Hi! I just went to a lizard exxpo and there were two batches of juvenile lizards on sale, and I am very tempted to buy one but they aren't that professional there and they only put their Chinese names (I am in Hong Kong)on the label. I wonder if you can help identify them for me so I can read the care sheets to make sure I can take care of them.

Firstly, there is what they call "Curly Tail Lizard" (translated by me). They were only about 3 inches long snout to tail length, so I presume they are juveniles/newborns. They looked every bit like bearded dragons, but they did NOT have any thorns/spikes or beard crest on them at all. They have short, flat snouts like a bearded dragon and even their patterns on their backs look like the dragons, but no frills or thorns or "beard" on them at all. I searched "Curly Tail Lizard" on google and all I came up with were things that looks like skinks and were smooth, which isn't right. I also found another thing called "Curly Tail lizard" which looked more like it but it had a long sharp snout which isn't the case on the lizards I saw.

Secondly, there were these geckos that were jet black/dark grey in color, and had bright red eyes. They called them "Tiger faced lizards". I have no idea what these are.

Hope someone can help me ID these.

http://www.centralpets.com/photos/re...o_lzd5965.html

Is this what you mean? Because I've heard of curly tail lizard and these are some pictures of some.

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0.1.0 Brazilian Rainbow boa (Sakura)
1.1.0 Leopard geckos (Tasuki, Sango)
2.0.0 Ball pythons (Tsume, Kenshin)

On the gecko, what type is it, leopard, crested, leaf tail, satanic?

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

If you could send us a picture it would help. Trying to ID lizards just on a breif description is very difficult unless its something that is commonly seen in the pet trade.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

The tiger gecko would happen to look like this would it?
http://www.wildeyereptiles.com/cpg13...album=90&pos=7

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Did someone say ID?

There are lizards called curly-tailed lizards (genus Leiocephalus). They're native to islands off North and Central America. They arent smooth like skinks, but they definately do not fit your description.

If you ask me, I think what you saw were toad-headed agamas. Some have the ability to curl their tails, and they do look sort of like mini bearded dragons. There are several species of toad heads, all fal in the genus Phrynocephalus. You may want to try doing a search on the genus. Keep in mind that differet species will have different patterns. Toad heads are native to the Middle East. Here's several links to toad-headed agamas:

http://www.alsirhan.com/Animals/imag...d_agamid_1.jpg

http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/staffpriv/...ies/lizard.jpg

http://www.herpeto-volga.apus.ru/rep...ephalus_m1.jpg

http://www.alsirhan.com/Animals/imag...d_agamid_6.jpg

http://www.zooclub.ru/rept/images/138.jpg

http://reptiles.passion.free.fr/phot...-arabicus1.jpg

http://www.pxtx.com/bbs/UploadFile/2...1275158137.jpg

Now that that one's out of the way, the gecko is a little tougher without a little more detail. Most geckos will change lighter or darker, depending on stress and teperature. Chances are, the geckos you saw would not normally appear quite as dark if they weren't so stressed. The biggest question would be whether they had toe pads or not. Could they climb glass?

There are some geckos that go by several names, including "Chinese leopard gecko","Chinese cave gecko", and "Chinese tiger gecko". They all look similar and all are from the genus Goniurosaurus. Various species include G. hainanensis, G. araneus, G. luii, G. bawanglingensis, G. kuroiwae, and G. lichtenfelderi. Several subspecies also exist,and some of the above names may possibly be old and new names of the same species. In any case, here are some links to Goniurosaurus. Notice the leopard gecko-like feet and absence of pads.

http://www.thelizardwizard.co.uk/gon...s_luii_002.jpg

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~gambl007/geck...us_araneus.jpg

http://www.gekkota.com/assets/images...e_schafer3.jpg

http://www.milwaukeereptiles.com/gec...us%20luii2.jpg

http://www.geckoworld.net/images/lay...iurosaurus.jpg

http://www.geckosunlimited.com/G.luii1.jpg

Is that what you saw? Excuse any typos, I'm on a laptop.

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Matt - the master of ID!!! I have a pic of a toad headed agama in my book and it has it's tail curled right over - apparently they do it so that their predators will think they are a scorpion and have deadly toxin - good way of not getting ate!! I know nothing about geckos though so can't help on that!!

WOW! Many replies! Thanks!

The curly tail is DEFINITELY the toad headed agama, spot on! Thanks!

The Gecko is a little harder because I know its hard to ID without details, but it was sort of barely visible because it was hiding and I had to peek into the hiding box to see it.

Cool, glad I could help Toad heads have a neat defense mechanism too. They have flaps that fold down by their lips, and when threatened, they open them up like this:

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/gavin/wo...0mystaceus.jpg

As for the gecko, since you're in Hong Kong, I would assume that Chinese tiger geckos would be a likely match. They're native to that area, are dark, and have reddish eyes. The gecko in Mooglebass' link looks a lot like these geckos. Cyrtodactylus are usually just known as bent-toed geckos though, so it makes me wonder if somebody didn't just call that one a tiger gecko because it looks a lot like the Goniurosaurus. I'm not real sure.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

I love that last toad head picture

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