Confirming species and sex

[c81kennedy]

Just got on an order from LLLReptile's and would like some help confirming the species and sex of my new pygmies.
Here is the first proble female.

female 2

female 3

female 4 She has a spot on her side I'm a little worried about.

 

[c81kennedy]

I plan on keeping the 2 males in a 32 oz deli cup each for about a month to let them recoup. The Male's seem to only wanna mate and wont rest and rehydrate. It should help the females setting in first also. Does this sound like a bad idea?
And here are the males
male 1

male 2

 

[c81kennedy]

I'm gonna post the setups and my 2 current girls. The first girl is the mom of the second.
mom

and baby girl

And here is there big 18x18x24. I moved the baby back in with mom after the other babies were dropping like flies. The baby was in a 12x12x18 with 2 others , after cleaning out there tank I found 4 adult Australian roaches that I think were eating the babies when they were sleeping.

A second 18x18x24 will be for the 4 new females. I plan to keep 1 group of 3 females and 1 male per tank.

 

[nick barta]

The 32 ounce cup seems a bit small, but for the purpose of food availability and hydration, it does accomplish the goal.

Your large setups are amazing, well thought out, and an example for anyone looking to do pygmies.

 

[c81kennedy]

Thanks nick. Id like to give the males more room but All of my other tanks are full. Do you think a critter keeper would be better, I'm worried there won't be enough humidity in the critter keepers.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I think you've identified them correctly. The deli cup is way too small to keep the males in so long. That's going to just stress them out terribly. I use critter keepers to raise my baby pygs and they do fine in them. I'd say put the males in the largest critter keepers you have (separately), with lots of plants of course, and mist daily and they'll be happier.

 

[c81kennedy]

Thank you for responding Ferretinmyshoes. Should I just put the males in the cages with the females?

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

If they have a lot of foliage cover so they can be visually hidden from each other then I don't see why not. I keep my groups together from when I first get them. I think it's time for me to order some more! My last two wc females were too old to breed and passed, and I'm worried the male might be following them soon...

 

[c81kennedy]

OK so it looks like male 1 is not a brev can anyone tell me what he is.
Here are some more pictures .

 

[Chris Anderson]

I actually think it is a Rieppeleon brevicaudatus. The only trait of a R. brevicaudatus it lacks is the dermal lobe or beard, for which their common name comes from. My opinion is that this individual lost his dermal lobe somehow at some point. I imagine if you take a really good macro shot of the ventral part of the chin that there would be an indication of where it was. Even if there isn't an indication, however, it could have just healed over and still appears to be a R. brevicaudatus in my opinion.

The only similar species that lacks a beard is Rieppeleon brachyurus. This individual does not appear to be R. brachyurus in my opinion, however. Here are a couple R. brachyurus photos for you to compare and see what I mean:

Anyway, like I said, I don't think there is anything to suggest it is anything but R. brevicaudatus and that is what I would ID it as.

Chris

 

[c81kennedy]

Thank you Chris I trust you opinion and thank you for clearing this up. These things are so confusing. I wish there was a bit more info out there seems like I only find bits and pieces.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Yeah, IDing the Rieppeleon, Rhampholeon and Brookesia is particularly difficult. Its taken me years of looking at hundreds and hundreds of a lot of the different species, and learning about the entire known diversity so that I know the alternatives and what to look for to really get the hang of it.

Chris