Waterfall Terrarium

So a tank went on clearance at my work that was just ridiculously cheap for what it is, and given my 30% off day is coming up, I've gotten grudging permission from my wife to nab it. It's an Marineland Eclipse 37, which comes with a mirrored back and a built in biowheel filter and light. It would normally retail $200, but I should be getting it for approximately $30 dollars!

Now, my wife and I have agreed to spend no more than $50 of any Christmas money we receive each, the rest will go to bills. Given this limitation, my current crazy fantasies will probably not come to fruition this holiday season, but I that's no reason not to frivolously plan extravagantly, is it?

So I am buying this tank without specific plans, or at least I had no plans initially. But after some thought, some inspiration, and some poking around on the internet, I think I've decided on a truly awesome idea that this tank would be nearly perfect for: a tree frog terrarium with a built in waterfall! Specifically White's Tree Frogs, as pictured courtesy of Wikipedia.

The basic concept is as follows. Build what is commonly referred to as a "false bottom", hook up the filter intake to it, and then watch as a beautiful cascading waterfall becomes the centerpiece of the terrarium.

So first off, what is a false bottom? Basically you lay down a drainage layer, which can be either large grained gravel, a hydroponics substrate like Viastone, which is basically large clay spheres, or even just leaving it empty but building a raised, permeable platform of eggcrate. You then line this with fine mesh to prevent the aquifer being clogged with waste, dirt, or plant material. Atop this you lay your normal substrate, usually soil, moss, or coconut fiber. Left like this, it serves to increase the humidity of a tropical enclosure by providing a artificial aquifer.

A fairly common practice among tree frog enthusiasts, however, particularly dart frog keepers, is to put a water pump inside the false bottom, connect it to a tube, and then run it to the top of the enclosure, typically hidden behind a cork background, to create a trickling waterfall effect. It will often empty into an area of lowered substrate that in some way accesses the aquifer of the false bottom, creating a small pond.

It's my hope to partially recreate this basic plan using the aquarium filter. If I build a false bottom and then extend the filter intake tube into it, assuming the filter pump is strong enough this should create a waterfall by drawing the water up from the drainage layer to the top of the tank and then dumping it back in. I'm not sure if I'll try to create a pond or not, although it seems like it might be prudent so as to allow the water to pass more quickly back into the drainage layer.

I think it should actually be fairly cheap to do this. I just need the mesh, a drainage substrate, and possibly a piece of tubing to extend the filter intake, although I think it may already be long enough as it is. Hopefully the filter pump proves strong enough. Once the basics are in place I can add on to it over time by buying a cork background to hide the components, live plants to grow in it, and, of course, frogs!

Ball Python Breeding

Above here is our currently unnamed new ball python. He is a pinstripe male. For those of you not in the "know", ball pythons are the smallest of the African pythons, averaging 3'-4' at maturity. They are largely terrestrial are are referred to as "ball" pythons due to their natural defense strategy of curling up into a ball when threatened. They are also referred to as "royal" pythons due to a legend that Cleopatra wore one around her arm as jewelry. This is not at all unbelievable.

Super King, a normal ball python

We got Super King about a year ago, and as you can see above she was initially quite small. She is now approximately 3.5'-4' long, and as thick around as your arm. We're fairly certain Super King is female, based on the rapidity and extent of her growth, plus her diminutive anal spurs. Males and females both have these spurs, but males are generally larger and used for holding females during mating. These are vestigial remnants of their hind limbs; among snakes only boas and pythons retain these tiny "legs".

Super King now.

 Our hope is to eventually breed the new male and Super King. If you look at the two of them you'll notice how drastically different their patterns are. In the reptile trade, reptiles are often bred for size, temperament, pattern, and most of all color. These different varieties are usually referred to as "morphs", and can range from "basic" morphs, which are usually the result of a single Mendelian allelic difference - for instance, normal albinism, which in ball pythons is recessive, to "designer" morphs, which mix a number of these single gene differences and possibly even more complex line breeding to get something truly complex and beautiful. An example in ball pythons are the genes spider, which makes the ball python pattern thin and webbed like a spider's web, and pastel, which makes the yellows brighter and the browns paler. When combined, you get the so called "bumblebee"
python.

Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com

Both spider and pastel are dominant traits. Pastel is specifically co-dominant, which means if it is mixed with another allele - even itself, effects of both genes are expressed, creating what is known as "Super Pastels" when a snake has two pastel genes, and "killer bees" for a snake which has two pastel genes as well as the spider gene.

Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com

As noted, our new male is Pinstripe. Pinstripe is a simple dominant gene; possessing two Pinstripe genes is no different than one, except to the extent that it makes it better for breeding since a snake with two pinstripe genes will produce all pinstriped offspring when bred to a normal, whereas one with only one such gene will produce only 50% pinstripe offspring. The effect of Pinstripe is dual; it lightens the background brown a bit almost like a pastel, but subtler, and it reduces the dark brown patterning to a series of lines running parallel and perpendicular to the spine. It is somewhat similar to spider, but where spider just reduces the pattern in a more chaotic, webbed way, pinstripe creates more orderly stripes and lines. It was also discovered after spider, and is generally considered more valuable, if only due to rarity.

Lindsay and I have decided, as noted, to try and breed Super King and our newcomer, with the eventual goal of using any proceeds from such a breed to purchase more ball pythons of interesting morphs for breeding so we can create our own "designer morphs". We are not specifically hoping to support ourselves on this endeavor, although if ten years down the line we have expanded to the point that we can do so, nothing could be cooler - and indeed some of the rarer morphs can sell for upwards of several thousand dollars, so it is not completely ridiculous that one might do so even with relatively few pythons if one has a good, reliable, and variable breeding stock.

Our hope is to use any proceeds from the initial breeding to purchase what is known as a Mojave - a subtle pattern and color change, and then later a Mystic, a quite similar pattern and color change which is a different allele of the same gene. When a snake has both the Mystic and Mojave genes, the resulting designer morph is known as "Mystic Potion", and is quite stunning.

Credit to WorldofBallPythons.com

Pizza Dragon

So a couple months ago I got Cher, an adult female bearded dragon, and she's been a great addition to our household. Rosemary loves petting her, although of course I have to help her to make sure she is gentle, and you could hardly imagine a gentler, calmer lizard. So when a male bearded dragon baby at my work got its tail crushed and thus needed to be adopted out, how could I refuse to give it a good home?

We've had Pizza Dragon, as we've named him, for about three weeks now, and he's settling in quite well overall. I had previously purchased a cheap plastic terrarium approximately equivalent to a twenty gallon tank. As it was on clearance for a great price, so I popped him in there. Its about three times bigger than his enclosure at the store, so he has great fun running around it like a tiny reptilian gazelle. I purchased him some Phoenix worms to save trips to the store for crickets; they are also a much better source of calcium. Of course, what I did not realize is they are also a horrifying swarm of wriggling maggots, but both bearded dragons seem to relish them, so I suppose I can't complain overly much.

My plan is to eventually house them together, assuming they get along. Cher is in a forty gallon, which would be a bit cramped with a second beardy. Ideally I'd like to get a 125 gallon or equivalent for the two of them; of course such will need to wait until I get a better paying job!

Cher the Bearded Dragon

So last week a coworker of mine asked me if I could take her pet bearded dragon, because between work, school, and her other pets she did not have time for it anymore. After consulting with the wife, I agreed, because I've wanted a bearded dragon for a long time.

We took her home on Thursday. She's a bit small for a beardie, probably fifteen or so inches, but she's a voracious eater and completely tame. Ziyal, my old green iguana, kind of put my wife off lizards a bit since she was always very hostile to anyone not-me, but Cher, as my wife named her, calmly allows herself to be held, carried, petted, etc, as well as hand fed.

She lives in a well appointed forty gallon (36"x18"). Ideally eventually I'd like to upgrade to at least a 125 gallon (72"x18") and get her a tank mate, but that will have to wait until we can afford it. For now she seems quite happy, and she loves the crickets, superworms, pinkie mice, escarole, dandelion greens, yam, strawberries, rose petals, and other odds and ends from the garden we've been feeding her.

