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The Brown Water Dragon, Physignathus l. lesueurrii

By Bert Langerwerf of AGAMA

Water dragons available! Babies (July through November) and subadult males (most of the year)!

Range

This species lives only in the far eastern part of Australia from Eastern Victoria in the South to Cairns, Queensland, in the North. The range of this lizard is limited by several factors:

1. there must be water basins (called billabong in Australia) or rivers very nearby.

2. there must be a period of at least six months in which daytime maxima are 24*C or over.

Therefore this lizard is lacking in Cape York or Arnhemland. This species definitely does not occur in New Guinea, as some importers have you believe. Within the range of this species night frost may occur or even occur regularly (like in Bourse, NSW).

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Appearance

Males get larger than females. Males reach a total length of 2 ½ to 3 feet, and females reach 2 to 2 ½ feet in total length. The males are very beautifully colored. It is a pity that in several books, like the " Giant Lizard Book," only females are depicted. Males get a crest in the neck region and they get a blood red color on their belly and upper forelimbs, like can be seen in the picture above. They have larger heads than females and the black/white design on the male’s head is very strongly expressed: white lips and a deep black band behind their eyes. Females have smaller heads, dull white lips, a gray-black band behind the eye and white to pinkish bellies.

Captivity

During the past 26 years I have bred many thousands of lizards of 120 different species of a wide range of families. In 1991 I started keeping this lizard and by 1993 I started to realize that this was the easiest lizard I ever kept and bred. This species was not only capable of surviving the extremes of Central Alabama temperatures outdoors ( -15*C to +39*C, or 5F to 102F ), it also appeared to resist parasites very well. In addition to that the lizards were very social in behavior and even males tolerate each other. I kept for many years comparable species, such as Asian Water Dragons and Bearded Dragons, and found that these two latter species are much more difficult in captivity. Bearded dragons are easily stressed when overcrowded, I noticed many years ago.

Australian Water Dragons vs. Asian (Green) Water Dragons

Many people have asked me if the Asian water dragons are the same as the Australian water dragon (Asian water dragons come from several countries, but they are all the same species -- you can tell an Asian water dragon because it is the only green water dragon). Besides their shared scientific name Physignathus, there is not much similarity. Asian water dragons are shyer, which often causes them to rub their noses on the glass of their enclosures. I also noticed that the Chinese or Asian water dragons are much more jumpy, almost as much as a basilisk. This is typically worst when feeding or cleaning their cages.

Another significant difference is that Asian water dragons are tropical and do not tolerate cold for even short periods of time. When during the March blizzard of 1993 we had temperatures of -15*C at night and the electricity went off for three days I knew it: Asian water dragons are a big problem. After that blizzard I checked my Australian water dragons and noticed they all survived inside their self-dug burrows in the soft earth underneath a blanket of 2 feet of snow.

Finally, a common problem with Asian water dragons is that they are virtually always wild-caught. All but the most responsible reptile importers badly overcrowd the animals that they ship (every horror story that you've heard about the old parrot trade applies to most of the modern reptile trade). As a result, most of the imported animals are very badly stressed (most species of reptile are fairly solitary and everything, be it lizard or mammal, needs a little personal space). Worse, such close quarters invariable spreads parasites and disease. Most baby Asian water dragons don't survive for more than a few weeks.

The problems caused by importation would be solved by getting an Asian water dragon from a reputable breeder (if any exist, I do not know of anyone who breeds them). However, this means that you shouldn't get it from a pet store, as they very rarely carry captive-bred animals when wild-caught are available. Worse still, employees often think (or are willing to claim) that they are selling captive bred animals when they aren't. Our Australian Water Dragons do not have this problem because we breed all of them right here in our facility in Alabama.

Australian Water Dragons at Agama International

In 1988 I visited the Zoo of Auckland, New Zealand. They had a very impressive colony of Australian waterdragons, or Eastern Waterdragons as they are called in Australia. When a few years later I could finally get several of their offspring I did not to think twice, and so my colony started. Since I was afraid that the bloodlines were too limited and since there were still a few older males in the USA, I purchased them by buying or by exchanging for my NZ animals. My colony is now based on about 10 bloodlines. The fact that this species has TDSD (Temperature Dependant Sex Determination) makes it easier to prevent inbreeding. I can simply incubate eggs from one pair at the "male" temperature and eggs of another pair at the "female" temperature.

