25 replies to this topic

[mikez]

This is a great thread, I'm glad it came up, and stayed.

 

Matt I had no idea you were a snake knut. We have that in common.

 

I've also kept numerous aquatic or transitional insects ranging from giant water bugs, dragon fly larvae, numerous mayflies, cadidis and midges and even aquatic moths. I have a bunch of pics of various of these emerging which I'll try to dig up when I have more time. As a flyfisherman, I studied those carefully to aid in reproducing the looks on a hook - another passion I bet I share with a bunch of you guys.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Yep Mike, I am a snake super freak.

 

My Crotalus horridus enclosure that was about 3 x 5 used to be my bank when I was in my 20's. This was before they were listed in Ohio, and the snake itself came off Clinch mountain in Tn.

Anyway there was a cookie tin the tank, that had several thousand dollars in it while I was saving to buy a ford F-150. Nobody every stole my cash.

[gerald]

When my daughter was 5-ish I brought home a baby northern watersnake.  "Squiggly" got handled a lot and became quite tame.  Not quite "please hold me" tame like some corn & rat snakes get, but tame enough to lay calmly in your hands and not resist being picked up.

 

About 12 years ago on one of the Raleigh Aqu Soc field trips somebody caught a little Amphiuma in a can, and kept it for about 8 years, where it got tame enough to eat out of her hand.  It now lives at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and is fairly active. I see it swimming around on about half my visits there, and resting in the plants or wood on other visits.

 

Sirens sold for bait are most likely lesser or greater, which are much more common than dwarfs.  Young ones have prominent stripes, like dwarfs.

 

 

The amphiuma was almost always totally buried in the substrate and very sedentary and boring.

 

. I've kept watersnakes (actually bought from a pet store in California for $15) and don't recommend them. I had no experience with them in the wild at the time, but the attitude does NOT go away in captivity!

[Betta132]

I usually keep at least one batch of toad tadpoles a year. I've also kept bullfrog tads a few times, and a couple of leopard frog tads. Leopard tads have nice patterns when they start growing their legs.

I had a giant water beetle larva for awhile, until the cat knocked its container onto the floor and killed it. Thing was huge, probably two inches long. I fed him by sticking mysis on a tiny wire and wiggling it in front of him until he grabbed it. 

 

Anyone know if keeping bullfrog or leopard frog tads in an aquarium would run the risk of transferring/carrying/etc pathogens when they were released? For big tads, I keep them in an aquarium with a floating platform until they have four legs and a small tail, then I move them into a tank with a couple inches of clean water until they're all frogged out. I wouldn't transfer water, I'd just put the frogs in a tank with a damp paper towel and take them to the local river. 

Toad tads can't go in a community tank, of course, they'd be eaten. Bullfrog tads are cool, though, and I've seen them at my LFS before. I don't think it would be a good plan to buy them from my LFS (even if they are locally collected) and then release them. So I'd like to catch some wild bullfrog tads and keep them until they grow, but I don't have the spare space for the 10g or so it takes to keep those big things happy and clean.

[Chasmodes]

KW Update:  I have a giant of an American Toad that lives around my carport.  He's not captive, but I do my best to find stuff to feed him.  He's becoming quite tame lately.  I have to make sure that he's not under the boat tires when it's time to go fishing 

[gerald]

YES - there are definitely risks of spreading disease !!!  Some species (especially bullfrogs and clawed frogs) can carry pathogens for years without symptoms that are fatal to other amphibian species.  This is a big problem for amphibians world-wide; many species are declining and several are now extinct due to diseases inadvertently spread by humans.  If you're collecting eggs or larvae and raising them in clean, isolated conditions where they have NO chance of picking up new pathogens (not a likely scenario for most home hobbyists) then it might be feasible to release some at the collection site IF YOUR STATE WILDLIFE AGENCY ALLOWS THIS.   Do NOT release them anywhere else other than the original collection site, and certainly do not release any fish, amphibian or reptile obtained from a pet store or another hobbyist -- they have obviously been exposed to a wide range of potential pathogens from many unknown places. 

 

 

Betta132 wrote:  "Anyone know if keeping bullfrog or leopard frog tads in an aquarium would run the risk of transferring/carrying/etc pathogens when they were released?  I wouldn't transfer water, I'd just put the frogs in a tank with a damp paper towel and take them to the local river.  I don't think it would be a good plan to buy them from my LFS (even if they are locally collected) and then release them. So I'd like to catch some wild bullfrog tads and keep them until they grow, but I don't have the spare space for the 10g or so it takes to keep those big things happy and clean."