I need a new hobby, give me some ideas!

[Terry D]

Lol. Imagine that............a platypus in your bathtub.

Other than keeping the few tarantulas that I currently have and breeding them, my next on the wishlist might two of the following, especially the first two:

Rhacodactylus leachianus- Grand Terre, type C- or CXA- (.....good luck finding a pure type C?)
Lampropeltis zonata agalma- Juarez- although might settle for a really nice-looking normal Pueblan milk.
Astrochelys radiata
Drymarchon corais couperi. I had issues about these before- endangered, etc, but evidently good nos already being captive bred in hobby. Radiated, too.
Varanus salvator. The latter two on the list lowest in priority due to time constraints/high maintenance.

There are a few others. At least one of the first two above for starters.

 

[Alltheworld601]

Gargoyle geckos are really cool, and also dont require a light or other expensive setup.

I have a Leopard gecko and hes a sweetheart. Gotta buy an infrared heat lamp and all, but they last a long time. And theyre super tame and cuddly. Mine watches TV with me.

You could always become a cat hoarder, too. That seems to work for a lot of people.

 

[skar]

Gargoyle geckos are really cool, and also dont require a light or other expensive setup.

I have a Leopard gecko and hes a sweetheart. Gotta buy an infrared heat lamp and all, but they last a long time. And theyre super tame and cuddly. Mine watches TV with me.

You could always become a cat hoarder, too. That seems to work for a lot of people.

Leo's don't need a heat lamp, just mineralls and heatpad . . . just throwing that in there

 

[pnshmntMMA]

TURTLES! Snakes can be picky and escape easily. I LOVE snakes but cant keep them because the GF isnt a huge fan. Lizards are cool too. However turtles are actually smart and will learn to recognize individuals and voices. My turtles swim to the glass when I talk or walk by, and for my girlfriend. But not for anyone else. I'd suggest if you have the room get a species of Painted Turtle or some type of aquatic. Since you can add fish (if enough room/filtration) the enclosure is very relaxing and nice to watch. They are handleable and some actually swim up to you and climb on your hand. Terrestrials are great but most need an outdoor enclosure large enough to support them. However not always true.

I'm over inverts. Gave all my Ts away for free. They are boring an anyone with half a brain can keep them. Turtles require a bit of upkeep and cleaning but are WELL worth it. One piece of advice I can leave you with is this: there is no such thing as too much filtration. ALWAYS go OVERKILL with filters.

These are my Eastern Painted Turtles. They are rescues.

Pals

 

[Eclipse]

I prefer something that doesn't require too much special lighting or preferably none at all. I was going to get a snake, but I think those tree frogs have my vote! I've kept Western Painted turtles before and they were too much for me to handle. Lots and lots of cleaning and lots of room.. I've kept leopard geckos before too and even bred a pair. They kind of reminded me of T's except with a little more heat maintenance.

OK frogs +1 vote.

 

[pouchedrat]

Trust me crested geckos are great. No lighting requirements, no heating requirements (aside from room temperature), and they eat repashy crested gecko diet, which is a powder you mix with water, and they eat it a couple times a week. throw in a couple roaches or crickets every so often, and you're done!

 

[RockinOutAmber]

Get one of these! They will keep ya busy and your wallet empty.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/532955_3387961733314_2132870379_n.jpg

 

[pnshmntMMA]

I prefer something that doesn't require too much special lighting or preferably none at all. I was going to get a snake, but I think those tree frogs have my vote! I've kept Western Painted turtles before and they were too much for me to handle. Lots and lots of cleaning and lots of room.. I've kept leopard geckos before too and even bred a pair. They kind of reminded me of T's except with a little more heat maintenance.

OK frogs +1 vote.

Ok then I'll second the frogs. I kept them as a little kid. Very easy, and cute as all get out. They are very handleable. I miss my frogs. Your thread is bad, it's giving me bad ideas....I have extra tanks...DAMN!

 

[macj1983]

Fish, beta fish are cheap to not a pet rock and you can set up a very nice fresh water tank over time as money allows

 

[macj1983]

Side note go at least 30gal

 

[Aviara]

Get one of these! They will keep ya busy and your wallet empty.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/532955_3387961733314_2132870379_n.jpg

I was waiting for someone to suggest one of those. Mine eats up more than four times the money of all my other animals combined. And I have a LOT of hungry needy animals.

Seriously, I think crested geckos are far more interesting than frogs. I mean yes, frogs are beautiful and interesting to look at, but if you got bored of tarantulas, won't you get equally bored of them? They're fairly easy to maintain, and you don't get to interact much with them except during feeding time. With crested geckos, they're even easier and cheaper, require no special heat or lighting, and they are comfortable with being held. I keep 4 crested geckos and spend maybe $3 a month in Crested Gecko Diet, the occasional mealworms/crickets, and once in awhile I spoil them with a different climbing branch/fake plant/etc.

 

[Eclipse]

I'm getting a lot of Crested Gecko recommendations here. Might have to put my vote on those also. A co-worker of mine had a red-eyed tree frog and he let me babysit it for about 3 days. It was awesomely cool to look at but that's it. It was just like an Avic, stayed in the top corner of its terrarium all day. Heck, I didn't even get to see it eat! It would have a neutral reaction towards food, but it would usually be all gone by morning.

