museeumchick

excellentness! And to add to my minagerie i have a creyfish (from last nights excellent fish hunting) was planning to make meal worm cookies for my birthday morning tea shout but i fail at meal worm farm. we shall see what happens next

I had two mice once, they were garunteed to be females (was only getting one for safety's sake but was convinced by petshop attendant - foolish me), then had 8 mice grrrr! and yes they do smell I recommend frogs (theyre cuter, but less cuddley) but may be a little biased on that matter.

OK so this might be a controvercial thing to say but while i think some MAF activities are a pain in the neck ( edit Billaney ) and all that (particularly those within the country), regarding bringing things into NZ or exporting our plants or wildlife i think to err on the side of caution is fine by me. the devastating effects of smuggling/ badly thought out or accidental introductions on our environment, outweigh (in my mind) a few hours of grilling by some officer at the airport (excessive ranting and appropriate actions when further travel is interrupted is fine). I have had my share of run inns with cranky airport staff (once leaving AUZ i had an extensive grilling followed by my dirty laundry being spread over the security office in the search for military grade explosives! but since safety was the concern i limited my reaction to relaying it as an amusing story to anyone who would listen) but in the long run i think it might be worth it? just my thoughts

i have two southern bells in my office and theyre not so loud (one did some croaking so i know theres at least one boy) although theres no-one here at night to see if theyre louder then.

most (if not all, cant remember off the top of my head) of the native frogs dont have free swimming tadpoles (do wierd things like keep them inside till theya re ready to be hopping about, or piggyback them till theyre big enough to fend for themselves) as they are more damp forest types rather than the swimmin types (also why they have little webbing between the toes as adults). also unlikely to be found in less than pristine habitats (and collecting anything native from a 'pristine' type habitat should be considered thoroughly. it is illegal to remove just about anything from a reserve, but the non natives can be legally collected from pretty much anywhere else. Regarding selling them, i dont know, there seems to be rules coming into play when selling stuff happens, but i doubt there will be an issue with school fair selling of tadpoles. does that help?

I sometimes have to wonder they are gradually (one by one) discovering that i have a meal worm farm in my desk drawer. there are often dead bugs in various states on my desk I have frogs and a fishtank (with great pets = slimy driftwood) and a dead plant also on my desk. i have just got a bunch of houseflies fro my frogs and since discovered they are too small and can fit out the mesh in the frog tank (= small flies everywhere) oops! anyone else's workmates think theyre loopy?

Do you think algae eating critters will sort it? (and where do i get some?) Am currently mid exams so since there are no tank inhabitants wellbeeing to be concerned with it can sit there until I have time to sort it, will let you know what happens thanks for your advice

If theres just a problem thats annoying rather than difficult to fix i just get into it, if i'm stressed or avoiding something stressful (which doesnt help with stress in the long run) i visit people or eat junkfood, or dance, or go for a walk or bug my flatmates or bake (an afternoon cooking can be very relaxing - unless you have to do it), or clean the flat (but only in extreme circumstances).

They dont look like the ones you get on geckos, these ones are darker red and shineyer (i had geckos once). dont really know what i could do about them aniway, just hope they will go away of their own accord

There is a lid on the tank, so its not a dust problem might have to take it out and boil it some more - gah! what a pain.

Name: Sofie Age: old enough to know better (but not old enought to follow my own advice). Hobbies: interesting people (I have a grand collection), bugs, frogs, ecology, DRAMA (am a total drama geek), yelling at my computer (not a computer geek) and dancin. totally keen to add to my collection of interesting people so if you're in palmy we should catch up sometime (i throw excellent parties!)

so I have noticed a whole lot of little red mites in my frog tank!!! is this bad? will they harm my frogs? what do I do about them?

so i have my tank a cycling, and due to lack of spare time it shall cycle till at least next week so plenty of time for troubles to be sorted but theres this white slime growing allover my driftwood its growing in a sort of thick cloud around the wood (about 5ml deep allover) what is it? and is it bad? how do I fix it?