Australian Water Dragons live in the Eastern part of Australia, though they avoid the northern part of it. They occur only in regions where there is enough winter to trigger their reproduction. In many parts of their range there is nightfrost in winter. I found the animals able to survive temperatures till 32 F. They will hide in burrows during winter, so that it is rather easy to keep them outdoors in unheated terraria in the southern USA. In addition my terraria are dug out inside the earth and south projected. In winter the terraria are covered with transperant greenhouse plastic (the cheaper plastic disintegrates in the sun, often before the winter finished). During very cold weather I put pieces of rugs over the plastic. The Waterdragon-terraria all have stainless steel doors for easy service.

We feed the waterdragons with Superworms and Deadheadroaches mainly, because these insects are the easiest to breed for us. However they love earthworms, which I found out when I was digging up the eggs (mostly between 5 and 15): Several animals came sit around me to eat the earthworms which became visible. We also feed them crickets, pinkies, grubs and canned catfood.

Enclosures

For indoor enclosures I would suggest a minimum size of 2'x4'x2' (BxLxH). Hiding places and branches in one half of the enclosure and the other half should have a water bowl and a sandy area (imitation of a beach or river bank). The water bowl must be in a position where it can be cleaned very easily, as they defecate in the water. This may sound like a problem, but in fact it makes things easier for you as now the whole terrarium stays clean. You only have to clean the water bowl regularly. Be sure the lizards can get in and out of the water easily. I use those things in which you can dip your paint-roller to pick up paint, which are ideal for the lizards.

More Information

Read the article about these water dragons in the May, 1998, issue of Reptiles Magazine (USA). This article comes with a poster and was written by Bert Langerwerf, owner of Agama International. Also check out Elaphe, Germany (D), Heft 3, 15 Aug. 98, P.22+; or The Vivarium, USA, 5/4, P.22+. To get the up-to-date price, email us by clicking on the sign below. This lizard makes a great "pet" for experienced and especially beginning lizard keepers.

Water dragons available! Babies (July through November) and subadult males (most of the year)!

The Eastern Water Dragon (Physignathus lesueurrii)

Peter S. Harlow & Mary F. Harlow, 30 Station St, Naremburn, NSW, 2065

In November 1967 two 12 year old boys captured an adult male water dragon (SVL 210 mm) at Carroll Creek in the Sydney suburb of Forestville. It was blind in one eye (making capture easier) and was triumphantly brought home by one of the boys and kept in his father's bird aviary. It soon fed readily o insects, chopped meat and fruit, as well as the occasional quail and finch in the aviary. A new outdoor aviary was rapidly constructed (2 x 6.25m) and was devoted entirely to the first author's small captive reptile collection.

In may 1969 an immature female water dragon (SVL 130 mm) was captured, also at Carroll Creek, and was added to the cage. This lizard was probably a two year old (based on unpublished mark-recapture data) when caught, and had therefore hatched in early 1967. The two water dragons shared the cage with four eastern blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua scincoides), a pair of Cunningham skinks (Egernia cunninghami) and four long-necked tortoises (Chelodina longicollis). The cage received sun for most of the day, had a 3.2 square meter covered area at one end, and was decorated with logs, rocks,shrubs, and a pond. No artificial heating was used, so all lizards had a winter dormancy period typical for this latitude. The lizards were fed about twice a week from September through to early May [please remember this is in Australia, thus this is the Summer season] on a varied diet which included lean minced meat, canned dog food, new-born mice, garden snails, bananas and other soft fruit. In addition to this, the water dragons often caught insects (including flies, grasshoppers, crickets and cicadas) that blundered inside the cage.

The male died in September 1987 (SVL 214 mm; Australian Museum No. R125998), and was successively replaced by a captive-raised adult male in the spring of 1988 (8 Oct. to 28 Nov.), a wild-caught adult male in the spring of 1989 (8 Oct. to 20 Dec.) and a different captive-raised male in September 1990. Only one adult male was ever kept at any one time. This last male was the offspring of the original pair, was three and a half years old at this time and remained with the female until her death in July 1995 (SVL 204 mm; Australian Museum No. R145335). Like the original male lizard, towards the end of here life the female lost weight, became increasingly frail and uncoordinated, and eventually died, presumable from old age.

Previous records of longevity for captive eastern water dragons include 14 years (Hay 1972) and 10 and 11 years (Giddings 1983). Slavens (1994) records maximum captive longevity of 10 and 12 years for this species, and the maximum for any agamid as 23 years for an Asian sail-finned lizard (Hydrosaurus amboinensis). Interestingly, Hydrosurus is probably the most closely related genus to the Australian Physignathus (Watkins-Colwell 1994). Our record of 20 years captivity for the original male (which was captured as an adult and was therefore at least 4-5 years of age at the time), and 26 years for the female suggest that 25 to 28 years may be the upper limit for maximum lifespan.

