Our resident beasties
The reptile room is home to many many beasties including two species of crab, four species of gecko, four species of praying mantis, two species and three locales of poison dart frogs, as well as stick insects and ten species of tropical fish.
Here are a few of our favourites:
Scroll down for gallery
Crustaceans
Vampire Crabs
Geosesarma dennerle
We have a large breeding colony of metallic vampire crabs headed by Drax, Mavis and Mr Crabby. They were the very first residents in the reptile room, joining us from Germany way back in 2019. We have had hundreds of babies from this colony and hope to produce hundreds more.
We have a large breeding colony of metallic vampire crabs headed by Drax, Mavis and Mr Crabby. They were the very first residents in the reptile room, joining us from Germany way back in 2019. We have had hundreds of babies from this colony and hope to produce hundreds more.
The vampire crabitat, also known as The riverbed, is a 45 45 60 custom built fully bioactive exo terra with climbing walls and a pond.
Hermit Crabs
Coenobita Brevimanus
Herman came to us as a rescue in November 2023, we were told that he is a four year old purple pincher crab but we have since discovered that he is in fact a Indo hermit crab (Coenobita Brevimanus).
Herman lives in a 100L terrarium with live plants, a sandy beach, rocks, caves and has access to both salt and fresh water.
Reptiles
Crested Geckos
Correlophus ciliatus
Severus High white Harlequin, male. Full pin. Severus came to us in autumn 2024 as a rescue, his previous owner could no longer care for him. He was reported to be quite spicy but we’ve found him to be nothing but charming. He’s a great one for children to handle as he’s the largest of our cresties and he’s so gentle. We are hoping to pair him with Miss Ruby next season if she makes weight.
Miss Ruby Full pin, white wall Lillywhite, female. Miss Ruby came to us all the way from The Czech Republic in summer 2023. She was a tiny ten grams on arrival and we have been slowly but surely helping her gain weight and size over the last year. Miss Ruby is our spicy gecko! She’s very jumpy and does not enjoy being handled, Miss Ruby does not come out when we have visitors. She didn’t make breeding weight last season but we are hopeful she will get to the required 40g by next season.
Pippin Tri- coloured extreme Harlequin. Full pin. Male. Pippin was the first crested gecko to join the reptile room early in 2022, he’s the reason we fell in love with cresties. He’s very clumsy; often missing his bugs when striking, and missing branches when jumping. We love his derpy ways. Pippin was paired with Ladybug last season and has so far produced seven babies with her.
Ladybug Red Phantom, patternless super-Dalmatian with black, olive and red spots. Female. Ladybug joined us in 2022 She was a pet store crestie and as such was not at all hand tame. It’s taken a lot of work and patience to get her to where she is now - a love bug! Ladybug is always sweet when taken out and kids really enjoy handling her.
Severus's Home
Rainforest Lodge - Ruby's Home
The Jungle - Pippin's Home
Ladybug's Maternity Ward
Mourning Geckos
Correlophus ciliatus
Mourning geckos are almost always female, they reproduce by pathogenesis - or cloning themselves! Mourning geckos lay two eggs every two to three months and the babies will be exact genetic clones of their mothers. The eggs are often glued to the lid of their vivarium making it very difficult to find and remove them! One mourning gecko can easily become an army in just a couple of years!
We have four resident mourning geckos who live in a fully bioactive 45 60 60 exo terra vivarium, they share their home with two dart frogs Dash and Dart.
Cameroon Dwarf Geckos
Lyodactylus conraui
Our Cameroon geckos joined us is the summer of 2024 as tiny babies.
Our now adult female Daenerys is easily distinguishable from the rest of our colony by the three tips to her tail! We suspect she may have been injured as a hatchling and instead of regrowing one tip she over-regenerated and made three!
Daenerys shared her fully bioactive 45 60 45 exo terra home with Drogo, our alpha male, Arya and Sansa.
Cameroon Dwarf geckos are incredibly small at just five centimetres long and their babies are almost impossible to catch - at just two centimetres long and quick as lightning! As a result we try to remove any eggs we find and raise them in escape proof nursery jars.
Amphibians
Axolotl
Ambystoma mexicanum
Our fabulous little lotl came to us from an axolotl rescue; at only ten months old he had been badly mistreated and as a result was missing an arm, a leg and most of his gills. Luckily he was rescued just in time and he has made a full recovery- axolotls can regenerate almost any part of them that has been injured but it is a long and tiring process.
Now Anton has a live planted 180 litre cold water aquarium all to himself and he is loving life.