I'm considering ordering some silkworms, tomato hornworms, and butterworms online to feed her with. The butterworms would make a healthy supplement that keeps well in the fridge, whereas the silkworms and tomato hornworms are both super healthy but difficult to culture. I doubt I will really want to maintain a silkworm or hornworm population in the house, but ordering them on occasion for a treat is more doable. Although it is tempting to try to see how difficult it is to raise silkworms for silk, I doubt it can be at all profitable without a mulberry orchard to harvest from.

Snowflake Moray

So that is a snowflake moray eel, image courtesy of Wikipedia. When I first started working at Petsmart I was not super interested in fish keeping and saltwater aquaria in particular seemed equal parts intimidating and uninteresting; the only thing I could fathom wanting to keep was an octopus, and it hardly seemed worth the effort to learn how to keep a saltwater aquarium stable just for that. However, sparked in part by customer questions as well as falling in love with some other species of fish (Oscars, for one) I began to read more about saltwater aquariums and became more and more enamored of the possibility of keeping one.

I've been reading voraciously on and off about their upkeep and various species, but this is one I keep coming back to. I've seen them in pet stores and they always just seem so adorable to me; they curl up like a snake and lift their head to peer out of the tank, looking directly at you. Lindsay is horrified by them, but I think if we ever do get a saltwater aquarium I'll win the argument over what I'm allowed to put in it, at least as far as this little guy is concerned. With lionfish she could argue they are venomous, but these guys are mostly harmless.

Snowflake moray eels can reach three feet in length, and need reasonably large aquaria. A 55 gallon would probably be an ideal minimum, although if I started with something in the realm of 40 gallons I would undoubtedly be unable to resist the urge to buy one, and such is not unreasonably small, especially as in captivity it is rare for one to reach three feet, and moray eels are not terribly active. Although similar to how I initially had no interest in saltwater aquaria at all, when I initially read about these guys I had no interest in reef tanks, only in FOWLR systems (fish only with live rock); I now of course do have interest in reef tanks. Nevertheless, I probably would not house this guy in a reef tank; although they are safe with corals, they love to eat crustaceans, and they are in general very messy eaters, which means you need to be extra diligent to keep your corals alive with one of these in the tank.

Thus it would probably be in a live rock only set up. If I start with a 40-55 gallon, his tankmates would likely be few. If this is my first saltwater aquarium, I might initially add in a pair of clown fish and an anemone, since the clown fish at least are a good "beginner's" salt water fish, and it'd be good to test the tank out before adding in something as large and potentially finicky as a moray eel - although I do not get the impression they are generally hard to keep. Snowflake morays generally do not eat fish, although it certainly can happen; they prefer crustaceans, and if well fed are generally peaceful. I anticipate the clown fish may be fine due to protection from their anemone; certainly I'd give them better odds than a damselfish, the other good "beginner fish", who has no such protection!

If I am starting with a larger tank, on the order of 125 gallons, then it would likely be an exclusively predator tank. No clown fish here, for sure. Potential tankmates would be blue-spotted groupers, lionfish, dwarf zebra turkeyfish, and possibly a triggerfish or pufferfish. Obviously I'd need to limit it based on what all could fit, although a book I read I think recomended as a 125 gallon set up 4-6 turkeyfish, 1 lionfish, 1 triggerfish, and 1 eel, so probably something similar to that. I might get two eels, since they can get along fine and they're so adorable.

Pets Pets Pets

I've decided to start a second blog, which totally makes sense because I've been so great about remembering to update my first one. This one will be focused primarily on pets, animals, aquaria, terraria, etc. etc. Since I was a small child I've been obsessed with pets, particularly of the reptilian variety, and in particular of late - probably since I'm working at a pet store - I've been getting obsessed with a different animal every few weeks and making grandiose plans to keep one or more in the distant future when I actually have a job that pays well.

What I will generally be posting here will be personal stories or images about my current pets, profiles of animals I am interested in someday acquiring including my likely plans for a set up, and then any other pet or animal related material I feel like sharing, such as links, new stories, etc. Updates will probably be irregular, although since this will be more informal than my other blog they may in fact be more frequent since I won't need to create any new material just to make a post.