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What Got You Hooked?

R

richard

Guest
I was wondering since we have recently had all these threads on Favourite species, Putting faces to people, and How often we visit the site, we could maybe share our experiences on how we got Hooked on caudates?

For me it was defineitely the classic impulse buy at the pet shop. Little did I know i would become so absorbed into this fascinating world.
 
J

john

Guest
My story is a little odd...

Those who have read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 know that the trucks the "firemen" rode around to set fire to books were called salamanders. So after I read that as a youth, I became fascinated by the ancient association between salamanders and fire. I bought an Audobon field guide to herpetofauna and hit the woods. I can blame my fascination on Ray Bradbury!
 

ryan

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I love all animals and from reading about them I stumbled on sals (mainly necturus and olm, sirens and dwarfs,amphiumas, and the 3 giants) and got hooked. Read some on the species, got more hooked, learned how to care for a N. maculosus, got one and was finally a 100% caudata lover!
 
D

daniel

Guest
When I was 6-9 years old my grandmother would buy me wildlife magazines and my mom would take me to the local library where I would proceed to check out nearly ever animal book they had. Its all been downhill ever since!
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M

michelle

Guest
Oh what interesting threads that get started!
I'm along the same lines as Richard. I was in the pet store looking for more fish so I could breed them. There in one of the tanks sat one of the sweetest looking faces I had ever seen(compared to fish). He was definitely an impulse buy but he was just sitting there in the plant lookin' around.
John I remember reading that book to when I was younger. Good book. Lets all be thankful you became hooked on salamanders and not fire.
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Very interesting none the less.
I hope people continue this thread also it is quite interesting.
 
A

abrahm

Guest
I grew up in a nice little rural town. I spent my youth outside, preferably as close to a pond, swamp or puddle as I could. I had an insatiable curiosity and I loved to catch frogs, toads and snakes. I would be outside from the first spring thaw until well after the ice froze over the ponds observing animals. Insects, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, and fish it didn't matter what they were, I found them, I observed them, identified them and read about them. I used to sneak out of the house to see frogs and toads at night and to catch bugs.

I spent my time looking at the ground and flipping over logs.

When I was six I met a new friend who had window wells. He had a great big tub full of tiger salamanders. I was amazed, how had I missed these creatures? I learned about them also, and started flipping over detritus to find them too.

I grew up, I stopped netting fish and insects and bringing home frogs, toads and salamanders. I went to school. I wanted to be a cetologist, then a writer and finally a researcher in molecular biology or microbiology. I was in college.

I met a woman, who became my girlfriend. She kept two White's Tree Frogs. I was amazed. I didn't know anyone kept frogs as pets! My past rushed up to meet me in the present. I started researching salamanders and newts, buying books and finally buying my Paddle-tail newt. A few animals later, and we are at today.

My girlfriend, unfortunately, thinks that newts and salamanders are a bit silly.
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K

kristen

Guest
Wow, I feel like my story is so uninspired. Two years ago I was invited to work within a herp lab at Davidson College working on a stream salamander project... The rest is history...
 
N

nicole

Guest
I was in the pet store looking for something different to add to my tank to hold my daughter's attention while she ate. At 18 months, she refused to eat anywhere except in front of the aquarium, watching the different fish. I needed something to keep her eating and found a chinese fire-bellied newt. She loved it! We ended up moving many states away and I had to give them all away.

When we got here, I decided to keep them again but couldn't find any. Instead, I found the paddle-tails which the pet store told me were fire-bellies. I knew they were wrong and educated myself. Same day I got them (with my now 4 year old daughter), my husband came home with a Chinese fire-bellied for me and my 18 month old son who, by the way, loves to watch the fbts, fbn, paddle-tails, and fish. He doesn't eat while watching them but it does quiet him down for a few minutes (thank goodness!)

Now, I'm here to keep everyone happy and healthy. Also, to keep me educated because I know some day my son is going want his very own tanks with his very own pets and I want to be that cool mom that encourages him to proceed with his hobbies (even if the are nerdy or geeky).
 
D

dawn

Guest
I started dating a marine biologist who had some local newts in a tank at work. I thought they were cute, so for one of our first dates he took me to a lake where newts were mating. Those cute little faces! Those delicate little limbs! I was hooked.
 
C

cameron

Guest
I was originally hooked on insects but around 7 years ago it happened. After moving from New Orleans to Georgia I met the Southern Redback Salamander. Then I learned as much as I could on newts and salamanders and that's how it happened.
I learn as much as possible about them. I was hooked.

Though I still have lots of caterpillar pupae in my room from last year.
 

ryan

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I raise caterpillars as well, saturniids or wild silkmoths, is that what you raise Cameron? By the way I have a callosamia promethea cocoon in my garage. I know its completely off the subject though.
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C

cameron

Guest
I have two callosamia promethea pupae and a Imperial moth cocoon. I like saturniids too. I have many slug moth caterpillars like the Spiny Oak slug and much more including many pupae of the Siler-Spotted Skipper. It would take a while to name all of the species I have and have raised but this is a little off topic. If you want to know them all I can e-mail you.
 
