Hello all, thought I would share some pictures of my great companion Pete, I rescued him from a local pet store about a year and a half ago where he was in a tank w/ two much larger water dragons who completely dominated. He was near death when I applied for and got the job as manager of the store, I had to hand/force feed him, he couldn't move off of my hand when I had to force it, he was too weak and immobilized. Well he recovered slightly in the tank while hand feeding, until I decided I just had to have him. The rest has been a truly great experience that many of my friends have also enjoyed, as he is always by my side. Well, when I say he it is in reference to his original naming of Pete. I can't tell if he is a runt or slow-developing male or what? Do you all have any better guesses? I will get pics of his pre-anal pores asap, for now, please enjoy these! When I first got him home picture: June 2006 picture: November 2006: October 2007:
if only i knew! im wondering the same about my water dragon...but thats an awesome story man i dont see how anyone could let harm to these creatures!
Great story there, congrats on getting your dragon healthy & happy! I honestly think it looks female to me, I can post up pictures of my female & male to show you the difference if you'd like. How long is s/he snout to tail tip? I was easily able to tell my male was definately boy and I picked him up at 15" STL. What size tank is s/he in? I have mine in custom built 4x4x2 (height/length/width) melamin enclosures for now, to be upgraded when I move into a house (hopefully sometime soon!!!).
Thanks for the comments and interest, The tank is a 40 gallon breeder, I paid a friend $100 for it after he had purchased it new 6 months previously.
You'll need to get a tank with some more height if Pete's over the 10-12" mark. Usually an "absolute minimum" tank is a 75 with an extender on top for these guys. Have you checked out Tricia Power's website? it's a great resource and helped me out alot when I first got my guys.
hey yexalen, your comments are immensely appreciated, and to you shortygirl, i also really appreciate the advice. I am planning on turning this tank into a breeding tank for poison arrow dart frogs. I will probably have to wait until closer to undergraduate graduation next Spring. I think Pete will be alright until then. Plus I have a 125 gallon that I bought for a good price in storage back home, so that may just as well be his very soon. What do you think about the possibility of adding one or two more water dragons in there? Would there be better chances if the newly introduced were young juvenile or at least a year old + ??
I wouldn't honestly until you have the larger tank at least. Unfortunately, most of these guys are wild caught (WC) or captive hatched (CH) and usually have a decent amount of parasites & other nasties they can transfer from one to the other. After a 90 day quarentine, you can attempt to introduce them. Mine were together for months...then Oscar decided to be a <enter not so nice word starting with a D here lol> so they got seperate tanks. If you do keep them together, make sure it's female/female or female/male, though with boys 7 girls you always have the potential for the male overdominating the female and breeding so keep a close eye out!
