red/yellow Ackies?'s

[spook]

does any one here own either of these two ackies? whats the differances? is it just the color and size? well i done a lot of reading of care sheets on them.ackies{ridgetail monitors} i finally ordered acouple babies from different breeders. one is a yellow ackie and one is a red. both are about the same size. 6-7 inch. whats the best way to introduce them? should i expect any problems?

 

[TokayKeeper]

The largest difference is that they are subspecies of Varanus acanthurus. Reds or Northwestern Ridge-tailed monitors are Varanus acanthurus acanthurus. Yellows or Common Ridge-tailed monitors are Varanus acanthurus brachyurus. Outside that, there is the stance of home range. Western to Northwestern animals are typically considered reds and eastern animals considered yellows. Some even consider the subspecies being divided from north to south. There is a third subspecies* called the Insular or Island Ridge-tailed monitor (Varanus acanthurus insulanicus).

Though there is speculation and even known crossing, most try to keep the subspecies separate; similar in concept like keeping the strains of albino leopard geckos separate. Reds tend to be darker and more patterned in ocelli (the round pattern) than yellow ackies. Reds are suppose to have longer tails and the term "brachyurus" roughly means short tailed. I can't find the page/info, but there has supposedly been some scientific field work done in collecting overall and tail measurements to confirm the subspecies distributions in the wild. They [reds] also tend to be larger, more robust and supposedly more flighty/aggressive than yellows. I've only kept yellows and mine have been smaller than the reds I've seen.

*A 2006 molecular study showed the island ackie cluster with V baritji over V. acanthurus. http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species.php?genus=Varanus&species=acanthurus

 

[spook]

thanx for the info! so i guess i can keep them together since they are baby's. how should i go about introducing them though? i will be setting up a larger enclosure 40gal repterium. i have read that they can canabalize is that true?

 

[TokayKeeper]

supervised introductions, though I'd personally keep the 2 separate. But I'm a purist in that way. Keep in mind most yellows will top out at 14-22 inches total length, with reds hitting around 24-30 inches. I believe the record animal was a wild red at 32 or 34 inches total length. The size difference alone, if I had both subspecies, would be reason/justification enough for me to not house them together. I know the 2 yellows I have do at it once in a while and they were clutchmates!

 

[spook]

ok one more important Q. UVB/UVA lights, are they needed i have read that they ar not.

 

[Dron2124]

yea uvb is needed there day animals as well as uva because that is just ur normal heat lamp.

 

[TokayKeeper]

some have successfully raised and bred ackies without any form of UV lighting. Personally, I've always used UV lighting on my diurnal species and I've even used it on some nocturnal species that I have natural setup. I would recommend using the UV light.

My current ackie cage, as well as my bearded dragon cage, is lit with a ZooMed PowerSun (puts out UVA and UVB) for basking and then the whole cage is illuminated with a ZooMed Repti-Sun 10.0 tube fluorescent. I'd stick to the 10.0 not merely because it's designed for desert species, but rather that it has an unobstructed UV penetration distance of somewhere around 24 inches. By placing a screen lid between the cage and the light you can effectively reduce the UV penetration distance by 50%, which would equate to a REpti-Sun 5.0 that is unobstructed.

I've heard rumors of the compact fluorescent UV lights causing retinal damage, so I'd avoid them. I'm not a fan of the kelvin temperature (=light coloration) that the Exo-terra Repti-glo put out, nor do I know how well their UV output rates compared to the ZooMed Repti-Suns. Thus, I'd stick to the ZooMed tube fluorescents and mercury vapor (PowerSuns) bulbs.