clone hachted!
- Thread starter Renagade
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greeny1
Well-Known Member
aww! my cloners should breed next year. cant wait. good thing i got the crickets breeding otherwise itd be hard to feed them!
mouse_has_faith
Active Member
Aww, s/he is so cute! Thanks for sharing the picture with us, and congratulations, you must be pretty stoaked about the successful breeding. 
In a nutshell, this species consists entirely of females which have cells overloaded with DNA. Their egg cells are too full to fit sperm DNA in, so they can not breed with males of closely related species (although they will copulate with them). Because of a few genetic quirks, their DNA does not separate when they make egg cells, so their entire DNA load is dumped into each one. Normal sexual animals (the ones which breed with males and females) produce eggs with one copy of DNA, then sperm provides another copy of DNA, and an individual with two copies of DNA (you and I both have two copies of DNA, one provided by mum and one provided by dad). These girls have three copies of DNA, so the eggs already have more DNA in them than a regular fertilised egg without being fertilised, so the eggs develop and hatch into clones of their mothers.
That's why this species is called Clone Gecko They have been around for over 100,000 years, cloning away every generation. Very cool!
That's why this species is called Clone Gecko
They have been around for over 100,000 years, cloning away every generation. Very cool!
Dicco
Very Well-Known Member
. . .
Where did they come from? Are they captive bred or wild caught? Generally, if you don't know, they will probably be sexuals. In the eastern states they are almost all sexuals because the parthenogens (the clonal ones) aren't found around populated areas, and the closest populations of Heteronotia to Sydney, Brisbane and Darwin are sexual, and even where the parthenogens do exist there are sexuals living side by side with them, often literally.
So, on distribution you can sometimes confirm that they are sexual, but never confirm that they are clonal. If the individual is a male, you know he is sexual, because the Clone Geckoes don't have males.
To confirm an unknown one, you can either get a DNA test done (very expensive) or you can keep a female in isolation. If she has been in isolation since she hatched and she then lays eggs which themselves hatch, you will know she is a Clone Gecko. If she has ever been with males, she will have received sperm and will be storing it (even the Clones will store sperm, even though they can't use it). So, you will need to grow her babies up in isolation, if any of her babies are male you know she is sexual. If her babies are all female, and after being raised in isolation they lay eggs which hatch, you know that she is a Clone Gecko (and you know that all her babies and siblings will be female). Keeping them in isolation is absolutely essential, because if they ever have access to a male they will get sperm and store it, potentially for a long time.
The above is either very expensive or takes years! Easier is just to buy a Clone Gecko for less than the price of the DNA test
GeckoJosh
Almost Legendary
Hey can u tell me how big ur adults are?
Also do u have a pic of one on ur hand or something (i know they are skittish gex so i understand if u dont)
Also do u have a pic of one on ur hand or something (i know they are skittish gex so i understand if u dont)
pythonz
Active Member
wat does the word cloning in cloning gecko mean or is it just a name
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