This is a wonderful site

I just wanted to comment on what a wonderful site this is. It is well designed and run professionally designed and it is quite a nice surprise to find there are others in this world who not only know what newts and salamanders ARE, but also share my love for these beautiful and under-appreciated creatures.

I have been in love with these lesser-known amphibians since I was 8 years old and first discovered a tiny road-side pond filled with rough-skinned newts. I "rescued" several who were crossing the road, and took them home to save them from what would have probably been a worse fate - getting run over like so many of their cousins had.

My parents allowed me to keep them as pets, provided I studied about them and learned how to care for them properly. I applied myself and learned as much as an 8 year old girl in the mid 1970's could learn... which may not have been much, but the newts seemed to thrive in my care.

I soon grew up and stopped keeping newts for many years until recently, when I thought it would be nice to create a beautiful vivarium and raise these fascinating creatures again.

I now have two vivariums, one 28 gallon which houses the rough-skinned newts of my younger days... and another, 10 gallon hexigontal, which houses a pair of Japanese fire-bellied newts. I also have two auxillery tanks, not quite as well decorated yet, which house paddletails and one axolotl.

My dream idea is to build a giant vivarium and use it as the headboard of our bed.

Anyway, kudos on your lovely site... I have enjoyed reading many of yours posts (I lurk much more than I post), your wonderful photographs, and especially the informative articles and informational pages.

Keep up the good work ~~~

Wherever you go, there you are.
~~Buckaroo Bonzai ...

?? wasnt that also a quote from the tom baker era of dr who?

off topic, i know.........

I agree Deborah. I've visited many herpetology related forums and this one is by far the best!

There there now, you really shouldn't massage my ego so much (I can't speak for the others!). I've very glad you like Caudata.org. It may look nice, but it's the people who use it, write the info sheets, and post on the forum, that make caudata.org so good.

Well, John, I think your ego deserves a little massaging for this site, as well as the egos of everyone who contributes.

I especially love the fact that the site is dedicated to newts and salamanders, rather than frogs. I like frogs too, but they are so much more popular and better known than their amphibian cousins... that its nice to find one site that doesn't have to share the "limelite" with them.

Paris - the quote is from an 80's movie favorite of mine "Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai across the 8th dimension." You should check it out. Very weird but very fun.

Deborah - yes, I believe our strength lies in our Caudata only theme (apart from two topics in the forum).

John - I'm glad you decided to target Caudates. The all-amphibian forums I've visited so far remind me of the types of ponds where frogs just seem to take over and the newts disappear...

I have never understood why newts and salamanders are so much less widely known than frogs. Everyone knows what a frog is... but the average "Joe" or "Jane" seems to think salamanders are some kind of lizard and newts are something found in a witch's cauldron. Its too bad too, because these creatures would stand a lot better chance of survival if people were more aware - and appreciative - of them...

Just my opinion. *getting off soapbox now*

Ah yes, lizards. I get very annoyed when I hear that. People don't seem to know that, arguably, they have more in common with lizards than newts do.

Don't worry about the soapbox .

yeah when i asked an aquarium shop for a marginal plant to put in a vivarium with newts, the shop assistant ranted on for several minutes about how careful you have to be because lizards love to eat all plant matter.

John - I actually think humans are more closely related to bovines than any other species ... this is evidenced by the often exhibited herd behavior, chewing of cud and rutting activity of the bulls. hehehe. No offense to any non-bovine humans who may be reading

William... heh. Ya gotta love pet shops. The last time I made the mistake of buying a newt at a pet shop, it was a C. Orientalis, which immediately developed a terrible infection and died within two weeks. The pet shop had insisted they were Japanese Fire-bellied newts and argued with me even when I pointed out the distinguishing characteristics of the species. *sigh*

I am afraid that in some cases, the slogan of petco should be "where the animals go... to die."

*through ranting for now*

i've got a better story, my paddle tailed newt was sold to it's previous owner as a vietnamese firebelly

My local aquatics has started getting Pachytriton Labiatus on a regular basis and it makes me sad. They're kept in the wrong conditions and most people impulse buy without knowing anything about them. I try to tell the owners what to do with them and they don't listen. I wish i had the time and space to rescue them!

You could threaten the RSPCA on the aquatic shop...

I have to say that I probably wouldn't be in to caudates if it weren't for the shear amount of information and resources I was able to find on this site. I must thank everyone who regularly contributes to it!

Glad to hear we've converted you, Garrison .

John, that would be one option but they do seem to be nice people and i don't think they're keeping them this way because they're nasty . The main reason i think is because they're old and in my experience you can't teach an old dog new tricks! To them they're just newts and you just plonk them in water and thats it! I'll continue giving them advice and hope they eventually listen.

Andrew in response to not being able to teach an old dog new tricks, that is not true. Any dog old or young taught in the correct fashion will learn.

The shopkeepers on the other hand (who are not dogs )should be reported and you would be surprised how quickly they learnt if they want to keep in business. No animal human or otherwise has a time limit on learning. No offence to you or the shopkeepers but for the sake of the newts, current stock and future they need to learn the correct conditions for each and every species they stock.

(Message edited by jeff_gandy on November 23, 2004)

The Birmingham aquatics shop that i regularly rant about, sold my partner 2 Hong Kong newts as fully aquatic - in the shop they were in a 3ft tank, full to the top with water - with not a scrap of land to climb out onto......we were surprised, as we hadn't heard of fully aquatic newts, but bought the 'recommended' set up.

however, doubts lingered and when we got home the first thing we did was an internet search (you can guess what that threw up!) so we spent the rest of the day making a temporary landing platform out of slate, chopsticks and baling twine, to see them through the weekend til we could get to a better shop and spend our money on summat more suitable

I'm just glad there's a reliable source of information available - a big thankyou to John et al for providing such a valuable service *grin*

I'm glad you've found it helpful, Charlie. I just provide a place for it to happen - most of the advice and information is from people like yourself who take an interest and want to help others. I think we all started out wanting to help other people - Jennifer Macke has made an art out of helping people, using CC and constantly helping people on the forum . She's not alone in helping people, but she is the lifeblood behind CC and a lot of what goes on here.

Jeffrey, I understand what your saying, but i don't think i've ever found a shop that both looks after and gives the correct information on any of the species they sell. My next step is to put together some c/c sheets so they have correct information for themselves and to give out to the people that buy them.
btw/ i wasn't knocking all old people!