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The Sand Fish Skink is an unusual animal with an amazing ability to "swim" through the sand like a fish in water. It is an interesting lizard that can be a great pet for reptile enthusiasts.

The Sand Fish Skink, a desert reptile from the Middle East, lives up to its name and has the ability to sink deep into the sand to evade predators. They have developed the ability to move like fish in the sand, sensing insects that move on the surface and coming up underneath them to catch them. In captivity, Sand Fish Skinks will be interesting pets. Sandfish are extremely shy, and like other small lizards, do not generally like being held. Handling can cause them stress, and is usually not recommended. Because they are so shy they are not often visible in their enclosures and may not be suitable for people who wish to see their lizards more than once a week.

The Sand Fish Skink inhabits hot, arid environments. The daytime temperature should be about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, with a basking spot that is over 105 degrees F. The basking spot should be heated with a heat-lamp, not a heat-mat. At night, the temperature should be about 75 degrees. Provide them with full-spectrum UV lighting for approximately 12 hours a day. These skinks do best when humidity levels are maintained at less than 25%.

The Sand Fish Skink is one of the more attractive skinks. It has a long tail, and a long, elegant body with short little legs used for digging into the sand. Brilliant yellow covers most of its body, with alternating bands of brown marking its back and tail. It has a sharp, flattened head, and the eyes are not on the front of the head, but the sides.

The Sand Fish Skink is found in Northern Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. They spend most of their time in the sand, hunting insects that roam the desert surface.

Not much is known about the breeding cycle of this species, once thought to be ovoviviparous it’s now known to lay 3-5 oblong shaped eggs at a time.

Adult Sand Fish Skinks should be fed approximately 3 to 4 times a week depending on when they are hungry; and will usually eat 4 crickets per feeding.

Overall this wonderful little skink makes a good study species being active around midday and early afternoon. It is more showy than you might think and once warmed up can be very active. Once thought to be a difficult captive species, with the right environmental conditions reportedly it is a long-lived species with wild collected adults thriving in captivity for ten or more years.

Egyptian Sandfish Skink