# Lizards > General Geckos >  Tokay Gecko Co-habitation

## Trisnake

Curious how to go about housing a 1.2 group of Tokay geckos. Ive read up on their care and husbandry the past couple days, and plan to do a lot more reading and research before pulling the trigger on anything, but I found an ad on Craigslist from a mom rehoming some of her sons reptiles and is offering the trio for 60 dollars. They look pretty rough, thin with stuck sheds and in a tank with no hide or anything to climb on, and Id love to give them a home where they can flourish and be their sassy little selves. 

Im in the process of converting to tubs from tanks, so Im curious if they can thrive in some sort of tub set up or if theyre better suited for aboreal cages? Any particular brands or suggested set ups?

I have never kept Tokay geckos, or really any aboreal geckos of any kind. I had a leopard gecko several years back but I know the care between the two species is very different. Any ideas, opinions, suggestions, extra resources or caresheets I should look at, its all greatly appreciated. Let me know what yall think! 

Also sorry if this post is disjointed, I am in class so if I forgot to ask anything ill add it lol

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## Regius_049

I am delighted to see a post here on tokay geckos.  I don't hear too much about them within the hobby of reptile keeper, let alone on these forums.  They are truly one of my favorites.  That said, I have some concerns -

1.  You should always be careful when acquiring reptiles, especially those in visually poor condition.  Tokay geckos, especially wild caught ones, can harbor a variety of parasites including the notorious cryptosporidium.  Parasites can be extremely difficult to get rid of in an individual enclosure or collection.  If you do pick these up, I would heavily encourage a vet visit and some lab testing for health issues.  While it can be a source of good deals, I would be pretty leery of animals on Craigslist.  Tokay geckos in particular tend to become very big and robust in a captive setting.  Observing a captive, thin Tokay is pretty uncommon unless some sort of health issue is present or their diet is carefully monitored.

2.  They can be housed in individual tubs temporarily if you need stop gap enclosures, and actually as quarantine enclosures, I would recommend them.  They are easy to monitor for issues and can be tossed in the event you need to "purge" a setup without it being a great loss.  I stress individually because there are few, if any tubs that I would consider acceptable for multiple tokay geckos.  While they can and do pair bond, they are also notorious for injuring or killing each other.  I would be most concerned about the two females, but males can attack females and vice versa.  Aggression is usually amplified in small setups where adequate space and hiding locations is of issue.

3.  As for final enclosures, I would discourage housing 1.2 in a single setup unless it is very large.  By this, I mean something like 6' x 3' x 6'.  Tokay geckos are agile, large, and fast geckos.  They really require considerably more space than many other lizards, even though they are often tragically kept in smaller setups.  They are not, as you note, like a big leopard gecko or other comparable arboreal geckos.  They really should have a larger, hot, and humid setup.  I personally like planted setups for tokays, but it is not required.

4.  With regards to housing them, I think it would be more realistic to either house them individually or keep them as 1.1 and 0.1.  Multiple Tokays of the same sex is courting trouble.  Pair bonded males tend not to accept additional females (an oddity in the reptile world) and females tend to destroy or eat the others eggs should they be present.  The only caveat is that since they are offered as 1.2, it is possible they are already acclimated to each other, which would make me wonder if they are siblings (this anecdotally often suppresses aggression). 

I would suggest perusing this thread on tokay care: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/commu...caresheet.html

Michael Billewicz comments there and he is one of the more knowledgeable people in regards to captive Tokay care.

Also there is this as a general care guide: http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Tokay-Gecko-Care/

In short, getting a trio for $60 is just a beginning and you would more so be rescuing them than anything else.  If you choose this route, you should expect to spend far more housing and caring for them.  Good luck!

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_Trisnake_ (02-02-2018)

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