Thursday 30 May 2013

A RELATIVE POEM: A FROG MELODY


A FROG MELODY

A peeping sound or that of a bell
To identify each many can't tell
The sound of a ratchet is a Natterjack
One yellow line and a poison gland back
Laughing frogs live in the Marsh
Loud quacking Tree Frogs sounding quite harsh
Whooping calls from tiny frogs
With chocolate , orange, blue gloves and socks
From little tadpoles feeding at night
To the wonders of frogs is my delight

Wednesday 22 May 2013

THUNDER LIZARD!!

New in at my mates store I only managed to get one picture before shooting off to do chores left over from running after the local council.

It was feeding at the time and making a god awful racket, I will go back for more pictures and details on price but I here its extremely expensive.

The THUNDER LIZARD!!


BOMBINA (VARIEGATA) KOLOMBATOVICII JULIAN YELLOW BELLIED TOAD

Hmm I should have many more pictures of these guys I was breeding regularly and I clearly have a great deal of photos to find?!

Still I am not complaining.

Unusual Yellow Bellied Toad this one ion that they are always olive and the bellies are very vivid yellow and around 80% or more. Also has some powder blues splashed about here and there.

There are TWO FORM of kolombatovicii a light form and a dark form and this one is the latter.



SALAMANDRA BERNARDEZI ALFREDSCHIMDTI - TENDI FIRE SALAMANDER

Another very peculiar but dwarf type are these Fire Salamanders.

Can have a great deal of yellow or very little at all, or a pattern of almost translucent gold and even dark olive?!





SALAMANDRA SALAMANDRA GIGLIOLII - CALABRIAN FIRE SALAMANDER

Another one of my favourite due to the deep orange colour and large thickset bodies.

These are notoriously difficult to keep inside a building and develop skin problems as do the S.s.bernardezi group.

Oustide is the only way to keep this though I would be tempted to do an experiment with an electric fan on them indoors?!





Note on the underside of this young gigliolii how patches of the black colour are discolouring and these would eventually turn yellow while more discolouring would appear and follow suit.

The older they get the more orange takes over from the black and some old specimens that have managed to avoid predation can be completely orang though some can retain a black spot on the back of the head.
 


SALAMANDRA SALAMANDRA GALLAICA - PORTUEGUESE FIRE SALAMANDER

A particular favourite of mine are the Fire Salamanders that have red as well as yellow colourations on them.

There is a particularly red form found in Morocco and I will get to that in the next post.

This one, gallaica, has deep win red markings particularly on the parotid glands and the lower flanks.








SALAMANDRA SALAMANDRA FASTUOSA - PYRENEAN FIRE SALAMANDER

This is a particularly attractive form of Fire Salamander as well as being rather large.

Bugger than the French form, Terrestris, and way bigger than the Cantabrian Form. Mine were between 8 and 9 inches long and somewhat thickset.

This one gives birth to larvae.



SALAMANDRA BERNARDEZI CANTABRIAN FIRE SALAMANDER

I have come across a load of old photos that span across most blog subjects and will now set about posting them up starting with this blog.

These are animals I kept some years back and this one, Salamandra Bernardezi, is a small Fire Salamander from northern Spain that has fully formed salamanders as young where most other have formed larvae.


Sunday 19 May 2013

WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: LYRE TAILED PLECO

Do not know the name of this pleco but it has a Lyre Tail so I named it Lyre Tailed Pleco, lol.

Another one found at Tropicali.


WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: GREEN PHANTOM PLECO

Now this one I DO know the name of and they are Green Phantom Plecos.

There is also a slightly darker and Blue form of these known as the.... BLUE Phantom Pleco, lol.

AS with most of the plecos outside the Common PLeco and Gibbiceps the rule of thumb is bog-wood, bog-wood and BOG-WOOD!

:)



WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: BUTTERFLY PLECO

Now I do not know what these are known as and I need to retrieve all the correct L-Numbers for the plecos I have posted...

...but I knew these years ago as Butterfly Plecos. They also used to be under Peckoltia and actually Butterfly Peckoltias they used to be listed as but they never really were and the names get changed a great deal as the next scientist confirms that the last one to be paid to name these things must have been pis...drunk when naming them?!

LMAO!



WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: SNOWBALL PLECO

Well I think that is what these are, he did say and I forgot and I am sure I asked if they were Vampire Plecos and he answered Snowballs.

But then there are so many and all Plecos go by the infamous L-Numbers now, with L meaning Loricariidae which is the family encompassing all sucker mouth catfish.

Many people do not do well with these because they are always bought as youngsters, some like the water to be a little less hard, mix some rain or RO water if your in a particularly hard water area like we are in London, and the do like to chew on bog-wood and this helps them to digest food.







WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: THE PLATY - XIPHOPHORUS MACULATUS

A couple of shots of different platties.




WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: LABEOTROPHEUS CAERULEUS

I think I remembered the latin correctly on this one and more one to stick in my mind as these come from one of three great lakes in Africa's stunning Rift Valley.

Running north to south the three biggest lakes are Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi (where these guys are from) and my favourite Lake Tanganyika.

Lake Tanganyika is the second largest lake and more like an inland sea but not...quite. It does contain a TYPE of salt and has crabs and even jellyfish. It is also extremely deep too.

The depth should not hold any life as oxygen is non existent at more than about 15 metres depth and as the lake is a mile deep...hmm or is that TWO, it has a great deal of water.

Mind you what with it sitting in a volcanic rift I have wondered about its depths as we now know that life only needs water and those deep see hot vents harbouring many forms of life?!

Often sold as Yellow Lab Cichlids and these are Mouthbreeders.



WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI: PYGMY AQUATIC FROGS HYMENOCHIRUS BOETTGERI

Wholesalers can also get amphibians as well as crustaceans.

Tropical aquatic frogs but you have to make sure that they get food in a tank with many fish. Bloodworm is there favourite but daphnia too will be taken.



Saturday 18 May 2013

WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI - POECILIA RETICULATA GUPPIES

The Guppy....hmm have I not done this already?!

Oddly and despite these being tropical fish many dykes around the West Coast of France are teeming with the wild variety.

Or at least they were when I was there 24 years ago looking for Amphibians and Reptiles, lol.

Do NOT put these guys with nippy fish like Tiger Barbs or Serpae Tetra no matter how nice these two look, especially Serpae, lol. They will have no tails left before very long.








WHOLESALE SERIES: TROPICALI - TRICHOPODUS LEERII PEARL GOURAMI

Oops had this one down as Moonlight Gourami, curse my ignorance because they bore me to tears, LMAO.

Well bore me to tears is not strictly true I just had so many other groups I was interested in to give them too much attention.

I mean even in fish alone, leaving along all my other hobbies, there were the Cichlids, Killie Fish, American Minnows, American Darters and then I got into Dwarf Plecos, lol.