Sailfin Species
The sailfin dragon is also called the sailfin lizard, Soa Soa, and
hydrosaur.
Hydrosaurus
amboinensis is from New Guinea and Indonesia (Moluccas and
Celebs).
Hydrosaurus pustulatus is from the Philippines. (Note that
at least one of my
sources spells it as
Hydrosaurus pustulosus.)
Hydrosaurus
weberi, or
Weber's sailfin lizard, is from the Moluccas. I had a
Hydrosaurus
pustulatus. The
pet store said she was a
Hydrosaurus weberi; a breeder who
saw my lizard's picture
on this page said
H. pustulatus which I have verified by
photo comparison. The
May 1998 issue of Reptiles magazine had the first color photos I had
seen of all three
Hydrosaurus, and this seemed to confirm that I had a
Hydrosaurus
pustulatus. Weber's sailfin lizards are the most colorful. They
are bright green with black
marks.
The Philippine's sailfin lizard,
Hydrosaurus pustulatus,
begins life mostly as a
brown lizard. Later, they develop highlights around the mouth and upper
dorsal sailfin (back of
the neck) that are blue or purple as can be seen in pictures of my
sailfin. Both sexes have these
highlights. The tail crest on my female was pretty impressive. Her
laying an egg though proved
her to be a female. Males have even more blue around the lower mouth
and larger crests than my
female.
While Philippine's sailfin lizards get a lot of purple and blue,
H.
amboinensis does
not get much color. Most of the sailfin lizards coming in to the USA in
the late 90's and early
00's were
H. amboinensis while during the early 90's, it
was
H.
pustulatus. Both are often mistakenly called Weber's sailfins
which are in fact a totally
different species although many people disagree. The Philippines no
longer allows the
exportation of
H. pustulatus.
Size and Behavior
Males can grow to 3.5 to 4 feet but three feet is an average, including
tail. Females are a few
inches smaller than males. Weber's sailfins are a bit smaller. Because
they are fairly delicate,
prone to mouth rot and parasites, and like to smash into the tank
(flight behavior), they are not
good for beginners. Sailfin lizards not only will beat themselves silly
trying to escape cages and
bounce around like imbeciles but will rub their noses raw in extreme
cases. When Einy did
this, I said she was having a spasm. This is "normal" for sailfins. It
is important not to have
much
of the cage sides see-through since the lizards think they can get
through. This said, I was a
beginner to reptiles when my mother brought our surprise new pet home on
a whim. One
excellent quality that sailfin lizards possess is that they do not
normally bite. At least Einy and a
sailfin lizard belonging to one person who e-mailed me have never tried
to bite us.
Sailfins can appear to walk on water by running on their back feet.
They also have a vestigal
third eye on top of their head. This eye cannot actually see but can
sense light levels.
Lifespan
Sailfins live 10 years or more. Einstein lived to almost 15 years old!
There was a documented
Hydrosaurus amboinensis that was more than 15.5 years old.
Angela Goodson
whose e-mail is
AGoodson@Tax.State.ID.US
has/had a sailfin
lizard who is/was 14 years old and 4 feet long as of 4/29/00. Her
sailfin is/was a female named
Arnold (like Einy, she thought Arnold was male until the eggs arrived)
but she is not sure which
species of sailfin that she is. Arnold has run of the house!
Larger cages are best since sailfins grow to 2 to 3 feet for Weber's
sailfins and larger for other
species. Large glass tanks with mesh lids or custom made wire and wood
cages all work well.
Be sure to include a large container for water. Sailfin lizards LOVE to
swim. They also prefer
to defecate in their water so it must be changed often (daily) and/or
filtered. I have heard that
two sailfins will not get along unless they are a breeding pair in a
large cage. It is hard to find
any tanks suited for semi-aquatic lizards. Such a tank must hold water,
have bottom drains,
vents, holes for electrical lines, ramps, sturdy mesh lids, and a lot
more. There are "lizard tanks"
but these cannot hold water! There are aquariums but these cannot be
drilled! I ended up just
getting a 120 gallon aquarium and living with the inconvenience. An
ideal cage would be about
5 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 6 feet high for a single sailfin. If you
can find such a cage for sale,
please e-mail me!
Males have larger sailfins on their back and tail, enlarged nasal knobs,
and larger pre-anal and
femoral pores. Juveniles can be sexed by probing (only if you know what
you are doing).
Sexing is determined by the size of the sail and femoral pores, with
males' being larger. It
helps to have color photos or live specimens for comparison. Males also
may have more green
and/or blue coloration.
Apparently, sailfins are not the most willing breeders. Thus, if you
can get your sailfins to
breed, you are lucky. Not only will you increase their numbers,
decrease capture of wild
specimens, and enjoy them, but turn a nice profit too. They used to
sell for about $70-150 each
depending on species, availability, sales, etc. but now expect to pay
many hundreds for one.
