Curious: large newt collections

[dani]

ive noticed that quite a few of you house newts [and other life forms] by the dozens, even hundreds. how do you manage? are your walls lined with tanks? i think its amazing, but just cannot fathom how it could work!

 

[joshua]

Yeah, I keep quite a few animals, and my walls are lined with tanks. I need to build a good shelving system then I'll be able to keep a lot more.

0.0.3 Mantella expectata - Blue-Legged Mantella
0.0.3 Mantella madagascariensis - Painted Mantella
0.0.3 Mantella viridis - Green Mantella
2.3.2 Eublepharis macularius - Leopard Gecko
1.1.2 Xenopus laevis - African Clawed Frog
4.0.0 Anolis sagrei sagrei - Brown Anole
2.2.0 Uca ssp. - Fiddler Crab
1.0.0 Trachemys scripta scritpa - Yellow-Bellied Slider
0.0.1 Apalone spinifera - Spiny Softshell
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta ssp. - Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Sternotherus odoratus - Musk Turtle
2.2.0 Trachemys scripta elegans - Red-Eared Slider
0.1.0 Pelomedusa ssp. - African Sideneck Turtle
0.0.1 Dyscophus guineti - Tomato Frog

4 Leopard Gecko eggs in the incubator with more on the way.
A lot of African Clawed Frog eggs with most likely more on the way, separating them tommorrow though so they won't lay any more eggs until I'm ready for them to.

 

[paris]

the benefit to amphibians is if you meet their basic needs they do well by themselves-i have most of my set ups as micro environments-with living plants and soil to help maintain humidity and take care of waste (keeping bio load low) live food released into these set ups allows for a few days of 'hunting' and i pretty much visit them either daily or up to every 3 days (depending on whats going on with them and their set ups-and the weather). aquatic set ups are filtered usually and i have live food living in some of those too-being fed twice a week isnt to bad since they can eat for more days outside of that-plus mine are kept about 60F so their metabolism is a little slower. i have racks of tanks and the air system is set up off a 1hp pump that spreads it out through pvc pipe and tubing with gang valves.

here are some pics
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/7618/16544.html

 

[william]

wow, i was wondering how you found the space to keep your ~130 animals

 

[jennifer]

There are some economies of scale involved. I have 13 tanks plus a bunch of tubs. If I am chopping worms for one tank, I can just as easily chop worms for several tanks. I have a lot of routines worked out for efficiency. To some extent, though, it takes a daily (or almost daily) commitment of time. I probably average a half to one hour daily - more if I have a lot of larvae going.

 

[meghan]

Isn't it funny though how you do come up with an efficent method that flows easily? You have it down to a science. I went away for 3 days and put my husband in charge of feedings for one of the 3. That included brine shrimp feedings to the larvae and setting up new mixture of salt and brine shrimp. I got 2 phone calls from him and when I got home, he said I wasn't allowed to leave for longer than 2!

 

[charlie]

until the lotls started breeding, I had a very simple routine - now I have around 300 lava and juveniles, from 3 spawnings, with sub divisions (according to size) all requiring slightly different feeding, care and attention - there's even one individual (the smallest of the oldest batch) who won't eat bloodworms unless i drop them on his/her head one at a time)

It all takes an hour and a half every day, including water changes

 

[william]

oh well i've only got all that to come! i plant to greatly expand in the near future, so far my little group of 6, 1.0.0 pchytriton labiatus, 1.1.0 ambystoma opacum and 0.0.3 triturus marmoratus take only 5 minutes at the most, having fairly ravenous appetites helps a goo deal as well. no picky feeders