Designer Geckos introduces our Mandarin Tangerine line

[OhioGecko]

We went back to the original picture which was more accurate. The other was a poor representation of what he looked like. This new one is very close to exact, though we have struggled with orange on a black background.

Which one was original and which one is the new one? I'm having a hard time following you here. Are they the same picture? or is one of them edited?

 

[Designer Geckos]

Try a royal blue background, then you can cut the gecko out and place it on a black background. Royal blue seems to give the best representation of a geckos color for us. I don't necessarily like it as much as white or black, but the true colors almost always seem to be spot on.

Thanks. Good idea Thad. The blue does show oranges better. I've tried purple but that didn't seem to do so well. Black is great for other morphs but not for yellows or oranges. Ron uses black but he uses flash and I prefer not to.

The originally posted less colorful pic of this gecko was edited down because the original off the camera seemed too bright online at the time, but after looking at it we decided we actually reduced the saturation too much and it didn't show the true colors....I think KK commented on that here at the time, as he had seen the gecko himself in person and said that pic did not show his colors and that he was much brighter orange in person.

The pic on this thread is the accurate one off the camera. His orange just seemed to be washed out a bit, but it does show how intense his orange really is. His orange is the brightest I've seen. I'm hoping he keeps this color like this.....he puts his father Jason to shame and Jason is awesome.

 

[kkigs]

I think another background would be a good idea, and maybe a couple of good, in-focus close ups of his head to capture the red highlights on his chin and neck. For the most part, though, I agree. That picture is pretty close to what I remember seeing.

 

[KelliH]

Nice gecko. How many years have you been working on the project?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Photoshop or not, the geckos is amazing. I'm also interested in how long you've been working on this project, and what gecko lines you started with? How many of these have you been able to produce?

 

[Wild West Reptile]

You can tell that there was absolutely no selective breeding or experience required to produce this gecko. Ray probably just threw two random "what is this morph" geckos in a tub and abracadabra!!! Leopard gecko breeding is sooooo easy Marcia, haven't you heard?? Everyone's doing it!

I'm kidding of course.....awesome job Ray!

 

[SFgeckos]

That is a great looking gecko Ray!

Aside from the photo editing dilemma, at what point can someone create "their own line"? 3 years? 5 years? 10+ years?

Jon

 

[Dimidiata]

That is a great looking gecko Ray!

Aside from the photo editing dilemma, at what point can someone create "their own line"? 3 years? 5 years? 10+ years?

Jon

Appearntly i can breed rango to a SHTCT and call the babbies whatevertheheckiwant Tangerines. However, a ligit new line should have a quality that the other lines lack. There should be obvious diffrence that makes this line diffrent. Its not a matter of time, just breeding.

I love the gecko, the color looks great in both pics. To clear up the edit issues, put a white crayon in the photo.
Ive seen plenty of breeders use editing to turn their Bettas from blue to purple. I love catching them doing it too.(there are color factors that give it away). I use gray with rango to bring out her best color.

 

[CambGeckoUK]

Looks like a worth while project has paid off. Would love to see some tanga like that in the uk or at Hamm.

Phil

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

at what point can someone create "their own line"? 3 years? 5 years? 10+ years?

Good question! Not trying to side-track the thread, but I am of the opinion (yes, just an opinion), that when a particular morph that has been line-bred to the point where it exhibits distinctive, discernible, and reproducible traits that characterize it beyond any other similar morph, then it becomes a 'line' of it's own. On the flip side let's say, if someone crossed an Albey Torrid and a Hiss Electric (both distinct 'lines'), I would not think the offspring, or even grand-offspring crossed back or to each other, would qualify as a separate line.

 

[Designer Geckos]

While we can't give away all our methods and secrets (I'm still trying to get Ron to tell how he produced the Firefox), I will say that we wanted to take the cream of the crop Tangs from various lines to produce geckos with very bright orange color with some color variations, and importantly, a lot of very intense orange carrot tail. There are various degrees of CT, and we selected geckos that had that deep coral orange/red color CT and not the lighter orange shade of CT that sometimes fades as the gecko matures.