Under optimum conditions, captive female water dragons have laid their first clutch of eggs at 13 months of age in Alabama (Langerwerf, pers. comm.).

Unfortunately, at the time of writing [1997], the keeping of common reptiles, frogs and even tadpoles in captivity is either illegal or bureaucratically outside the reach of children in many states of Australia, so today's children are discouraged from developing any interest in our native fauna and are instead encouraged to spend their leisure hours at McDonald's. Luckily, most parents seemingly disregard these pointless laws and support their children's interests in keeping a pet reptile or frog.

THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND IN THE AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE HERPETOFAUNA. COPIED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHORS.

We ship our lizards with UPS Next Day Air all over the USA. Call or email us today to place your order. Lizards available year-round.

Care sheet for Australian water dragons

Food:

Newly arrived water dragons will normally start eating after 3-4 days as they need some time to adjust to their new surroundings. If you have recently arrived water dragons, it is important to have the temperature inside the terrarium high enough (80F) if you want them to start eating soon. As in Australia they will stop eating when days get shorter and cooler; they may do the same in your terrarium if temperatures and light periods decrease.

At Agama International, Inc. we feed them mainly superworms as they can be fed from a feeding dish. This allows for very easy checking on their feeding habits. They also eat crickets. The drawback with gray- or house-crickets is that they are nocturnal and hide during the day, while the lizards are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day. So it can happen that there are more crickets in the terrarium then needed, and that the crickets disturb the lizards at night.

Of the cockroaches you should never feed German or American ones for obvious reasons (they will escape and become a true pest in the house). Hissing cockroaches, and deadhead cockroaches (Blaperus cranifer) can be fed easily from a container with smooth sides.

Cat food and all kinds of sweet and soft fruits (banana, peach, watermelon, etc.) can also be offered to your Australian water dragons. Although some will never touch it while others may eat it with fruition. Adults may also eat pinkie rats and pinkie mice.

As always, it is important to "gut load" your feeding insects first. This means you have to feed the insects before they are fed to the reptiles. This way the reptiles get extra nutrients which they may otherwise not be able to get. Sweet potato or carrots are very good choices for "gut loading" your insects.

You can also increase the food value of the feeder insects by dusting them first with a powder specifically made for that purpose, like for example Miner-All. These powders are easily available at all pet stores.

Terrarium:

The terrarium size for one pair of adult water dragons should be about 4 feet long by 3 feet high by 2 feet wide. In the terrarium you can place a tree branch or tree trunk on which they can climb and sit. A warm basking spot is also needed. They also like a small box or place into which they can both sleep and hide. The water bowl needs to be situated so that it can be cleaned easily. The lizards should to be able to get in and, also, out off the water easily. Although not very elegant, we often use paint-roller dishes as they have a sloped "beach" area.

A larger pond, with water plants such as lotus, should get a filtering system. Another possibility is to use a water bowl with a drain, which can be cleaned and replenished without opening the terrarium.

Lighting:

It is always important to place the lamp at the correct height (as listed on the lamp’s instructions) above the lizard basking spot. Just 2 inches higher or lower will greatly change the amount of ultraviolet radiation that the lizard will absorb.

If you keep your water dragon indoors you need a UVB lamp to provide ultraviolet radiation for the reptile. You should only purchase Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 fluorescent bulbs as they are the only fluorescent bulbs that we know of which produce enough UVB light for proper calcium metabolization (there is not much quality control in the reptile supplies industry). Incandescent bulbs don't produce UVB, though they may produce UVA, which is good for the animal's psychological health, but does nothing for calcium absorbtion. On the other hand, mercury vapor bulbs produce quite a lot of UVB, but are more expensive and are more work than fluorescent since they run hot enough to badly burn the animal if they come into contact with it.

Please read and follow the instructions that accompany the lamp. It is always important to place the lamp at the correct height (as listed on the lamp's instructions) above the lizard basking spot. Just 2 inches higher or lower will greatly change the amount of ultraviolet radiation that the lizard will absorb. Also, it is important to replace the bulb every six months or so as the amount of UVB that it produces decreases with time and it eventually becomes worthless. Even when it is not producing useful amounts of UVB it will still be quite bright, so you won't be able to tell whether it is burnt out simply by looking at the light.

Conversely, if you have other fluorscent lamps, bulbs older than 6 months make good general purpose bulbs as they typically look more like natural sunlight than the yellowish bulbs which are commonly used in fixtures for humans (or fish tanks, etc.). You don't have to throw out bulbs older than 6 months, you just can't use them as the primary UVB source for your reptile.

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