Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

I've seen these geckos a few times for sale at petco anyone have any input on them ?

Common Name: White Spot Gecko
Scientific Name: Tarentola a. annularis

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

Is this the species that lives in Isreal?

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

FRom what I could find on them there originate in Northern Africa
http://www.reptileallsorts.com/whitespotgecko-cs.htm

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

Hi Terry-

I kept and bred them once. They're pretty difficult to sex, and honestly I'm not sure I ever had a pair. I could have had two females. I got them from an importer (Aline Reptiles, I think) and a show. They had a number of specimens so I was able to compare enough to have some precision in selecting a pair.

I kept them in a ten gallon on sand with PVC hides. They were monsters. The male was quite large and was a terrifying eater. Around this time I was also keeping a number of pletodontid salamanders. My salamanders suffered an epidemic that basically turned them to slime in a couple of days, and about a week after that happened the big male Tarentola died suddenly one night and by the time I found him (before noon the next day) his insides were liquified and he stunk like he'd been dead for days. Saying that some bacterial/viral/fungal infection jumped from a specific group of salamanders to a gecko, who have been seperated from eachother by millions and millions of years of evolution and presumably have very different immune systems seems unlikely, but that's what seemed to have happened. Pretty weird.

Any how, I isolated the female in a completely new cage. A few weeks later she laid some eggs. They hatched in 45-60 days. I think I got 4-5 clutches before she stopped and never laid for me again, but I never paired her up. Interesting and hardy geckos, except for those extreme cases (like rogue viruses and bad husbandry)..

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

Thanks for your input Daniel

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

I've kept these awesome guys before. The males are usually are larger bodied and have a larger head proportionally. Also males have spine-like scales at the base of the tail. I kept a pair in an 18 gallon terrarium, sand substrate, lots of hide places and kept my temps. at 85-90F during the day and 70-75F at night. I also cooled them during the winter at 50-55F for about 6 weeks. That usually triggered a breeding response. I kept the cage pretty dry daytime and would mist it every night lightly.

Re: Anyone ever keep Tarentola a. annularis
 

Thanks for your input to Mark