If someone had told me in 2021 that I would one day dedicate a large part of my breeding to micro geckos, I probably would have laughed in their face because reptiles weren't yet a part of my life at the time.
My days revolved mainly around tropical plants and giant African snails, a passion that had taught me so much and that occupied much of my time. Then, as often happens with things that end up changing our lives, it all happened by chance.
I still remember the exact moment! A friend wrote to me something like this:
"I have to buy more Lugubris; I have a female left alone and I feel sorry for her."
The end. A perfectly normal sentence, yet a light bulb immediately went off in my head.
Lugubris? What were they?
I started researching, then I kept reading and reading. I discovered that they were small tropical geckos, that they lived in groups, and that—something absolutely incredible to me at the time—they were capable of parthenogenetic reproduction. The more I read, the more fascinated I became!
Eventually, I decided to build my first bioactive terrarium for geckos and brought home three Lepidodactylus lugubris. Shortly afterward, two more arrived, and then something unexpected happened. I fell in love!
Not with the lugubris themselves, but with the concept. With that little world that seemed to exist just below the radar of most enthusiasts.
When I saw the first eggs hatch, I knew something had changed... I could no longer look at geckos as a simple curiosity. I wanted to learn, understand, and keep them.
Little by little, I stopped breeding African snails and began dedicating more and more time to reptiles. The funny thing is, this didn't immediately lead me to other microgeckos—quite the opposite. I first explored auriculatus, then ciliatus, then AFT, then leopard geckos, and only much later did I arrive at the species that I now truly consider the heart of my project.
Looking back, however, I think that journey was necessary because every species and every mistake taught me something, every experience prepared me for the next step.
Perhaps I wouldn't have been able to truly appreciate microgeckos if I hadn't explored everything else first.
And perhaps I wouldn't have gotten to the point where I thought, "Okay. I'm ready to handle literally anything."
But it all started there, with a casual phrase and five little lugubris who had no idea how much they would change my life.