birdvideo
New member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2007
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- 9
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- Location
- San Antonio, Texas.
- Country
- United States
- Display Name
- Mike
Howdy, I’m Mike Sims. I’ve been reading this forum for a while and have decided to participate. I just updated my profile with more information. Before I set off a storm of comments on the evils of keeping endangered species in captivity I should explain the circumstances of the first species on my list. It was my first experience with keeping any salamander. When I was in the sixth grade I went to the regional science fair. Another participant in the fair did a project on troglodytic organisms that were washed up a local artesian well. She had two specimens of Typhlomolge rathbuni, Texas Blind Salamander. After the fair she gave me the smaller (~1.5”) specimen. I kept it alive for 8 months with constant water changes from the same well and floating frozen bottles of water to cool the tank. It would only eat white cave isopods that were washed up the well pipe. When the well was capped and I had no other source of food, I donated it to our local zoo. It was not displayed and promptly died. Years later our zoo did display this species- collected from another well. I’m still amazed I managed to keep such a delicate species alive for so long. If I had known what I now know I’d have never attempted it. Several species on my list are now protected. I do not condone keeping threatened organisms for any reason, but recognize that it was a very positive experience for me. I went on to keep a number of different amphibians and captive breed most of them. I had to give up all of my animals when I was busy being a starving graduate student. In my current work as a wildlife film-maker I’m interested in producing a developmental series of eggs and larvae of (probably) Ambystoma maculatum. Any thoughts or advice will be gratefully considered. I’ll post some results here if and when I get them. Thank-you to all for making this forum the wonderful resource it is.