Hey there from Colorado

Well hey there everybody, my name is Marcia and I am from Western Colorado. I am a true Colorado girl and spend most of my weekends climbing our tallest mountians during the summer months. I am a lifelong fan of Taricha Granulosa also known as Rough Skinned Newt. I had a couple when I was younger and surprisingly had no idea how poisonous they are, the pet store never said a word. What I remember most about them was they had great personalities and they entertained me to no end. About a month ago I decided I had to have more and as I searched I quickly realized a few things about these newts like a) they are extremely poisonous, and b) they are extremely hard to find these days. I do have to say the whole extremely toxic part does make sense now since I had no good luck with other types of newts (poor little guys). So I have a 55gallon tank setup for these guys complete with sterilized river rocks, aquatic plants, and live moss. Its about 15% land 85% water right now, I want to add more still like a nice water lily(I noticed is part of their natural aquatic habitat) and some more land. My ultimate goal is to have an even bigger setup and spend the rest of my life breeding these guys so I can share my love of them with others. I guess if it takes years to find them I will just have all that time to build the best setup I can create for them.
I'm really happy to have found this site and I look forward to using it for the great resource that it is. Just in the last month as a guest I have learned more than I ever knew about my favorite newts. :happy:

Welcome aboard, Marcia!

Its so good to see someone else looking for these little guys! If we want them they will come! (Or so I hope.) Im still yet to find a breeder but Im not giving up yet. I noticed it seems illegal to sell them over on the west coast so maybe that's why we are having issues finding them.
I have no idea if that applies to captive breds or not.

Good luck on your search!

Thanks Tarrif! Maybe between the two of us we can find them! I'm certainly not going to give up anytime soon. Good luck to you in your search too! :happy: