DAS ZWERGGECKO-FORUM

Hello my friends,

I found tiny dark Gonatodes neonate out of my untight sliding door terrarium long time ago. Due to its small size and very dark color I had to google cca 2-3 hours that time to be sure that it is my first, in terrarium hatched and later escaped, vittatus neonate. Over time it is no problem for me to distinguish all my newly born Gonatodes neonates even if some of them are hardly 20 mm long and their characteristic body patterns are pretty dark and not very well visible yet.

For your information I have prepared some pictures of my juveniles with their charekteristic dorsal patterns and signs - see picture (sorry for vittatus background ).



Maybe you can use it in the future for your easier identification when purchasing some juvies for your breeding. Maybe it looks a bit strange why I present notoriously known pictures but I know well that for many of us it can be a serious problem to recognize species of less freaquent fully adult Gonatodes females especially if they represent the new species introduced to Europe. I have been breeding Gonatodes for couple of years and I must confess that I saw first picture of undescribed G. rozei roughly ten days ago . Dennis knows what I am talking about.

OK, what are some basic dorsal pattern differences/characteristics of four, probably in Europe the most often bred, Gonatodes species?

Gonatodes ocellatus – two white spots near the head, they will create characteristic quite big discs later
Gonatodes albogularis fuscus – in my opinion “quasi-square” pattern on its back
Gonatodes caudiscutatus – white tip of the tail, central “palm trunk” pattern along entire dorsum
Gonatodes vittatus – bold staight line along the body, the rest of its dorsal pattern has rather spotty character

Of course, I do not comment typical collar bands (ocellatus, albogularis fuscus) which demarcate the diametrically different colors of head and body.

If you have some more snaps of next species of Gonatodes juveniles you can provide - they will be gladly welcome.Thanks.


Greetings from Ostrava,
Radim,