J

jim

Guest
I bought some bait tigers when I was young and the bait store keeper asked if I was going to morph them or use them for bait. I had no idea they became a completely different animal. As I watched them go from aquatic creatures to a terrestrial animal it was like watching evolution take place first hand. I have been hooked ever since.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
The college I attended required every student to do an independent project. I was a biology major and had no clue what to do. I stumbled on a paper about limb regeneration and decided I could do something with this. Newts only cost about $1 each (N. viridescens from Carolina Biological, long ago) so I could afford this on the small budget they gave us.

After college, I took a group of the experimental animals with me when I left.

About 16 years later, I still had some of those original animals. They laid eggs, and I decided that THIS time I'd figure out how to raise the larvae, which had always died on me in the past. I hit the Internet, and in the process I met a lot of people who were interested in newts and knew a lot more than I did. I also made my first "swap" for eggs of another species. And things have kind of snowballed since then...
 

michael

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I always wanted an axolotl because they are cool. One year at IAD a vendor had a bunch of axolotls for sale. At the end of the show I asked him if he wanted to lug the extras home or sell them to me. I bought all he had left. After I had them I decided to get every type of axolotl I could find and breed them. I air conditioned my basement to ward off summer heat waves. After the basement was air conditioned I decided to fill it up with salamanders to help justify the air conditioning bill.
 
F

foster

Guest
I have kept herps of many kinds as well as fish, inverts, and the usual other odd critters for most of my 39 years. When I was a kid I loved looking for salamanders in the woods and streams (still do). Anyway, I never really kept any because I was unable to provide the necessary cool temperatures. About 6 or 7 years ago I noticed a T. shanjing in a local fish shop in a aquatic setup with frogs, crabs, etc. I bought it just to get it out of there. I kept it a few months and then gave it away. several years ago I moved into a place with a basement, discovered this website and the rest is history.
Chip
 
K

kara

Guest
What got me hooked to salamnders, I have always had a love for all creatures, big and small, slimy and furry. My mom gave me my appreciation for wild life at a young age. She was one of the only mom's around here you would see on a saturday bringing her two kids to the pond to dig wild flowers for her garden, see wildlife and catch tadpoles. She showed us how they metamorphosize in beautiful vivariums she put together for each of our bedrooms. She's an amazing lady, THANKS MOM! We have had all kinds of pets throughout our lives...turtles, goldfish, mudpuppies, cats, dogs, crabs, frogs, hampsters, bunnies, to name a few!!* It all started with frogs, and it has exploded in to a love for salamanders. I want to do the same for my little guy, but sadly, the pond areas around here are seriously diminishing due to subdivisions, factories and pollution....I will have to take him camping up north so he can get a good grasp on wildlife and it's importance.
 

tony

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i got hooked after a school project in 2nd grade around 1988. we had a tank with eastern newts, snails,elodea and guppies, we also kept anoles that year. eventually they wanted to give them away and i was one of the few to get my parents to agree to keep them. i brought home 2 and they lived for 3 years on a reptomin pellet and tubifex cube diet. around the same time i played pee-wee baseball and wasn't the best athlete so i spent more time in the creek by the field finding sallys, newts, tadpoles, and frogs.
i kept some notos in middle school to replace those that died, but they escaped
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.
kept an african dwarf clawed frog later in HS till that escaped and died too
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. tried my luck with a chinese firebelly after that, that buried itself in a potted plant and died.
got back in the hobby with a poor treated warty newt and firesalamander from petstore last year that didn't survive, but am now keeping 4 marbled salamanders since august and a tomato frog since january
 
S

samuel

Guest
mine is as richard's and michelle's i just went to the aquarium and they had a lot of fire belys and i got a couple and after i started to find out more about them and thats how i found this page.
 
D

dane

Guest
i got a story kind of like Abrahm's, except I havn't grown up yet
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During summers my family would to what we call "up north" its basicly just driving 3 hours north into the northernish part of the state(its not exactly in the northern part more of the north-central)
There is lots of woods around and we had friends that had 100's of acres of woodland/swampland/feilds available to us

As a family we would often go on little hikes through the woods and I'd find all sorts of critters and take them home(or let them go)

as the years progressed I got more and more interested in just Reptiles and my Mom got me a subscription to Reptiles magazine when I was about 9

then this past year I went camping up north and I found a bunch of larvae, I brought them home and raised them(with the help of this website)

I've also been in scouting almost my whole life and on all the camping trips we go on I venture away and go herping, now that im one of the "older guys" I have more freedoms and can go herping easier then I could before
 
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