Alright fine I'll look into Crested geckos, but if anyone has any cooler ideas then keep 'em coming!

 

[KingCam]

Tiger salamanders are super easy and fun to take care of. Just keep em relatively cool (65-72F), moist, and feed them regularly. Buy crickets or save money by culturing dubia roaches for them.

My tigers are very active, always pacing back and fourth in front of the glass when I enter the room. If I stick my finger in front of my most ravenous eater she will bite on and try to rip it off XD Both of my two tigers are freaking HILARIOUS. My male also sometimes lets out a funny squeak when he lunges for a roach. I tong feed my salamanders, that is KEY to having fun interactions with pretty much any amphibian.

Here are a few photos, and an easy way to set up their tank.

^ I don't want to use a bunch of hydroton so I will fill space by putting a few upsidedown tupperwater containers in.

^Holes are drilled in the tupperware so they can fill with water.

^Later I went back and drilled lots of small holes in the blue tray for drainage.

^Packed long fiber sphagnum around the edges to keep substrate from leaking into the water.

^Fill in with moist coco fiber or a mixture of organic soil & sand.

^ Add plants, either in pots or directly into the substrate.

And now the most exciting part; feeding video!

[YOUTUBE]rwHANl15vbQ[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]PMbWjvUINaw[/YOUTUBE]

I love my salamanders, if you couldn't tell In fact, I have a friend sending me two more very shortly

 

[Eclipse]

I was actually youtubing Tiger Salamanders last Sunday and saw a pretty interesting documentary. It said they could stay in their larval stage permanently and also breed that way. How did you get that moss to grow?

 

[KingCam]

I was actually youtubing Tiger Salamanders last Sunday and saw a pretty interesting documentary. It said they could stay in their larval stage permanently and also breed that way.

That is uncommon, but does sometimes happen. It's called being "neotonic." An axolotl is the closest relative to the tiger salamander, essentially they are tiger salamanders that never (very rarely) morph.

How did you get that moss to grow?

I didn't I collected it in the woods. I can usually get it to live okay for a few months, but eventually it always dies on me. I've actually given up on using it. Now I just use a coco fiber / peat moss mix with a layer of dried brown oak leaves on top.

 

[Eclipse]

What do you guys think about African House Snakes? They seem to be more hardier than corn snakes and don't really need that over-wintering period and are easy to breed. A snake is the only reptile that could fit my budget. I really wanted a cresty, but I did the math. In the end I am still going to end up with a pet rock :/ LOL!

 

[VickyChaiTea]

Snakes or aquariums.

 

[bholmes]

Tortoises!

 

[Speg]

If you are thinking frogs.. then think poison dart frogs. They're a really neat little colorful animal with a lot of personality, nice calls, easy to feed. I have only ever fed mine fruit flies and they're doing amazing. Fruit flies can be a pretty cheap feeder bug to reproduce if you just spend a little time on them every couple of weeks or so... otherwise you can buy them pretty cheap.

Lighting was a $8 piece that came from walmart that is only enough to keep plants alive. Maintenance and cleaning is pretty darn low. Every now and then I spray the sides of the tank to get some of the poo off the sides and I mist every couple of days/feed every 2-3 days.

I have some leucs and orange lamasi currently.... the lamasi are laying eggs everywhere and raising the tadpoles is a neat little hobby in itself.

 

[SamuraiSid]

Mastacembelus erythrotaenia, Fire Eel. If you can keep fish (alive), you can probably keep an eel.

Taeniura lymma, Blue Spotted Ribbon Ray (stingray). IIRC, a 30g tank will be minimum. These guys hit a wingspan of ~14"

Chameleons are amongst my favorite reptiles, but edged out by the possibility of a ball python.. (I guess all life is unique in one way or another)

JellyFish. You have to buy very specific equipment for these guys. IIRC you can get the whole set-up with a couple jellies for a couple hundred bucks. Not overly interactive.... But super high on the exotic scale.

Poision Dart Frogs and Ball Pythons have a huge fan base. Us invert keepers are second fiddle to both these groups in terms of sheer numbers. PDF's are amazing and beautiful. Look them up, all you need to do is look at pics.
Ball pythons I dont know much about, but I did come across a thread on here where people were talking about various morphs and the 5 digit figures they are worth. YIKES.

As soon as I can find a young bp for a decent price, I will be getting one.


Bonsai is an artform, not a tree. Through years of practise, one day the goal is to say that your tree is bonsai. Within the community, people disaffectionately call grocery store and mall stock, mallsai, because they are simple tree's that have been butchered into staying small.
All you need is a good book and a sapling to get you going. Juniper, maple and oak are good beginner varieties.

Orchids are diverse and beautiful. The Family is the third largest family on the planet. Many are epiphytic, growing non-parasitically on other plants (namely trees). Both this and the bonsai hobbies run decent paralells to the Invert hobby. Might be worth looking into.


EDIT: Didnt see you are working on a budget... I hear goldfish are pretty easy to care for.