Dumbest Advice From People Who Don't Own Ts?

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Like others I have been advised to use sponges once (I was toying with the pet store employee by asking newbie questions for fun).

 

I have axolotl, some fire-shrimp and some fish in a big tank. The axolotl are like giant vacuum-cleaners when fed pellets

 

If you want to see something really mezmerizing get some kuhli loaches or bottom feeding catfish. They’ll hide most of the time but when you drop food in theyll slowly emerge out of the shadows and sniff around like a mouse for food. When they finally get it they turn into a frenzy.

 

Those species unfortunately are incompatible with the axolotl. Catfish suck themselves on to an axololt and cause major damage to their skin. There are just three or something species that are 'allowed' with axolotl.

 

Same thing with bichirs, I’ve seen photos of plecos that just completely sucked all the slime coating off of them.

 

People advise me to feed them more when I say 2 of them don't eat and one eats once a month. I tell them I super promise I'm not starving my animals and they still look at me like I'm nuts.

 

“Yeah, just feed them 2-3 crickets a day and you’ll be fine. Trust me, I keep geckos, I know what I’m doing.”

 

Not really advice but I had a dude come over to buy a fish tank recently that kept on asking do I feed my Ts mice and birds and things.

 

"give em rats, they need the calcium for strong fangs" -petshop employee when I bought my first T.

On the subject of arachnophobia, it sucks because while being an almost inbuilt fear, people don't see a need to get over it. It's just like how when we are children, we are afraid of the dark even though we often know that there isn't anything there to harm us. As we grow older, various responsibilities and whatnot make us compelled to get over that fear.
Arachnophobia on the other hand, is something that people aren't generally required to get over, and to them the effort of mastering that fear of spiders is not worth the outcome. So as much as we try to convince them otherwise, the majority of people will refuse to sympathize with us and our wonderful hobby

 

Agreed. It is socially accepted to be afraid of spiders. If you're afraid of water, dogs, cats or birds you need therapy, but being scared of spiders perfectly fine

 

My tarantula was found guarding this white stone like ball object.
My friend: It wrapped up food for later!
Me: ...That's an egg sac.

 

For me, I'm afraid of deep murky water (never watch river Monsters, that show is something else), and I have alot of my friends mock me because of that. The same friends coincidentally can't hold a perfectly harmless trapdoor juvenile without screaming.

But yea, it's just a natural defence mechanism we have to keep us safe as kids. The majority of spider bites have elevated effects on children so at least to me it stands to reason that arachnophobia is an inbuilt childhood fear most of us have. If more people realised that fear can quite literally lead to them crashing cars, hopefully they'd be a bit more keen to get over it

 

For people living in Australia, it makes (kind of) sense, since you have way more venomous/poisonous animals that are potentially deadly in your country. But for someone here in the Netherlands to be afraid of spiders where the most they'll encounter is an Araneus diadematus that can only pinch you is a bit...ridiculous.

There's a debate ongoing about the fear being a reflexive reaction from our subconscious though. The discussion has been had on here numerous times, but it is still not over

 

Remember the cucumber trick with cats? Humans aren't the only species with inbuilt phobias of things like snakes or tarantulas. I'm sure there are some really interesting evolutionary psychology papers published someplace on this exact topic.

 

You know I was a huge acronophobe as a child to any spider that wasn't a garden spider/golden orb weaver. My mother grabbed me by the hand and showed me the spider, told me it was safe, good, and harmless. And then showed me how you can feed them by dropping bugs in their web and I would watch for over an hour- which is saying something for a small child. lol But any other species of spider? I would scream bloody murder and run to another room. At some point I must have just..gotten over it and regained my love. So you're probably right!

 

Lol, my spider shelf is near my work desk. That's not an accident - keeps my non-spider-fan family members away while I'm working.

 

Dumbest question ever: Why have pets that can't fit your barbeque?
I asked what he had for a pet. He walked away mumbling...