# prickly forest skinks Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae info



## colubridking (Jun 6, 2011)

I have gone from having a big collection of lots of various animals to just a few that im quite fond of and like because i just do, so i thought i would put and thread up about some of my favourite species of reptiles - prickly forest skinks - Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae
setting up my Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae tank 

this is the cage after finishing the back ground. the cage (aquarium) is a standard 2ft tank. 
the back and 1/4 sides were covered in a thin layer of dark brown silicone. 
after the silicone dried i used expanda foam to make the background.
once the foam had set i would have preferred to use silicone but i used a black "tar" pond sealer to give it a dark colour and make it water proof. As it dried i put peat most on top of this (NOTE: it dries fast and would have worked out better if i did little bits at a time).
i let it set for a few days and this is the result 

View attachment 204417


after that was finished i cut away the excess silicone i made the substrate. the base was 50:50 peat moss sand. this made about a 3 inch layer. that was mixed thoroughly and is *VERY* wet. as in so wet you can almost squeeze water out of it.
after the peat moss i got a log from the neighbours firewood pile (been sitting there for a good 4 years) i experiemented with it first to make sure there was nothing bad on/in it. to my delight the log had termites in it. i pulled off excess bark and then cut tapped the edges and was able to brake away some of the outer layers to reveal the termite colony. 
i place this log on the peat most so the lizards can bury themselves under it and eat any of the insects from the log
once i had a place for that i had prepared earlier some bark which i let sit in water, in the sun (this allowed the back to become saturated and maybe grow some bacteria probably not to much success because of the volume of water.) anyway i made about an inch layer of the bark around the log and on the surface.
after that i also had got some really rotten logs (so rotten they collapse under there own weight and had them above the mulch but buried them into the substrate as well.
after all that (which probably sounds like a long time but only took about 20min) i got some leaves that looked cool and put them on top of the mulch. i also added some moss i found which will probably die anyway. 
(Note: these leaves were dead leaves that had fallen from a tree and then position they were in [due to lack of light and available water] allowed them to be very wet and braking down.)
this is the end product: 




and here are some of the lizards in there: 







Prickly Forest skinks are the only member of there genus. they have strongly keeled scales. they are found the rainforests of QLD and even though it might be hot there (humid) they require cool temperatures of not more then 25*C. they are an interesting lizard even though they hide most of the time. a lot of the books say they are slow moving, i guarantee they are not - they can run very fast. they eat most insects i imagine - darting out the grab them and then disappear very quickly.
they arent really that common in captivity i think, people do have them but i think they are often overlooked. i dont really care what people say - i like them and to me thats what matters.

i Hope you liked this.
CK


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## richoman_3 (Jun 6, 2011)

faaaaaar ouutttttttt.
this is amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
stunning lizards and setup is amazing!,
man, id love to get them, they are my fave aussie lizards.
Top job mate, love it !


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## Klaery (Jun 6, 2011)

Fantastic enclosure mate and great little lizards you have there


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## colubridking (Jun 6, 2011)

thanks richoman_3 and danielk


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## AUSGECKO (Jun 7, 2011)

Awesome mate, they are one of my favorite skinks.


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## snakeluvver (Jun 7, 2011)

Theyre cool, I'd love to get some smaller skinks


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## Snakeluvver2 (Jun 7, 2011)

Nice stuff dude


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## cadwallader (Jun 7, 2011)

WOW that tank looks amazing great work


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## colubridking (Jun 8, 2011)

thanks guys!
does anyone else keep them? be interested to see how other people house them.


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## Snakeluvver2 (Jun 8, 2011)

Haha, I would love too. Maybe next year. 
Right now I am "spending too much money on reptiles" 
Dam girlfriend.


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## snakeluvver (Jun 10, 2011)

What do they feed on? Im guessing crickets ect. Sorry if you said what they eat in the text, I was skim reading and drooling over the pics.


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## vampstorso (Jun 10, 2011)

said they eat most insects


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## colubridking (Jun 11, 2011)

eh, screw girlfriends, i had a girl tell me if i wanted it to continue she wanted me to get rid of my reptiles.....i told her to get ****ed 
they eat most anything that moves and is an insect i spose, if you read properly you would have noted that there is a log in that cage which has various insects such as termites, spiders, worm things, millipedes etc etc - i dont doubt that they will have a problem with any of them.

Cheers,
CK


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## Waterrat (Jun 11, 2011)

They're great little critters, easy to keep.


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## sammy09 (Jun 11, 2011)

be careffull with the millipedes because the secreat a toxin thats bad tasting, i dont think it will harm your skinks but be careful


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## colubridking (Jun 12, 2011)

nice photos water rat! i dunno how you get yours to look so dry, mine are always wet (please dont take that in a sexual way its not meant to be haha)


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