Aquarium Talk: Fish/Reptiles/Lizards/Insectivoids...

[Wayne Little]

Took this shot of my son's (Aaron) Long neck Tortoise...his name....drum roll...LUCKY.!!
IIRC.... a batch of them was brought to my wifes school to give away, somehow one got out of the box unnoticed and finished up in a box of books.
It should have been crushed when the box was moved and sometime later was found in the box of books unharmed..... my wife said I'll take 'him' and thats how he got his name...

He lives alone because he eventually catches and eats anything that is put in the tank!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

That seems like a very small aquarium for a turtle of that size.

 

[Wayne Little]

The tank is about two and a half time wider than what you can see...

 

[syscom3]

Does anyone use a light for their tank that gradually turns on and off that simulates the real sunrise and sunset, rather than instead of instant on/off?

Do they improve the health of the critters you have?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Does anyone use a light for their tank that gradually turns on and off that simulates the real sunrise and sunset, rather than instead of instant on/off?

Do they improve the health of the critters you have?

I do. I have one for both of my aquariums and for snakes terrarium. I do however not know if it actually improves anything. At the pet store that I use, it was recommended however. I have them set on a timer and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour for them to fully turn on and turn off.

 

[comiso90]

I do. I have one for both of my aquariums and for snakes terrarium. I do however not know if it actually improves anything. At the pet store that I use, it was recommended however. I have them set on a timer and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour for them to fully turn on and turn off.

An incandescent light i presume? The technology exists fluorescent lights but they are pretty expensive.

I prefer fluorescent lights for aquariums cause the dont add to the heat as much but I can see how the heat would be better for reptiles.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The aquarium lights are like fluorescent lights. At least they look like them. They were not expensive either. I paid 9 Euros for each light. There are 2 of them per aquarium.

The ones in the Terrarium for the snake I have are not flourescent though.

 

[syscom3]

Catalina Island rattlesnake may be a new subspecies -- latimes.com

By Louis Sahagun

November 28, 2009

Could the rattlesnakes on Santa Catalina Island be a subspecies new to science?

DNA studies underway on five specimens -- four females and a male -- at Loma Linda University's Department of Earth and Biological Sciences aim to determine if they are distinguishable from the Southern Pacific rattlesnakes found in Southern California.

Naturalists have long suspected that the island's rattlesnakes behave differently, suggesting adaptations to evolving in isolation 22 miles from the Southern California coast.

For example, they are stouter and require more provocation to coil up and strike, said Carlos de la Rosa, chief conservation and education officer for the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages 88% of the 76-square-mile island as wilderness.

"In addition, the scale patterns on their heads are different, possibly indicating that they arrived thousands of years ago," he said. "Perhaps these differences are enough to justify declaring the Catalina rattlesnakes a new subspecies."

The rattler is the only venomous reptile on the island.

Conservancy naturalists suspect that the island also has several still-unclassified insect subspecies that adjusted to the peculiar landscape.

So far, scientists have identified 60 plant and animal species found on Catalina and nowhere else, including a tiny flowering rock cress and the Catalina Island fox.

That number is expected to grow.

"We've barely scratched the surface in terms of the variety of endemic species living on the island," De la Rosa said. "There's a lot of depth on this island left to explore."

Of particular interest is a species of Jerusalem cricket that is distinct from those on the mainland.

It hasn't yet been scientifically described -- or even named.

A year ago, researchers at USC examined genetic material extracted from Jerusalem crickets collected on the island and discovered two distinct groups within that subspecies, said Suzanne Edmands, an associate professor of biological sciences at the university.

"While finding a new subspecies of insect wouldn't be a huge surprise," she said, "finding two subspecies within 22 miles of the mainland is unusual."

A final determination will require studies of the "songs" the insects make when searching for a mate.

"Jerusalem crickets drum the ground with their legs," Edmands said. "So we really want to get more song data to see if they are drumming differently than those on the mainland, which would argue in favor of reproductive isolation."

[email protected]

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very beautiful rattlesnake there.

Here is a few new pics that I took of my snake.

 

[beaupower32]

Beautiful snake there Adler.

 

[merlin]

I bought a pair of Odessa barbs awhile ago - beautiful fish I thought. Unfortunatley one by one they or at least the male killed off all of the Black Ruby Barbs I had!
However, in the spring they bred - two baby fish. These have grown over they six months - can tell they are brother and sister.
Anybody know what happens later - when they get bigger, i.e. the young male can't breed with his sister, let alone the mother, or will the 'father' get uptight about another male odessa fish in the tank (won't know it is his son)??
Anybody, any ideas please?

