Geckos

[snakelady96]

Hi all, im very new to keeping geckos and have just bought a pair of wheeleri (banded knob tailed geckos) and a pair of underwoodisaurus milli (thick tailed gecko; barking gecko). I'm very excited for them to arrive as I've never owned geckos. I'v e been researching them ALL day on the internet and reading books. I love the look of the Nephrurus family geckos, some velvet geckos, and the underwoodisaurus family geckos I would love for people to give me some personal advice on them even general stuff im all ears! I want to know everything i can, even photos would be great of peoples geckos to get an idea of what species there are that i havent seen yet. Please excuse me if i have made mistakes in the scientific names/families as i said im only new to the gecko world and ready to learn all about them!

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Hi what exactly did you want to know? Nephrurus species are great starter geckos (Despite recent work I still hold milli an sphyrurus to be in the genus Nephrurus), you are definitely doing right starting with them.

Generally geckos need a tub maybe 2 by 3 foot, the species you are talking about don't need much height. They need several hides at least one of which is kept moist and one should be above a hot section of the enclosure. A water bowl should be provided but those species generally prefer to drink by spraying them on the side of the enclosure. Feeding is as simple as 2-3 crickets every 2nd night dusted with calcium powder every feed.

btw you are not referring to families, you are referring to genera. In Australia the 4 families of gecko are Geckonidae, Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae and Pygopodidae. (I only added this since you said you were so eager to learn and you yourself used Scientific genera)

 

[Elapidae1]

? Geckphotographer. What are the criteria for subfamilies? If they are collectively known as Gecko's why aren't Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae and Pygopodidae subfamilies too Geckonidae?

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Subfamilies would be groups within the family Geckonidae. These are not within, but outside of Geckonidae. People make the mistake of assuming geckos are Geckonidae when really geckos are the clade Geckota, Geckonidae being only a small part of. You could probably find a phylogenetic tree somewhere. If not and you want a bit more info pm me and I can email you a paper written on Australian gecko cladistics in which the families Carphodactylidae and Diplodactylidae were formally recognised and split from Geckonidae.

 

[Elapidae1]

Thanks that helps my understanding a lot as I had made that very assumption. Was there recently work done that suggests Pygopods should actually be a subfamily too Geckonidae or even the same family?

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Yes semi-recent genetic work and long stand behavioral and morphological evidence was recently used to show that 2 families of Australian geckos (Carphodactylidae and Diplodactylidae) are more closely related to Pygopodidae than too Geckos that evolved in places including Asia, which also exist in Australia (Geckonidae). This means that the Pygopodids are in fact easily within the clade we call Gekkota which encompasses all geckos.

Simply put:

Gekkota- All geckos

Inside this is:

Carphodactylidae- Includes geckos like Knobtails, Leaf-tails and Carphodactylus
Gekkonidae- Includes geckos like AHG, Gehyra, and Bynoes
Diplodactylidae- Includes geckos like Diplodactylus, Oedura, and Strophurus.
Pygopodidae- Australian legless lizards.
Several other families which do not occur in Australia.

At the moment I am unsure if any subfamilies exist within the listed families. Before Australian Gekkonidae was split into several families there was a subfamily diplodactylinae but that no longer needs to exist due to its elevation to full family level.

 

[snakelady96]

Hey thanks for the info so far, a lot of big names to learn there! I'm just wanting to know anything really, what species to stay away from till i get more experienced with keeping them, how long they live in captivity, how big do certain species grow, etc. I know not to handle them as they are really just to be pets to watch grow and take photographs of and just be happy with them.... Even if they are meant to be handled id probably just leave them be as they are such a small animal. Thanks for detailed info on the gecko families GeckPhotographer