New here. Meet my Hypomelanistic Northern! :D

[Brian(:]

Hello all! I come from the world of Crested Gecko's. I've been a member on The Pangea Forums(great place btw) for about 4 months now. I'm brand new here and just got my bluey 2 days ago. It was kind of a last minute thing because the guy I got him in was only going to be in town for a few hours. Anyways, I was told he was a male, Northern, Hypomelanistic Bluey. I have no idea if this is true or not. He's about 3 years old and is pretty tame. Cage agrresive, but is a total puppy when he is out of his tank. I don't have a UVA/UVB light yet, I will be picking one up sometime next week. Lol anyways, here he is! If someone could give me an identification of the local, or morph I'd really appreciate it. Name ideas are appreciated!



I love the peach-orange coloration on his belly.





Also heres my gargoyle gecko, Rhett. He's a sweetie.

[Linnea]

looks very pretty! - be sure to read the caresheet a lot even if you got info from the previous owner. and welcome!

im not sure what he might be - i only have a northern so im no good at species, but i can tell its not a meruake and IJ, so something closer to a northern......tanimbar or northern maybe?( do not be surprised if i am very wrong)

you only need uvb, not uva. uva is sometimes being used to give them a more realistic environment, but wether it is useful or not can be discussed.
uvb or d3 supplement is essential however.

[Fatal_S]

Congrats on your new skink! Looks like a Caramel Northern IMO.

Adorable garg too

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Did you get it here?
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/ ... p?t=265709

[Brian(:]

Did you get it here?
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/ ... p?t=265709

Yes I did !

[MissMeg]

Welcome. Youve got a handsom man there. Im not sure what he is. He looks like his name could be Harold or Edward.

[MissMeg]

P.S. Jelous of the gargoyl. I wanted one sooo bad

[Brian(:]

P.S. Jelous of the gargoyl. I wanted one sooo bad

He's really cool! I deffiantly reccomend one!

[aggiegirl]

I like the Rhacs too. I have three cresties (and a leo.) Nothing like having lizards 24/7. Gargoyles are pretty cool looking though. What are their personalities like compared to cresties?

[Brian(:]

I like the Rhacs too. I have three cresties (and a leo.) Nothing like having lizards 24/7. Gargoyles are pretty cool looking though. What are their personalities like compared to cresties?

Every gecko is different, but for the most part they are more laid back, chunky, and have a tendency to bite a little more. The bites don't even hurt though. Like I said though, every gecko is different. You should deffiantly try one!

[Katrina]

Gorgeous!! Welcome to the forum!

[Brian(:]

Thanks! Can anyone else give me some advice on the morph/local?

[Katrina]

Thanks! Can anyone else give me some advice on the morph/local?

There aren't really many morphs for blueys - not enough people breeding them. Lots of sellers give names like hypomelanistic, orange, etc. but these are just names to try to make them sound more appealing - most aren't actually a proven trait through several generations of breeding, just a name based on what the parents look like. Notable exceptions to that would be Andrew Seike's sunset Northerns (very orange) and the James Wilson caramel Northern line. Yours might very well be a proven hypomelanistic Northern that has been carefully bred for this trait - I'm not saying it isn't, just that most Northerns available aren't any kind of morph so I'd hesitate to assign any kind of name to it without knowing more about the breeder / parents etc.

If you want to see locales, there is a thread in the Advanced Discussion Forum with some pics. Most Northerns in North America aren't any specific locale.

You bluey does look like a Northern and it does lack black, so the hypomelanistic seems accurate although I'm not sure that it is a proven trait / morph or just a light colored bluey. There is some info on this on the caresheet here: http://www.bluetongueskinks.net/care.htm#scams

And there is great info on Northerns here: http://seikereptiles.com/seikereptiles/ ... cation.htm

But the reason people aren't giving you morph info is because blueys haven't been bred specifically for morphs much (they aren't a very common pet and give live birth, so it isn't as easy as with leos or corns etc) and lots of people are against assigning interesting sounding names to a bluey to make it sound more unique and sell better. Hope that makes sense!

[Katrina]

Figure I'd post this here as well:
Just to clarify - there is nothing wrong with using words like caramel or orange or whatever to describe the look of a bluey! Don't feel like you will be jumped on for using a certain word or anything. The issue is with people selling blueys for more money because of some name that doesn't really actually mean anything. Hope that makes sense!

[Jeff]

I agree with what Katrina said about BTS morphs outside of Australia, but it is important to acknowledge that very clear and legitimate morphs DO exist in Australia. Some of the most amazing BTS/reptile morphs ever have been posted on this forum recently. They just haven't reached the outside world yet.

[critterguy]

That is a curious looking animal. I don't think it is related to the James Wilson Caramels it looks like someone took one of those and then did it in grayscale.

[Brian(:]

That is a curious looking animal. I don't think it is related to the James Wilson Caramels it looks like someone took one of those and then did it in grayscale.

Grayscale?

[Brian(:]

Also, does anyone know how strong the bulb should be? I might be buying a fixture from a guy off craigslist that comes with a brand new 5.0 exo terra bulb. will this work? My tank is about 16 inches high.

[Linnea]

buy a dimmer too. that way you can lower the temps if its too high, and make it hold longer if its just a heat bulb.

you just have to measure the heat with a termometre (preferably a tempgun?) to know if its too strong or too weak, since there are a lot of variables. for example, your actual room temperature, the ventilation of the tank, the volume of the tank......

i use a 75W heatbulb for summer and now i just switched to a 100W for winter. it will be a tiny bit too warm for my reptile now in autumn with that, but ill get a dimmer this week :3 temps are 24-25 on the colder side and 31 on the warmer, basking spot being 35-36.

[Susann]

Also, does anyone know how strong the bulb should be? I might be buying a fixture from a guy off craigslist that comes with a brand new 5.0 exo terra bulb. will this work? My tank is about 16 inches high.

If you are asking about UVB, that all depends on the bulb.... is it a globe or a long ...whatever those thing are called?

If I remember correctly, it seems like the 5.0 is good only up to 12 inches. But then you could build up the basking area 4 inches, you know. But it also makes a difference if you have a screen-top between the bulb and the skink, that weakens the rays.

My recommendation would be to research the bulb in question. If you can't find good enough info on-line you could go to a petstore and read the info straight off the bulb packaging.
One of the brands, I think it's Exo Terra, makes a little free booklet with tons of info on UVB.

Good luck!