 

[Butters]

Odessa barbs, like most of the nippier barb sp., do best in a small school. That way, their aggression is generally reserved for each other.

The familial relationship between the barbs is not a matter of concern to them. However, if you have a only small number in a small tank, the larger male(s) will harrass the smaller ones unmercifully.

How big is your tank?

To Wayne: Your son's turtle requires at least 4-6 hrs/day of intense UV-B if it is to avoid the metabolic bone disease that results from an inability to properly metabolize calcium. Vitamin D3 supplements are not usually sufficient in themselves to maintain good health in a turtle, esp a young one. Living in Australia, you should be able to keep it outside for a few hrs each day so it can receive the UV-B it requires. Just remember to make sure that there is also a source of shade so it does not overheat.

If you plan to keep it inside all the time, you should pick up a one of the high UV-B mercury vapour bulbs that are now available. The flourescent UV bulbs are essentially useless as far as I'm concerned. I have found that the 'Power Sun' brand bulbs to very effective in helping to maintain good health in my chameleons (And the juvenile snapping turtles I used to have before someone stole them from my back yard...)

BTW, if you make a habit of placing the turtle in a small tub of warm water to feed, it will probably defecate very soon after eating. They make quite a mess as I'm sure you know, and doing this can save you (or your son) a lot of work, and keep the aquarium a much healthier place for the turtle.

JL

PS: Very nice looking snake, Adler

EDIT: Those cheap plug-in timers that people use to turn their lights on and off when they're away, do a good job of timing the UV light exposure. And those cheap, easy-to-wire electric baseboard thermostats (usually $8-10) are all you need to prevent terrarium overheating.

 

[merlin]

Butters.

Appreciate the info.
Used to have a 3 foot tank - where the pair of Odessas bred. Only other fish were a Lemon about four Glowlight Tetras. The Lemon would swim in company with the 'baby' Odessas!
Now have a 4 foot tank - taller to, and have added four more Lemons, and four more Glowlights. The young male has over the last few weeks become more 'colourful'. Doesn't seem to be any problems between the parents and young - not that I thought the parents would know they are the parents! But what happens when the 'twins' get bigger and older??

Don't want to dispose of any of them, but appreciate comments of likely behaviour, besides the adults may breed again!

 

[parsifal]

seeing adlers snake reminds me of when I was a kid...living in tropical queensland. My mother had a large bird aviary, with all these exotic, and expensive birds. We lost a lot to marauding, and wild, carpet snakes that used to get into the cage all the time. Drove my mother nuts all the time.

One particularly large fellow we measured after we had extricated him live from the aviary. He measured just over 11 feet long....which was very near an Australian record I believe.

Carpet snakes are considered quite harmless, but on the very rare occasions that they have bitten people, they levae a nasty, infected bite....no venom but these nasty looking barbs on the roof of their mouth, that are usually full of bacteria and crap.

One old timer said to me as a kid that people bitten can lose the limb from the resulting infection.

I dont know if any of this is true, but I have see snakes that are cornered get agressive. The ones in the wild have to be restrained at the head, and if they are bigger than about 7 feet, you really need a second guy to hold the tail

As rat catchers they scare the living bejeesus out of every rodent that lurks in your house. In the tropics and living right in the middle of a national park, we had to periodicallyclear out the carpet snakes that used to hide in our attic

I had an intersting childhood.......

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

seeing adlers snake reminds me of when I was a kid...living in tropical queensland. My mother had a large bird aviary, with all these exotic, and expensive birds. We lost a lot to marauding, and wild, carpet snakes that used to get into the cage all the time. Drove my mother nuts all the time.

One particularly large fellow we measured after we had extricated him live from the aviary. He measured just over 11 feet long....which was very near an Australian record I believe.

Carpet snakes are considered quite harmless, but on the very rare occasions that they have bitten people, they levae a nasty, infected bite....no venom but these nasty looking barbs on the roof of their mouth, that are usually full of bacteria and crap.

One old timer said to me as a kid that people bitten can lose the limb from the resulting infection.

I dont know if any of this is true, but I have see snakes that are cornered get agressive. The ones in the wild have to be restrained at the head, and if they are bigger than about 7 feet, you really need a second guy to hold the tail

As rat catchers they scare the living bejeesus out of every rodent that lurks in your house. In the tropics and living right in the middle of a national park, we had to periodicallyclear out the carpet snakes that used to hide in our attic

I had an intersting childhood.......

Carpets are actually beautiful snakes. There is a nice one for sale at the store here in my town.