Tristis
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i found this on the net tonight and thought some of you guys that keep monitors might be intersted in this. Frank Retes who posted this on a U.S. site ( www.varanus.net ) is one of the biggest, if not the biggest goanna breeder in the world. he bred a sub species of ackie discoverd by John Weigal wile in the kimberlys. this is what he wrote
" Well I am in the middle of an odd varanid event. It started a long time ago. In fact, in 1992. I acquired a odd type of ackie. It was very large and very different colored, patterned and shape different then other ackies. Remember, its still an ackie. It was 30 inches long in 92. Well a bunch of years went by and I finally found a female that appeared to be the same type or close to the same type(not exactly the same, but had all the general characteristics) I bred them once and she died. I hatched a few babies. I kept two, and of course how my luck is, hahahahahahaha, they grew up to be a pair(raised together). But for some reason, they never bred.
Then as you all know, I sorta lost interest in ackies and did nothing with them. But I did not lose them. So this spring, I placed the female with her dad, the older then the hills and four or so inches shorter dad. Well, they mated and she laid 15 small eggs(small for ackies) After about two months, two eggs went bad. Then after another four months, one more went bad. I opened the first eggs and there was very small embryos. I thought that was odd, after two months they should have developed more. The one that died after six months(twice normal) had a larger embryo.
Well as of tomorrow it will be 8 full months. And yes they are hatching. There is seven heads and another thats slit. The other eggs still appear good.
Sometime back, someone sent me an articule written by that fella in australia, Jon Weigal(he also has a reptile park, the one that burned down). The paper was a discription of a new type of monitor from the kimberlys. His name for it was a, Blackfaced monitor. It was exactly what I have. Its still an ackie.
As the heads popped out, they appeared very dark. Well the first one has hatched and its nearly all black, how odd. Blackish is a better word. The problem is, I have no idea what the babies are suppose to look like. Or, how much variability they have. Also for some reason, I cannot remember what the mother looked like as a hatchling. At that time I was hatching hundreds and hundreds of monitors(all a blurr now)
The basic description is they have black and white heads and necks. The body is pumkin orange with oceli. The tail is also black and white. They appear to have a head and tail that do not match the body. Also as I have said, they are very large.
The male has a huge head compared to other monitors and huge teeth(personal experience)
I have had this male for 14 years and he was a full on adult when I got him. He still fertilized eggs, oh man.
Hes so old, part of his tail fall off and his toes don't work(hemipenes do)"
so does any one have the paper that John wrote. i dout any one in oz has any of these ackies and i would like to see pic if any one does. i have herd of a couple of big ackies in oz close to 3 foot and i have seen v.tristis tristis as big as 3.5 feet. does any one have pics of gaint pygmy monitors?
" Well I am in the middle of an odd varanid event. It started a long time ago. In fact, in 1992. I acquired a odd type of ackie. It was very large and very different colored, patterned and shape different then other ackies. Remember, its still an ackie. It was 30 inches long in 92. Well a bunch of years went by and I finally found a female that appeared to be the same type or close to the same type(not exactly the same, but had all the general characteristics) I bred them once and she died. I hatched a few babies. I kept two, and of course how my luck is, hahahahahahaha, they grew up to be a pair(raised together). But for some reason, they never bred.
Then as you all know, I sorta lost interest in ackies and did nothing with them. But I did not lose them. So this spring, I placed the female with her dad, the older then the hills and four or so inches shorter dad. Well, they mated and she laid 15 small eggs(small for ackies) After about two months, two eggs went bad. Then after another four months, one more went bad. I opened the first eggs and there was very small embryos. I thought that was odd, after two months they should have developed more. The one that died after six months(twice normal) had a larger embryo.
Well as of tomorrow it will be 8 full months. And yes they are hatching. There is seven heads and another thats slit. The other eggs still appear good.
Sometime back, someone sent me an articule written by that fella in australia, Jon Weigal(he also has a reptile park, the one that burned down). The paper was a discription of a new type of monitor from the kimberlys. His name for it was a, Blackfaced monitor. It was exactly what I have. Its still an ackie.
As the heads popped out, they appeared very dark. Well the first one has hatched and its nearly all black, how odd. Blackish is a better word. The problem is, I have no idea what the babies are suppose to look like. Or, how much variability they have. Also for some reason, I cannot remember what the mother looked like as a hatchling. At that time I was hatching hundreds and hundreds of monitors(all a blurr now)
The basic description is they have black and white heads and necks. The body is pumkin orange with oceli. The tail is also black and white. They appear to have a head and tail that do not match the body. Also as I have said, they are very large.
The male has a huge head compared to other monitors and huge teeth(personal experience)
I have had this male for 14 years and he was a full on adult when I got him. He still fertilized eggs, oh man.
Hes so old, part of his tail fall off and his toes don't work(hemipenes do)"
so does any one have the paper that John wrote. i dout any one in oz has any of these ackies and i would like to see pic if any one does. i have herd of a couple of big ackies in oz close to 3 foot and i have seen v.tristis tristis as big as 3.5 feet. does any one have pics of gaint pygmy monitors?