Females need a dirt-like substrate to lay eggs.
They should be incubated elsewhere at about 82-85 degrees F for about
two months or 65 days.
Females start laying after the age of two. They lay about 8-11 eggs
once a year in the late spring
after breeding a few months earlier. Find the book,
The General
Care and Maintenance of
Green Water Dragons, Sailfin Lizards and Basilisks by Philippe de
Vosjoli, Advanced
Vivarium Systems, 1992 for more information on breeding or contact
another breeder. I can also
give you the e-mail addresses of a few people who have actually bred
sailfins if you need to
contact them, or better yet, join the
Yahoo sailfin group. Many sailfin lizards are still taken from the
wild where their numbers
are dwindling so that captive breeding needs to increase if people want
to buy them.
Sailfin lizards prefer a range of temperatures from the upper 60's
during nights in the winter to
the upper 90's under their heat lamps most of the year. One source I
have says a gradient of 76
to 88 degrees F during the day and 70 to 75 degrees F during the night.
Another source says 84
to 88 degrees F during the day and 75 to 80 degrees F at night. They
require sources of heat.
These should include incandescent spot or heat lamps and a bottom source
of heat. Either
a hot rock or undertank heater will work. Lizards can get burnt on hot
rocks so be careful.
Adding slate on top can help prevent this. One can also cover three
sides of the tank with
cardboard to retain heat. Obviously, cages with metal bars will release
most of the heat to the
room. In that case, either heat the room or hope the lizard knows to go
to the heat sources.
Besides light for heat, they also need full spectrum lighting to thrive.
In addition to making
them feel awake and alive, the full spectrum lighting helps them
manufacture and/or process
vitamins (Vitamin D).
This is the area where I had the most difficulty, trying to keep the
humidity high. Sailfins are
tropical and come from areas with high humidity. Their humidity should
be 65% but they may
tolerate as low as 35% short term. Ways to increase humidity include
large water dishes,
aeration of the water, increasing heat, partial covering of the lid (or
sides in an open cage), water
drippers, heating the water with a heater or undertank heater, and
frequent misting. I tried all of
these but the humidity never got above 25% and only when Einy spilled a
lot of water. Usually
the humidity was under 10% even though almost half the tank was a 10
gallon vat of water to
swim in. Because of this, Einy lost four or more of her toes. When she
shed, the skin dried and
cut the circulation off.
On 6/24/05, Wade suggested that one can make a humidity pan using peat
moss in a pan with a
few cups of water. The damp moss holds water for a while and raises the
humidity.
There should be some sort of substrate. It can be something like
CareFresh (see
rabbit bedding),
shredded newspaper (can stain), wood
chips or bark chips (most frequently used), pebbles, corn cobs, or
carpeting. I use tight carpeting
(sold as reptile carpeting or turtle turf) even though I have heard that
it is bad since the lizards
can get their
toes stuck in it (Einy never did). It was easy to scrub down every few
weeks, and I replaced it
twice a year. I
mentioned the water pool which is essential for drinking, swimming, and
defecating. Smooth
(no sharp edges) rocks, driftwood, logs, fake grass and plants, and some
live plants should be
added so the tank is not boring although none of these are necessary
except for a place to hide.
Sailfins will beat themselves against the glass in attempts to escape
from people. Mine felt
safest in and slept in her log when young. Also, three sides of a glass
cage should be covered
with either
aquarium backdrops, cardboard, etc. on the outside. This makes slamming
into the glass occur
less often. Sailfins also need a dish for their plant food. As Einy
matured, she decided that
anything that looked like a plant should be eaten, even if it was
plastic so be sure to remove fake
plants and ornaments if the lizard decides to eat them.
Sailfin lizards are omnivorous. They should have about one half animals
to eat and one half
plants to eat as adults. Alternate animal feedings with plant feedings.
I alternated every other
day. Hatchlings eat about 30% plants and 70% animals. Adults eat about
50/50 plants and
animals.
Animal Foods:
The animals include a lot of
crickets,
king
mealworms (sometimes called superworms but really beetle larvae),
and perhaps others.
The others, some of which I have tried but which Einy did not attempt to
eat, include regular
mealworms,
wax worms, small fish (
goldfish,
guppies,
or
rosy red minnows
are all sold as "feeders"), and pinkies (baby
mice
which I refused to try). Before giving crickets and king mealworms to
the lizard, shake them
around with some reptile vitamins. I used two kinds together which taut
different uses. I did not
kill or incapacitate crickets or king mealworms before feeding. Some
people do this to ensure
the insects do not bite or harm the lizard. I never had this problem. I
have never been
bitten by a cricket or mealworm either but I was warned that I would.
