Ruru

I thought it would be pretty obvious that there was more than one newt. If there was only one individual, what are the chances of anyone finding it?

I had a chat to some of the people involved a few months ago. They are working on eradicating the newts, but that is proving tricky because they can survive well enough even if their pond is drained. There is a very high incidence of chytrid in the individuals caught so far. It is both illegal and potentially catastrophic for our native/resident amphibians if members of the public capture these newts. If anyone here has inclinations to take some into captivity: PLEASE DON'T. It is not worth risking what we already have in order to have another pet. It is not just your own animals you are gambling with.

Sorry, I wasn't having a complaint about your set ups. I agree that discussions like this are are great place to learn. I've been thinking about starting a topic or two on native herps seeing as how native keepers seem to be under-represented here.

My frogs do get feed more variety than mealworms and flies, but those are the main part of the diet. They also get whatever I can catch with a light trap, slaters, passion vine hoppers, crickets etc. Where did I say they lived in trees? All I said was they are not aquatic, as apposed to axolotl or fish. Sure they swim, are often found near water in the wild (more often than not they live somewhere with ephemeral water), and require water to breed. That does not mean they should be given an aquarium with less land area than frog. I've been to a number of pet shops where there is literally not enough room for all for the frogs to sit, so some cling to the edges of the stick half drowned. Almost every time I have seen a wild or captive brown tree frog it has been sitting in vegetation or in a damp spot under a log/rock. The only time I've seen them in water is when breeding or disturbed (i.e. they flee from predators by sitting on the bottom of the pond). You are correct that L. aurea and L. raniformus have greater webbing, indicating that they have a greater need for water. I have kept both of those species for several years too. The captive ones used their pond daily, often basking right on the water's edge. However, they still spent time on land as well as within the water, which in my opinion means they need not only a pond, but a decent sized land area with places to hide. In my opinion the setup shown on this thread by Devo covers their requirements nicely. viewtopic.php?f=40&t=58189&start=15

Our frogs are about five years old now. We started out with eleven, not sure how many are left because they hide so well. At least one has died, the others are thriving. They have never bred, but do croak plenty during rainy weather. We water them with a weed sprayer (water only!) every couple of days and feed them flies whenever the are available and meal worms during winter. Also the bottom of our enclosure is less than 15% water (small corner pond). No frog in new zealand is aquatic, especially the brown tree frogs they never use the water. Makes me cringe when I see frogs in totally aquatic enclosures other than sticks etc.

A couple of years ago there used to be a small ephemeral pool here. It was on the edge of one of the roads/tracks to the river. -40.208938,175.789585 (google maps) Otherwise, check out the ephemeral wetlands at Tangimoana (also a good place to go if you like frogs).

The Bream head skink is gorgeous! Very similar to the brown skinks I've seen near Wellington. The skinks you have seen running around carine are almost certainly rainbow skinks; an accidental import that is rapidly becoming a pest. One of their known vectors is compost and pot plants. Rainbow skinks lay their eggs (only one species of native skink lays eggs) in the compost/pot and the pot gets transported around the country. Which is why they appear in high densities in garden centres and replanted areas.

I think what you have there is the false wireworm beetle. They are very common, often found under/within rotting wood or on trees at night. Do you raise them on the standard mealworm mix?

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/frogs/3

It doesn't work like that. Once the lizards are overseas, they can never be returned to NZ, let alone the wild. The cost of screening for all the diseases they could pick up overseas would be prohibitively expensive and they can't be sure they have screened for every disease the species may have come in contact with. The main reason importing reptiles to NZ is so heavily restricted is the risk of bringing in novel diseases which could rapidly infect our wild populations. Poachers are essentially killing the species they claim to love. Most NZ species now have sustainable captive populations (although inbreeding and outbreeding is a major problem) within NZ, so we really don't need fools claiming they are doing us a favour by poaching.

I didn't know they had been found like that in NZ; definately not a good sign, hope it doesn't occur in the natives! I know what you mean about the troubles with albino tadpoles. I've tried raising wild-caught albino tadpoles; made three attempts, probably totalling 50 tadpoles and couldn't get a single one to the leg-growing stage. For the life of me I don't know what we were doing wrong. Initially tried to raise some alongside wild-type tadpoles in essentially a bucket of water; wild types thrived, albinos died in weeks. most recently kept some in a brooder tank that had flow-through from a native fish tank. Changed the water weekly and food daily and they died one by one over 6 weeks. Had UV lighting on a day-night cycle, frozen lettuce and beans for food, clean cold water. The only explanations I can think of is disease or suicide :roll:

That's a bit of a concern, was this frog from wild-caught spawn? They have been having serious problems with frogs growing extra limbs in the US. One of the major causes seems to be trematode infestation, although farm runoff and pesticides have also been blamed: http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultysites/pieter/documents/ComplexityFrogs.pdf I personally find the trematode lifecycle facinating, and believed parasites shouldn't be hated for being extraordinarily good at what they do. But at the same time, it's not a good sign if interactions get out of balance like they have in the states.

A cage of that size will house just about anything. Arboreal geckos such as the Greens and Forest geckos favour tall cages (I think the NZHS recommendation is 900mm high). The large floor area would also suit terrestrial geckos or skinks. Keeping both skinks and geckos in the same cage seems to work well, so long as there is plenty of food, shelters and basking areas. Just a thought though, you have to ensure you can reach all edges of your cage with little hassle, so you don't want the roof of the cage much more than 2m above ground (I'm assuming your cage will be on a stand).

I've tried but the breeding rate was much slower than meal worms, and the numbers produced is pathetic. I used a method from another site that varies from the one described here, so I'll give that a go and see if it improves. I suspect the main problem is my hot water cupboard is too well insulated so the colony isn't kept very warm. I got waxmoths with the intention of feeding them to my natives since they aren't keen on mealworms; they prefer flying food. If anyone has a sugestion of what other flying species I can breed I'd love to hear it. I'd prefer a non-stinky method (i.e. not rotting catfood for fly breeding).

Hybrids between the two certainly happen, although I can't say for certain if that one is. I've seen hybrids with a broken stripe/ridge behind the eye.