Compatible Small Nocturnal Gecko for Viv

[Ninkylou]

I was reading a few articles and I read that one can place a nocturnal lizard in the enclosure to catch those rogue feeders that hide and come out at night. I have been looking for a small, insectivorous, nocturnal Gecko.

I have seen a few things about African Banded Velvet Gecko, it is native to Tanzania and I am wondering if anyone has kept one with Pygmys?

 

[Big Gulp]

Your cham would certainly eat it.

*edit Missed the Pygmy part.

 

[l0u1ss]

Ive tried to house my chameleons with other things in the past such as tree frogs and in my experience it wasn't the greatest(only my experience might work great for you). The chameleon would get really upset anytime the frog, which is a lot smaller than a lizard, would get anywhere near it and to me it was just an unnecessary stress on the cham. Maybe if the gecko was nocturnal, which I'm not sure if the one you're talking about is, but maybe that would work well. Good luck with it either way.
Edit- I should learn to read you mentioned its nocturnal lol sorry

 

[parisaurusrex]

I'd be really interested to see the results! Sounds like a cool idea.. Wish I could do that with my veiled.. but I'm POSITIVE he's make a great little snack out of anything i tried to put in there!

 

[misshissingroaches]

if i even TRIED that my pit bull would see something small at night in the tank and say "snack!" T.T dang dog.

 

[Ninkylou]

I'd be really interested to see the results! Sounds like a cool idea.. Wish I could do that with my veiled.. but I'm POSITIVE he's make a great little snack out of anything i tried to put in there!

Ya don't think I would try it with my big guys, but I was looking for similarly sized. The Viv is 18 x 24 x 18 and its my plan to put 1 male and 2 female Brevs. I'm not sure if that fact that that gecko is listed as an aggressive feeder is a positive or a negative LOL. Their temp, humidity and lighting needs are similar. It will be heavily planted with lots of hiding places for both species if I decide to try it.

 

[Carlton]

Ya don't think I would try it with my big guys, but I was looking for similarly sized. The Viv is 18 x 24 x 18 and its my plan to put 1 male and 2 female Brevs. I'm not sure if that fact that that gecko is listed as an aggressive feeder is a positive or a negative LOL. Their temp, humidity and lighting needs are similar. It will be heavily planted with lots of hiding places for both species if I decide to try it.

If the gecko will be very actively hunting at night it might startle your brevs if it jumps onto their branch or touches the chams themselves. Many chams will let themselves fall to the ground if touched at night, so something happening repeatedly might not be good.

 

[Ninkylou]

Very good point. So much to consider. I will start with the Brevs and see how it goes.

 

[qdude46]

I agree, based on the many weird places I find my little guy sleeping, one jump from gecko could easily make them fall. You'll find that the little pygs are very good at balancing, I once saw mine asleep on a palm tree frond

 

[SaintJimmy]

I am going to agree and say no no no.

1. chams might eat it
2. it might eat chams
3. it would stress chams
4. startle them in the night
5. poop and cause extra bacteria
6. cause injury to the chams

putting another species in with one another is not a good idea. period

 

[Ninkylou]

So just to clarify and explain that I am not an idiot (if you were thinking I am)

This was a request for information from someone who has had the experience of keeping a nocturnal lizard in with Pygmy's for the main purpose of eating left over feeders.

Again to clarify.... I was not just thinking of tossing a gecko into my Panther enclosures. The idea was not mine (I'm not that creative) but in a very extensive article I read on setting up a Pygmy habitat. (of course I can't find the article and author now...)

While I respect everyone's input I was looking for something from someone who has attempted this. I did not intend to dive into it unless I had heard from something that they had a positive experience with it. It seemed like an interesting way to make the vivarium more of an ecosystem and I felt it that it warranted more investigation.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Sorry if I was being rude. I see you around the forums a lot -- I know you're not stupid. I am just very strongly against putting any species together at all unless the other is meant to eat one.

 

[Chiichan]

I don't have any experience with pygmy's, but they seem rather small and their enclosures and set ups different.

I do however, have experience with housing a veiled and crested gecko together.