A number of people in the Yahoo sailfin group said that their sailfins
enjoyed a turkey dinner for
Thanksgiving 2004. They liked turkey and sweet potatoes. I gave
Einstein a piece of turkey on
11/28/04 (we had an extra Thanksgiving that day). After a short while,
she picked it up but then
dropped it and never ate it.
The sailfin group mentioned roaches enough that I decided to buy some
for Einstein. You can
read about how that went and all about roaches on my
roach
page. Einstein ate the first one I gave her and then basically
never again. Some sailfin
owners also buy butterworms or silkworms for their lizards but I have
not tried those. The year
of the 17 year locusts, Einstein enjoyed eating those
cicadas.
Plant Foods:
Plant foods include probably hundreds of species of fruits and
vegetables. I routinely gave grated
carrot, squash, and zucchini; torn up kale, collard greens, spinach, and
romaine; cut up apple,
pear, grapes, cucumber, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and
other berries and
melons; and others when I have them for the other animals. Grapes were
by far Einy's favorite; I
had to peel and chop them for her! Grated carrot was the only plant
that Einy got every other day
no matter what (since I have rabbits). One sailfin owner says her
lizard eats wheat bread.
Check out my
mealworm
page for information on regular and
king mealworms.
Check out my new
cricket
page for information on crickets.
Insect Care:
I kept about six dozen crickets and four dozen mealworms at a time in
two 2 gallon plastic
aquariums as well as other cages when there were adults and babies. On
1/19/05, I actually had
seven insect cages. Larger cages and 10 gallon glass aquariums are
good. Kept in too small
containers, they will die and/or you will have to clean up often.
Provide pieces of cardboard egg
crates, toilet paper rolls, and paper towel rolls for them to stand in
and hide. Crickets and king
mealworms eat dry powder foods that you can buy from reptile suppliers.
They much prefer
fresh fruits and vegetables. Basically, any of the plants that I listed
above for the lizard can be
fed in smaller portions to crickets and king mealworms. The king
mealworms like a carrot to
bore into. To provide water, wet a paper towel and ball it up, removing
most of the water. They
will suck water out of it. If you provide water in a dish, they will
drown and make a mess.
Without water, both insects will die shortly.
Cricket Breeding:
My crickets bred on their own in the lizard's cage which was warm and
moist. Warmth and
moisture are the keys to breeding crickets. Baby crickets left in with
the lizard grew up fine
(until I went to clean the cage) but if I tried to raise them
separately; they grew super slow
(perhaps it was too cold). My female crickets liked to lay their eggs
in the carpet in my lizard's
tank. Putting a
small piece of carpet (not plush, dense and short) in their breeding
cage would probably work
very well. The eggs are white/yellow and not see-through. They are
very long but not wide. The
female will lay them in clumps from her ovipositor in a damp (but not
wet) and dark spot.
The newborns are easy to overlook or think to be some minute pest. In
my experience, crickets
grow pretty slowly. Read more on crickets on my new
cricket
page.
My Success Breeding King Mealworms:
Occasionally, one of my mealworms will pupate into a beetle. I had a
male beetle for almost a
year before another beetle developed. These two beetles did mate (I
witnessed this; the male's
apparatus protrudes) but the female either did not lay, or I tossed the
eggs out during the weekly
cleanings. The male died soon after mating (he was a year old). I had
not previously had any
luck getting baby mealworms until I read to use cork bark on which for
them to lay. I began
collecting rolled up king mealworms when I cleaned Einy's cage. They
pupated, and I soon had
about six adult beetles. They were put in a 2 gallon plastic cage with
egg crate, damp paper
towels, food, and a piece of cork bark. Every week, I checked the
bottom for any sign of life.
Finally, I began seeing itty bitty worms. I poured them into a 1 gallon
plastic cage and put in a
generous helping of cricket food (basically oatmeal and such). They hid
and ate and grew bigger
and bigger. After a few months, some became large enough to pick up.
You will note that I did one thing very different from the typical
method for breeding. I did not
put the larvae (big worms) into individual containers and cool them or
otherwise try to induce
them to pupate. I simply fed them very well, provided wet paper towels
(changed every two
days), and put them into the lizard's tank. As she did not eat them
all, some bored into a log I
have in with the lizard and chewed some wood. Then, they hid in a dark
spot under the rug or
behind the log and rolled up. I used to think these rolled up worms
were dead! Then, I finally
realized they were in the first stage of pupation (they will NOT move
then). Once white pupae,
they do wiggle if you touch them. I put any rolled up mealworms or
pupae in with the other
beetles. After a few weeks, the beetles emerged. I have yet to see
that moment! The newly
emerged beetles are brown/white and soft. After a few days, they turn
totally black and hard.