By spending a small fortune to obtain the best we could find, we combined lines from Gecko Genetics (and Jason's work with TUG/HISS)/Blood Hypo and JMG Tangs and even a couple others. The key really is that we selected the best 5 star stock we could get our hands on, and paid through the nose for those.
The old adage, you get what you pay for, is generally true with geckos as with anything else. If you are willing to pay a high price to get the best, it of course pays off in higher quality offspring. Good example is the shows....people wonder why they should spend $200 for a gecko when Joe's Gecko booth next door sells geckos for $20! It's about the genetics and quality of the gecko and its future offspring, and investing in top notch animals so you produce high quality offspring.
I was offered in excess of $1000 for Mandarin as a hatchling and I turned it down. I was offered over $5000 for our SG Sunglow Ronnie and turned it down. It's about quality, and when you get your hands on geckos of that level you don't want to let them go.
There are many outstanding lines of Tangs out there. Mandarin's babies are unique in that they will have very bright intense orange and also orange/chartreuse highlights. One thing we have also noticed is that the babies 90% of the time will have the same temperament of the parents, so we are placing a lot of emphasis on that aspect in our breedings.
I could go on and on about this. Are our Zorro Bandits really another "line" of Bandits? No. They are all just a refinement of Tremper's original line, selecting bolder Bandits with certain other characteristics, but they are still Ron's line, further refined by us. Same with Mandarin's babies. They are not really a new "line" per se, but they are a Designer Geckos refined line. I think that makes more sense. It comes down to semantics. "Line" or even "morph" can have various connotations really, and we can debate this over and over for sure.

Sorry for the verbosity. Whether you call a combination or refinement a new line or not, it's what many of us do to try to make improvements and variations. Hope you all enjoy the results. I think we'll have some pretty interesting geckos this year....then maybe our accountant will get off my back about spending so much money on our breeders!

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Good stuff Ray, looking forward to the offsprings

 

[Wild West Reptile]

The old adage, you get what you pay for, is generally true with geckos as with anything else. If you are willing to pay a high price to get the best, it of course pays off in higher quality offspring. Good example is the shows....people wonder why they should spend $200 for a gecko when Joe's Gecko booth next door sells geckos for $20! It's about the genetics and quality of the gecko and its future offspring, and investing in top notch animals so you produce high quality offspring.

WELL SAID RAY!

I've always wondered why a "breeder" would produce $20-30 geckos. If you don't care about quality or how the offspring will look, then OK, but if you are a breeder and are purchasing low grade cheap geckos, with the intent to breed and sell them, I just don't see the point. With so many run of the mill "orange geckos" for sale (they're everywhere), it's refreshing to see you producing such high quality bright orange, almost red, geckos Ray. Keep up the good work man, and don't worry about the name thing….the look and quality will sell itself.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Ray, thank you for your very well thought out post! I happen to agree with you completely, and hope my questions were taken more as provocative rather than confrontational. I am looking forward to seeing more of these lovelies!

 

[stager]

Simpley amazing!

 

[Designer Geckos]

Thanks all for a very interesting thread!

As an aside, because I am so enthralled with Mandarin, I've wanted to breed him to many different females and he has been one busy boy. I just want to see what this character can do with those genes!

I have a very unique female Giant Banded Lavender I was lucky enough to obtain as a baby a few years back from Brett Boller. She's my buddy and often goes for drives in the car with me....it's true! She looks like a High Yellow but has totally different lineage.

Well, anyway, she had never been bred because I wasn't sure what to breed her to....enter, Mandarin! They bred last night, the easiest in history. He walked over to her, got alongside of her, she lifted her tail, and it was over in seconds. I wish all breedings would go like that!

I think this pairing will produce some of the most uniquely outrageous designers I've had. Imagine her uniqueness with his firey orange colors and CT. I'm pretty excited about this pairing. Here she is....Violet Rutherford:

 

[GeckoDude31]

Wow, Ray, she's a pretty girl! Can't wait to see what they produce. How big is she? She must be pretty mellow, too, to take her on car rides. I would would be too paranoid to take my layed back female anywhere outside. Lucky!

 

[Designer Geckos]

Wow, Ray, she's a pretty girl! Can't wait to see what they produce. How big is she? She must be pretty mellow, too, to take her on car rides. I would would be too paranoid to take my layed back female anywhere outside. Lucky!

Violet is around 100g. I hold back on feeding her so she keeps her girlish figure. If I fed her all she wanted she'd be about 5 pounds by now!
She does love the car. I hold her up in my left hand and drive with my right. She's totally into it, and loves to watch the scenery, other cars, dogs, cows, etc. I always like the expression on people's faces when I pull up next to them at a red light. Some very funny double takes! A cop passed by me once while I was holding her and freaked. I thought she was going to do a u turn and come after me, but she probably thought she was hallucinating....

 

[GeckoDude31]

HAHA! That's great! Do you ever bring your boy that stays on the couch with you for hours?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

LOL, I get mental images of the gecko driving like on a Geico commercial.