My male veiled (6months) currently shares his enclosure with 2 crested geckos (male and female). Their enclosure is made up of a reptibreeze (18x18x36) that sits on top of a zoo med terrarium (18x18x24). And that sits on top of an already 11in high coffee table.

Anyway, in regards to housing them together and their behavior. I find the geckos almost never find themselves running into Zeke while he sleeps. The female gecko tends to hang out in the pothos up top a lot during the day and the male gecko has his fav sleep spot in the terrarium portion of the enclosure. So they don't ever cross each other if at all. Zeke doesn't even notice Sofi chilling in his pothos. When they are awake and active at night, they will occasionally climb around the reptibreeze walls, but I've never seen them near where Zeke sleeps at all.

Shredder the male crestie is probably the same length as Zeke right now too.

So yea, my personal experience is a rather good one I think. Maybe I just lucked out with some chill and cooperative geckos and Veilds.

 

[Ninkylou]

Sorry if I was being rude. I see you around the forums a lot -- I know you're not stupid. I am just very strongly against putting any species together at all unless the other is meant to eat one.

I did feel as though I was being chided (no no no) when I had asked for some specific anecdotal information.

I really respect your opinion but was just a little butt hurt by how it was expressed. (It was a rough day at work, I was a wee bit sensitive)

Its all good. I'm over it LOL.

 

[Carlton]

I agree, based on the many weird places I find my little guy sleeping, one jump from gecko could easily make them fall. You'll find that the little pygs are very good at balancing, I once saw mine asleep on a palm tree frond

When traveling around Madagascar we often took walks at night with a spotlight looking for herps and nocturnal lemurs. Some places we'd see leaf chams roosting far out on the tips of branches dangling like little water drops. Not many predators would be able to surprise them and they'd have a good chance to get the first rays of sun the next morning.

 

[FlChamMom]

I don't have any experience with pygmy's, but they seem rather small and their enclosures and set ups different.

I do however, have experience with housing a veiled and crested gecko together.

My male veiled (6months) currently shares his enclosure with 2 crested geckos (male and female). Their enclosure is made up of a reptibreeze (18x18x36) that sits on top of a zoo med terrarium (18x18x24). And that sits on top of an already 11in high coffee table.

Anyway, in regards to housing them together and their behavior. I find the geckos almost never find themselves running into Zeke while he sleeps. The female gecko tends to hang out in the pothos up top a lot during the day and the male gecko has his fav sleep spot in the terrarium portion of the enclosure. So they don't ever cross each other if at all. Zeke doesn't even notice Sofi chilling in his pothos. When they are awake and active at night, they will occasionally climb around the reptibreeze walls, but I've never seen them near where Zeke sleeps at all.

Shredder the male crestie is probably the same length as Zeke right now too.

So yea, my personal experience is a rather good one I think. Maybe I just lucked out with some chill and cooperative geckos and Veilds.

I do not have any experience with housing different species together but would be very interested to see how your veiled/cresties co-exist in the future. When I first got him, my male veiled seemed not to notice my two Leos on the other side of the room when he was free ranging. Now I have to cover their tank or he hangs over it staring them down with an evil glare. I would wonder if he will get more possessive of his cage as he gets older and more hormonal.

 

[Chiichan]

I do not have any experience with housing different species together but would be very interested to see how your veiled/cresties co-exist in the future. When I first got him, my male veiled seemed not to notice my two Leos on the other side of the room when he was free ranging. Now I have to cover their tank or he hangs over it staring them down with an evil glare. I would wonder if he will get more possessive of his cage as he gets older and more hormonal.

So far Zeke has a pretty good temperament, some minor kinks that im working on with him but overall he's def a sweetheart.

I would like to free range him at some point though. I always keep an eye on where zeke sleeps and the location of the cresties. They've been housed together since we've had Zeke which is about 4 months now. so far so good! I even housed our female veiled with the male (crestie) when we first got them. Shredder was nearly 3x her size that time. They were together for about 5 months until we moved Cami to her free range and they didn't have any issues.

We got Cami and Shredder at the same time. Then Sofi a couple months later, then Zeke.