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    Salamanders, anyone?

    Dead leaves and clay. It wouldn't completely halt evaporation, but I've found that adding some clay mud to coco fiber and then covering it with dead leaves really helps hold the water in. Feeding amphibians on (large) dead leaves also reduces impaction hazards, since it's a broad, flat...
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    Salamanders, anyone?

    Ambystomatids are perfectly happy in a box of dirt, with or without water. I've kept long-toed salamanders (A. macrodactylum) on and off for years, and I recently was given a tiger salamander. The tiger sally lives in a storage tub full of dirt, with pieces of cork bark as hides, and a bunch of...
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    Rare Geckos!

    Rare? A vast understatement! You realize that these are a holy grail for many gecko keepers across the world, right? How are you even allowed to keep these? I've spoken to people who are knowledgeable about them; they're CITES-listed and my understanding is that even if you acquired them...
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    Internal screaming... today sucks

    There are so many people here who seem to think this to be the case...I don't get it. Fish are actually very easy to care for, but you really need to know some of the chemistry behind what makes aquatic ecosystems function (even more so if you're looking at marine fish/inverts/corals). The...
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    Aneides lugubris 'Arboreal salamander'

    On that note, I dunno if trying to keep these like ambystomatids (moist soil + cover objects in a smallish, flat terrarium) is a good idea. They get larger than the vast majority of US salamanders, and they really are highly arboreal; they prefer overwintering in the crevices of old oak trees...
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    Help prevent intestinal blockage in Sandfish.

    I think you guys are missing something important. In my experience (through reading and through owning terrestrial lizards), impaction via substrate usually happens when the animal ingests something that the gastrointestinal tract is not capable of "working out" or digesting. Reptiles...
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    Asian Roadtrip Slash Instant Vacation

    I can't help but wonder if that quantity of tarantulas being taken for the food market is impacting local populations beyond their ability to recover... I would also never eat anything fried in palm oil. That goddamn shit is ruining all of south Asia.
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    Green Ridge/MD wildlife

    But the most important thing to bring might be an awareness of the rules. Not saying that I oppose responsible field collecting, but if you think that officials concerned with the regulation of this kind of stuff in parklands don't surf the web, you're asking for trouble. I would make...
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    Very Close Call with a Death Adder!

    Whoahoho! Looks like you gave death a handshake and got out alive. Interesting to note that Acanthophis sp. tend to give out dry bites in captivity, though.
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    B. dubia mealworm problem?

    This probably won't work.... It's a good idea, but you've basically just made a flour mite magnet. The problem is that the B. dubia want some moisture, while moisture in a mealworm culture usually just means a lot of mold. At the same time, the mealworms need an edible substrate in order for...
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    Salamanders are Dying and the USA is NEXT

    You beat me to it... http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1030-hance-salamander-fungus.html I have been away from the animal-keeping stuff (for the most part) for a while now...it would suck if I came back to it only to find that all of the caudates I would have liked to keep/breed were banned to...
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    New Lizard Species to Try: My Choices, & looking for your ideas

    HOW ABOUT A BALL PYHTAN? THOSE R REELY UNIQUE AND RAER. Sorry, my distaste for certain sects of the reptile hobby becomes more vitriolic by the month. Great article, but I would have liked to have seen maybe 8-10 species listed; there are some really cool geckos out there that nobody keeps...
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    Threat to wildlife

    You mean a non-native plant is killing a destructive, methane-spewing, non-native mammal? Ohhhh nooooo.........
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    Monstera/Philodendron mystery problem...

    So I bought one of these from a grocery store last year (it's one of those split-leaf things that some people call monstera, but is actually a philodendron cultivar). It suffered a little bit of cold damage (I bought it in January, and had to walk home with it) but it seemed healthy for a while...
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    Nc trap door spider, didnt know we had these here

    Probably Ummidia. IIRC those are the only mygalomorphs over there that make the "corked hole" burrows. I found a wandering male at Shenandoah one year on a night hike. If you want to find some more, search along stream banks and other areas of banked soil; these spiders tend to have highly...
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    Rant: Fed up with Fishkeeping

    Well, the other thing about fishkeeping is that the approach you take to learning about and caring for your fish can have a big impact on your successes and problems. To this date I have only had one "major problem" with fish I have purchased, and I keep Parosphronemus, Indostomus, and other...
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    Red African Gray parrots

    That's not really a benefit. Parrots aren't domesticated animals; they've adapted to deal with those things, so they would probably be indifferent. Also, people talk about "animals/organisms benefiting from ___", but in order for that to be true it has to benefit the species. Individual animals...
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    Red African Gray parrots

    Uh, what? I highly doubt any animal enjoys captivity; most of the animals discussed on this forum just happen to be able to tolerate it and are small enough to be able to thrive outside a natural ecosystem. Maybe domesticated animals like dogs or cats, but that's probably all. I don't think any...
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    ID on this little guy?

    Yep, spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum. It's an ambystomatid, or mole salamander. Ambystomatids are very good at digging and making burrows to evade freezing temperatures. I would try to release it in suitable habitat if you aren't going to keep it, perhaps under some rotting leaf litter...
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    Tiger Milipede (first insect)

    Not to sound like a snob, but it might be worthwhile for you to read up on the different kinds of arthropods (up to class/order level) so that you know more about what you're dealing with. I devoured all kind of books about many different life forms from a very young age, and that knowledge...
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