our origins

As a young boy, I got hooked on reptiles after owning three leopard geckos endearingly named Ms. Gollum, Sunshine, and Fatboy. My big sister had dreams of becoming a vet, my little brother wanted to work as an ice cream man, and I wanted nothing more than to work and live in the world of geckos. I still remember my first well-loved book on geckos and my excitement at the world of information that opened up to me after investing my time into reptiles. As an adult and after quite a few years of hiatus from the hobby, I decided to throw myself back into my childhood dreams. The idea of finding a single gecko as a pet wasn’t enough, because I had the ambition of creating something much bigger.

As a child, I was obsessed with Carrot Tail leopard geckos because it was a morph of Sunshine, one of my first three leopard geckos. I had always loved the idea of producing my geckos and playing with morphology. That’s why I chose to start with crested geckos: because of their polymorphic tendencies. I spent countless hours researching crested geckos, and I fell in love with their shape and their care. Estelle and The Dude (two beloved crested geckos) were my very first breeding couple selected at the 2013 Chattanooga Repticon.

I have always been drawn to geckos, in particular, because of their complexity. They are beautiful and gentle creatures. Desdemona, my first Phantom, is the exemplar of both of these traits. She took my breath away at the Atlanta Repticon in 2014. It was inevitable for me to become immediately hooked. Since then, I’ve made it my passion project to understand the Phantom Eye gene.

The Phantom Gecko business is going on to ten years of business in 2023. Our Phantom project has grown to twelve breeding Phantom eyed gargoyles and over 50 Phantom eyed related offspring, and it is one of my proudest accomplishments.

Over the past ten years, I have regularly attended exotic animal expos and reptile conventions all over the continental United States, and I often vend the same Chattanooga Repticons that I was once an attendee. In ten years, I have grown my collection of geckos to over 250 animals and over ten species. I have produced hundreds of geckos that I have had the privilege of selling all over the world. The Phantom Gecko, as a business, has become recognized for its values: the passion to help and educate, and, of course, its quality reptiles.

- William Bryant, Owner & Operator