Our fabulous little lotl came to us from an axolotl rescue; at only ten months old he had been badly mistreated and as a result was missing an arm, a leg and most of his gills. Luckily he was rescued just in time and he has made a full recovery- axolotls can regenerate almost any part of them that has been injured but it is a long and tiring process. Now Anton has a live planted 180 litre cold water aquarium all to himself and he is loving life.
Ranitomeya
Ranitomeya veriabilis southern
I raised these three thumbnail dart frogs from tadpoles in 2023, they now live together in a 45 60 45 exo terra fully bioactive vivarium. They have been breeding since January 2025 and we are currently raising their babies. Available in our shop now.
I raised these three thumbnail dart frogs from tadpoles in 2023, they now live together in a 45 60 45 exo terra fully bioactive vivarium. I have heard calling recently and am hopeful they will start producing eggs for me next season.
Poison dart frog
Dendrobates tinctorious Tumucumaque
Bonnie is my newest dart frog; I raised her from a tadpole in the summer of 2024. For now Bonnie lives alone in a 45 60 45 fully bioactive exo terra, I’m hoping for find her a mate in 2025.
UPDATE!
We are growing out five potential mates for her right now, hopefully she likes one of them!
Poison dart frog
Dendrobates tinctorious
These beautiful dart frogs were the second ever inhabitants of the reptile room back in 2020.
We were hoping Dash and Dart were a breeding pair but now suspect they are both male. They are very happy together and regularly share the same bromeliad for a bed.
Dash and Dart live in a fully bioactive 45 60 60 exo terra vivarium, they share their home with four mourning geckos.
These beautiful dart frogs were the second ever inhabitants of the reptile room back in 2020. We were hoping Dash and Dart were a breeding pair but now suspect they are both male. They are very happy together and regularly share the same bromeliad for a bed. Dash and Dart live in a fully bioactive 45 60 60 exo terra vivarium, they share their home with four mourning geckos.
Invertebrates
Metallic Stick Insects
Achrioptera manga “Orangea”
Isopods
(Three varieties)
Isopoda
Rubber Duckys
Cubaris Sp.
Rubber Ducky’s are a on the pricier side of isopod keeping and as such are not used as part of a cleanup crew. These charming little isopods are enjoyed as a pet and not a food source.
Our rubber Ducky’s were very kindly gifted to us in the summer of 2024, we are very much looking forward to breeding them in the coming months.
Yellow Zebra
Armadillidium maculatum
Like the Ducky’s, our yellow zebra isopods were also gifted to us in the summer of 2024. Unlike the Duckys though our Zebras are very outgoing and can regularly be seen scurrying around their habitat. We will have yellow zebras available in the shop soon.
Red Panda King
Cubaris sp.
The newest additions to our isopod family are our Red Panda king isos; these fabulous little guys joined us in February 2025, they are so pretty and very bold.
We keep our Red pandas and Yellow zebra isopods in greenhouse set ups as they are fab show piece species.
For those with keen eyesight, you will see that one viv is double labelled; this is because Red Panda King's some produce Citris King offspring.
Praying Mantis
Praying Mantis
Pseudocreobotra Wahlbergii
Flower, my Spiny flower mantis is a feisty little lady!
You have to be really careful feeding her as she will try to take your finger!
She may actually be the most dangerous creature in the reptile room - certainly the most aggressive dispute her tiny size!
I still love her though - who doesn’t love a bit of sass?
Orchid Mantis
Hymenopus coronatus
We've had so many orchid mantids over the years, they are easily my favorite species; always so gentle and so beautiful! The only downside is that they dont live long, last year I attempted to breed Orchids for the first time... it did not go well.
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Like all mantids, males mature much faster than females and so die alot sooner- this prevents inbreeding with siblings. With this in mind, I raised my female Primrose (Prim) up to sub adult before getting her a boyfriend - Tiny Baby Chicken (knowing mantids reputation for eating their mates my daughter decided to name him after her favourite food).
Once they were both adults I loaded Prim with crickets to make sure she wasnt hungry before the introduction. Like the little champ he was, Chicken waited for her to grab a cricket before jumping on her back and hanging on for dear life. He stayed there all day and by evening I had to leave them to it, I added another cricket to keep Prim occupied and went to bed. This was my big mistake - any crickets big enough to hold Prims interest were also big enough to see Chicken as a meal!
When I came down in the morning poor Chicken was no more and the cricket was half way through a very large meal!
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Prim passed after laying an ootheca (an egg sack) but it turned out to be infertile.
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And thus ends the tale of the one and only time I attempted to breed Orchids.
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