When I had geckos (once upon a time) my cage design had holes cut in the bottom so the plant pots sat in them (dirt level with wooden cage bottom, the cage was raised) This ment it was easy to avoid that excess water collecting under your leaf litter (or whatever you put in the bottom) and damaging your cage. Also, the more easy hand sized doors the better (for cleaning, moving stuff around, putting in food). so long as the specifications (on the DOC and herpetological soc websites are filled there isnt much to worry about re - getting your licence but for happy geckos think about where you are keeping the cage (sun, shelter, mesh or wall gets the most sun? or inside with artifical temp/sum etc... lots to think about

Wow to stoneflies!!!! so I collected some gravel for my tank setup and along with it came various critters (dobsonfly, stonefly and mayfly larvae) which i choose to leave be as cycling the tank will give them an equivelant to quarantine (looking like it will be a while before I can go fish collecting) soooo lo and behold, one of the stoneflies produced wings (in the 3 hours since I filled the tank) i thought they might just up and die (they are supposedly rather sensitive afterall) Wow! and its so pretty with dappled wings now its in the freezer (mean, i know. But i need one for the study collection and there wasnt much else to be doing with it) Just wanted to say - waterbugs are neet! also any thoughts on snails? i'm thinking i have spotted a potamopyrgus snail. Should i eradicate, or are they ok in aguariums (i dont mind having a small colony, but they are a mega pest overseas) hmmm?

I'm all for survival of the fittest methinks food they have to catch themselves can only be good for them and only entertaining for me (am already thoroughly entertained watching my frogs hunt bugs). :bounce:

I'm beginning to notice that a live fish lable is less likely to be rejected than other things (frogs, bugs etc...) I havent done much posting myself but a friend of mine always sends things labled live fish (regardless of it's turtleness or froggishness etc...). Dont know if thats helpful?

Thanks all Yep that duckpond was rather cold (and it took me ages to get the duck smell outta my hair) cant wait to add to my current critter collection :bounce: frogs are awesome! but next - a koura (and maybe some whitebait to keep it company/ entertained)

And i'll have a one of those........ Ok so i'm a little jelous, lovely fish! so many excellent setups to aspire to (and fish to consider to inhabit said setups)

I am currently discovering the greatness of pet frogs (I have two southern bells). they get less and less shy with time and its great watching them eat :bounce: Ok so theyre not exactly reptiles, but not flyffy either (definately cute tho). geckos are ok pets, i'm liking frogs better - more active (although less handleable)

Beautiful!!! now i'll have a one of those, and a one of those...... (well one day maybe)

Yep, that was Belgium, excellent castles and chocolate (thats my not so little sis with me). And stella, you might have noticed that necklace at the celtic, i recognise you as another regular (although my crowd hasnt been there in a while, has been busy) small world huh?

But sphagnum grows nearer the edges of peat domes where the decomposition is occuring so while in therms of all plants they are low nutrient, in terms of peat dome plants they are high nutrient (rather higher than CP's i think..... and now having thought about it I am not so sure, shall have to dig up some old class notes

Thanks Ballistic, I'm not so computer litterate so that picture thing might take me a while (and some patience) to figure.

so i have been lurking about for a while now learning heaps from y'all so thought it was time to tell you who I am. I am still at Uni (just, graduating soon!!!) and working part time and the reason i am getting into fish starts with work - they are looking at the plausibility of various live animals for an exhibition and part of my job is to investigate. Now dont get me wrong, i think fish are excellent! but my personal choice of pet leans more towards frogs, geckos, bugs and goats (previous pets have been tadpoles, roaches, goats, ducks, geese, lambs, a calf, budgies, goldfish, a horse, a grasshopper among other things). so currently I have two southern bell frogs (soooo super cute) at work, but nothing at home coz I flat and moving is hard enough already with all my stuff. I'm also a drama geek, so if you're about in palmy you might have seen me suffering for my art (6am in the duckpond in the square comes to mind) and I cant wait to meet some new animals for my collection :bounce: