B.thamnobates arrival(finally)

[Solid Snake]

Awesome pics, they are gorgeous.. I think i got my looking at bady vents in for the day..Thanks for the 101 with brady sexing.

Lol, thanks!

The males "bulges" really were difficult to detect when they were younger. I noticed sperm plugs, before I noticed the bulges.

In males, the tail base is thicker on top, and the females have a sort of "swoop" down on top, where the body meets the tail.

Ive heard others mention this concerning other species, to some extent, but it didnt "click" until it was explained to me by another brady keeper.

All in all, from my experience with these Id say that coloration is the biggest tell when sexing. One of Alex's seems to show a slightly ambiguous coloration though, so this may not be as consistent throughout the species as it has been with my three.

They look great!! Glad you still have a pair but even having anything is better for the group as a whole. I had quite a few mis-sexed from the first import I did which was all thamnobates.

Its also possible she is gravid. They reach sexual maturity at a really young age. She looks fat to me.

Thanks man. I appreciate your opinion. After more than a year of keeping, Ive finally got a scale. So I will be monitoring weight from now on.
Like I said, It doesnt upset me to have an error in sexing. Though Im not sure I would have kept them the same/together if I had known sooner. Lots of learning experiences with these guys.

Any way you can re-size your pics or use a different host for them?lol

I can go in and re-size them, but that involves going through each picture, and clicking multiple buttons, and waiting for it to do its thing, which can take some time. I dont have the time really. I also would rather have the full image on file.
When viewing them on the photobucket website, they should be much smaller as you flip through them, with the option to view them larger if clicked.
Additionally:http://www.ghacks.net/2009/02/23/how-to-zoom-in-firefox/

Dont use firefox? Then: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Right click "open in new tab" quick and easy way to view them your browser will resize so you can see it. Someone has a giant monitor and it isn't us!

I dont know who this person is, but they look fine on my 54.6"



Thanks for the comments guys!

 

[Solid Snake]

I had someone pm me a question that I thought Id answer here.

The question is why do I keep them in a group, instead of separate?

Its my understanding that most keepers in EU keep them in pairs or trios most of the time. They say this works very well for them.

This way the females are not as skiddish towards the males when it comes time to breed, as they are somewhat used to them already, and dont see them as a threat.

I have heard another school of thought saying that if kept together they may become too comfortable with each other, or even consider each other siblings.

These animals seem to be known for their "violent" breeding behavior though, and from what I can tell, the males will do the deed if they can manage it, whether its welcomed or not by the female. I see them being kept separate as more of a risk for aggression, and stress, or even injury to occur.

I had the opportunity to raise them all together, from a similar/same age. So I kept them together.

The main reason though was that it seemed to be working for others, so "dont fix it if it aint broken", you know?

Not to mention upkeeping a single enclosure, is much easier than multiples.

I will say that I was very nervous about keeping them together at first, but I was able to observe/monitor them very closely, and they really do act as if it is "natural" to them.

Anyhow, thats about jist of why Ive kept mine together.

As stated above, I may have done things differently if I knew there were two males, and one female in the cage, or if I had known when they hit breeding age.

As of right now, the two remaining thamnos seem to get along just fine. If I see otherwise, I would likely separate them for sure.

Im very interested to see what happens with Alex's when they are paired up, as he has kept them separate. I think this is a good thing, that they are being kept differently. This way we gain more knowledge and experience across the board.

 

[coldbloodedAL]

Excellent photos and observations! Great answer to the question as well.

Your female seems to be much larger than any of mine! Im curious to know her weight, as well as your males. Soon as you get that let me know!

As far as keeping them separate/together, I was under the impression they will breed more readily if kept separate as they wont be used to each other like you had just said.

In the future I will attempt to keep pairs or trios together, so long as I have the time to monitor them closely.
I have put my known male, and female together for a few hours of outside time recently. There was no breeding attempts nor aggressiveness towards one another in the time I observed them. They never got close during the time together either, it was almost as if they did not know the other was there.

I dont think my female is anywhere near the size she should be, before being bred. She is the smallest of the three remaining.

When the time comes to put them together, there will be a video camera on a tripod to record any interactions when im not observing them.

 

[coldbloodedAL]

Double post...

 

[showjet95]

I still think they are too young and small to be bred. What made me think this was that I used to think my original female was of breeding size. My male would constantly attempt to mate with her but she was always veryyyy unreceptive and would even try and attack him because like Snake said, the males can be very relentless with them and its basically rape!
Then when I saw a friends females in person compared to my female, I knew why she was unreceptive. She was about half the size of hers when hers started breeding or becoming receptive to her males. I could not believe how big the females were! They literally are the size of a carpet chameleon while the males are about half of that.

 

[rsepiphyte]

Very interesting thread. I am curious how many B.Thamnobates died and how many thrived from this importation. I am getting 1.2 and am trying to learn all that i can about them. Thanks to everyone that contributed and i hope that i can do the same with mine. Slainte' Ruth

 

[showjet95]

I think only one died due to an insect bite. Ill let solidsnake expand upon this one with his overgrown outdoor cage they were in

 

[rsepiphyte]

Would also like to know how many offspring were produced from those imported pairs? Ruth

 

[showjet95]

They only came in late May/early June of this year so no one has yet. Most haven't even introduced their pairs to one another yet because they are not full grown and I'm sure most of the females arent to breeding size yet.

 

[rsepiphyte]

Should be interesting to learn about offspring as they mature. Ruth

 

[coldbloodedAL]

You will not be disappointed Ruth, these are truly amazing little chams!