The Road to the Paradox

The Rep Room is pleased to showcase our over 25 years of breeding Phelsuma grandis to arrive at the pinnacle of color we have named the Paradox grandis.  This is the story of our journey.

We started breeding phelsuma in 1995.

In 1998 we acquired our first grandis displaying more red coloration than normal.  This became the foundation for our Crimson Grandis bloodlines.  Over time we bred for more vivid and higher concentration of red accents, known as erythrism.

Our bloodlines now feature heavy red on the head, neck, back, and down the tail.

CRIMSON grandis

Over time some of our bloodlines started to develop a distinct Blue Hue, sometimes as juveniles

Juvenile Blue Blood

and mostly upon sexual maturity.

Yearling Blue Blood grandis
Close up of Blue Blood scales

Then we cultivated the best of the best to arrive at our Extreme Blue Bloods which develop a true blue coloration at sexual maturity.

Original Extreme Breeder Female
Extreme Blue Blood adult F1 generation

Striving to continually improve and diversify bloodlines we acquired AXANTHIC females, with reduced yellow coloration.  Upon breeding to our Blue Bloods we immediately noticed a difference in some hatchlings…

Paradox hatchling
Paradox hatchling closeup of head markings

The head on some hatchlings were bright blue with violet banding on the back of the head. 

And some hatchlings looked pretty normal with a slightly blue hue.

Hatchling clutch of Paradox grandis. One Visual at hatch. The other does not display blue head, but does have slightly different coloration than a normal grandis.

These became the basis of our Paradox bloodlines.  This project has been in the works since 2011.  It has been worth the wait!

Paradox visual and nonvisual at hatch in various stages of transition through adulthood…

Visual juvenile
Visual 6 month old Paradox
Visual at hatch 2017 female after transition
Non-Visual male at hatch in middle of transistion
Non-Visual Male during transition
Non-Visual male after transition
Non-Visual Male after transition
Breeder Non-Visual male
Close -up of above gecko scales.

But there is even more to explore. The Paradoxes have given us the next project.

Meet the NIGHTSHADES…

NIGHTSHADE FEMALE ADULT
CLOSE UP OF FEMALE NIGHTSHADE. NOTICE THE DARK IRISES OF THE EYE.