eisentrauti]

Hi Kent,

if you never made any experiences with geckos, I think it would be better to start with Phelsumas. I've kept klemmeri, lineata lineata, quad.parva, inexpectata and breed klemmeri and lineata lineata. They are very easy to care for and it's much easier to get CB ones of them.

 

[Kent67]

Ok. As a display animal, which is what I'm wanting to do, I was leaning more towards the Phelsumas and bet I can find something at the Anaheim show. What is it that makes the leaf-tails more difficult? I indeed just perused the KS classifieds and saw a few species of days but not any leaf-tails available as captive hatched.

 

[luevelvet]

Hey Luis, I noticed you said fimbriatus has to be one of your favorites of all species to keep and wondered if you'd expand on that more. Did you mean of all leaf-tails, geckos, ALL species?? I've never owned a gecko to this day but I think am very close to getting my first. I'm stuck between Phelsumas and Uroplatus, which, of course means I'll probably end up with both sooner than later. Of the leaf-tails I've of course been interested in U. phantasticus but also really like U. fimbriatus and U. henkeli. Could you offer any advice or anecdotes that would swing me towards fimbies over the others? How often are ch or cb Uroplatus available?

Great photos, by the way. But, you already knew that.

Thanks everyone!

Kent,

I'm working on a care sheet for the Uroplatus species I'm working with. Right now we have fimbriatus, phantasticus, lineatus and now henkeli (just came home from Daytona, so I'm not ready to give advice on those yet ).

Of the other three I have to say that regarding behavior, nothing beats the phantasticus. But they come with a price. They are much more fragile than the larger groups. Care must be taken to ensure humidity stays up and temps stay down, around 75-77. I've found they don't like it as wet as some sources may suggest but much like chameleons, they drink from leaves and require a good misting to ensure they stay hydrated. In my opinion, I don't know if there's anything that can prepare you for phantasticus husbandry other than sheer intuition at first.

Fimbriatus are in a group of 3 other species, henkeli and two species of sikorae ssp. Henkeli can look nearly identical to fimbriatus while the sikorae tend to be much more textured and cryptic looking. Outside of general appearance differences, all four species behave rather similarly. Active at night with little regard to any shame. They are very animated when hunting and never shy from giving you a show. All three fimbriatus ate from tongs from the first day and have been the most forgiving of the other two we're working with.

Now lineatus are, in my opinion, an absolutely stunning gecko. They are the most unique Uroplatus in that they are in a group unto their own, with no other species sharing similar features. Lineatus aren't difficult to keep, but they do tend to require a bit more "settling in" than the fimbriatus. For instance, while the fimbriatus took food their first night here, the lineatus took about a week to start eating anything, let alone eating in front of me. They start off very shy, often hiding if you come around, but after a month or two they've become accustomed to me staring quietly from a chair a few feet away. They aren't as animated as the fimbriatus. They hunt and walk around and such, but don't have as much character as the fimbriatus.

The majority of species require similar enclosures, adjusting cage size relative to species. Henkeli and fimbriatus are on the larger end and I house 1.2 trios in 2'x2'x4' screen cages. The same we use for our chameleons.

The phantasticus require more of a planted vivarium, very much like pygmy chameleons. Care should be taken for ground cover. Wet sphagnum moss is a definite no no. I found that out the hard way.

It would be a good idea to get into phelsuma first, so you can understand the dynamics of planted vivaria and such, then venture into phantasticus. The larger species is really hit or miss depending on your experience with herps in general.

I hope this wasn't too disjointed. It's been a long day in Daytona.


Luis

 

[luevelvet]

Ok. As a display animal, which is what I'm wanting to do, I was leaning more towards the Phelsumas and bet I can find something at the Anaheim show. What is it that makes the leaf-tails more difficult? I indeed just perused the KS classifieds and saw a few species of days but not any leaf-tails available as captive hatched.

I forgot to bring that up. There really isn't any commercially available CBB of Uroplatus. A few folks here and there have decent luck and produce a few babies, but with only a few eggs per clutch and pretty consistent supply of WC specimens, it hasn't been easy to get much interest in captive breeding projects. You will rarely see a few CBB for sale, but not often at all.

Luis

 

[jannb]

Very nice pictures Luis. Beautiful little animals! Just gorgeous!!!!

 

[Kent67]

Luis, wow, thanks for the detailed responses. I had actually wondered how active the Uroplatus are at night and now that has me even more interested in them. We don't have anything in our bedroom at the moment and something that would be active at night would be awesome. Also, I think when you mentioned the intuition thing it struck a chord. When I started with chameleons the only literature available were the books by de Vosjoli and general reptile and amphibian books so I relied alot on intuition. That, to me, is fun. I'd love to try the phantasticus soon but will wait until I'm sure I have the time to put into monitoring them.

I've been running live vivaria for dart frogs for a number of years and cared for numerous Phelsuma species "back in the day" when I worked at a reptile shop but still haven't been able to branch out from my Chamaeleonidae obsession at home. I think I should be able to adapt to whatever they require but, if possible, would like to start out with ch. When was the last time you saw anybody publically offering phantasticus for sale or do you have to be in a secret society? Unless I find a completely irresistable deal on some ch Phelsuma in Anaheim I really think I'll be starting a Uroplatus obsession in a couple weeks!

Thanks again for the input! Oh, and if you ever happen to have any babies available, send me a pm?

 

[luevelvet]

Well, I have a lineatus egg that was laid roughly a month or so ago (I don't have my notes handy). I also know of a few others mentioning getting some phantasticus eggs but the most difficult thing with phantasticus is rearing the hatchlings. But once adjusted, they make great displays and their behavior is very fun to watch. If you do end up with a few, please have the enclosure setup and ready to inhabit. They really don't take to handling well, and they stress much much less when not in a container waiting for you to find which plant should go where.

Also, don't go with too large of an enclosure, or they will have trouble finding enough food. I had ours in a 65 gal aquarium and just moved them into an 18x18x18 exoterra cage I picked up at the show. I also suggest buying multi-colored LED accent lights. I acquired mine from IKEA, but no matter where you go, they will set you back 40-50 dollars but are extremely worth it. I use them with all of my Uroplatus. Red at night and white during the day. The red LED's give it a "dark-room" sort of effect and allows the geckos to not be overwhelmed with light. You mention branching out from just chameleons and I have to admit, working with 6 species of chameleon and 4 species of Uroplatus, there isn't a single minute that something isn't going on with someone. There is always activity. I anticipate the chameleon lights switching off so I can watch the geckos slowly come to life. I haven't lost any passion for our chameleons, I just share it with the uroplatus now.

Luis