Ben 1979
New member
A big Hello to you all!
Just a quick post to say hi, and a little bit about myself.
Earlier this year I decided to try keeping newts, partly after seeing some in an aquatics store at a local garden centre.
*I always loved newts since pond-dipping as a kid, they remind me of the prehistoric creatures (from which they are descended) that crawled from the swamps in my childhood dinosaur books.
Anyhow, I saw these Fire bellied newts and asked the assistant how to keep them, he didnt seem confident about the advice he was giving me, somthing about keeping them in a tropical aquarium would be fine etc. I left there determined to do my own research before buying any animals or equipment (Caudata has been a great resource).
Needless to say after a little reading I was shocked by the advice the sales assistant had given and relieved that I had not impulse-bought a creature and kept it in a stressful environment.
So here I am couple of months on, lots of research later and still no newts, but... I do have a small, yet beautiful, heavily planted aquarium set up and cycling (I'll do a separate post with pics soon), loads of ideas for bigger and better newt projects, but most of all a real passion for doing it the right way (or the very best I can) and putting the animal first - that's what I learnt from this site and reading all your excellent posts.
Hope to speak to some of you soon. I'm keen to chat to anyone in my part of the UK especially (Gloucestershire).
Ben.
Just a quick post to say hi, and a little bit about myself.
Earlier this year I decided to try keeping newts, partly after seeing some in an aquatics store at a local garden centre.
*I always loved newts since pond-dipping as a kid, they remind me of the prehistoric creatures (from which they are descended) that crawled from the swamps in my childhood dinosaur books.
Anyhow, I saw these Fire bellied newts and asked the assistant how to keep them, he didnt seem confident about the advice he was giving me, somthing about keeping them in a tropical aquarium would be fine etc. I left there determined to do my own research before buying any animals or equipment (Caudata has been a great resource).
Needless to say after a little reading I was shocked by the advice the sales assistant had given and relieved that I had not impulse-bought a creature and kept it in a stressful environment.
So here I am couple of months on, lots of research later and still no newts, but... I do have a small, yet beautiful, heavily planted aquarium set up and cycling (I'll do a separate post with pics soon), loads of ideas for bigger and better newt projects, but most of all a real passion for doing it the right way (or the very best I can) and putting the animal first - that's what I learnt from this site and reading all your excellent posts.
Hope to speak to some of you soon. I'm keen to chat to anyone in my part of the UK especially (Gloucestershire).
Ben.
