A new to caudata Aquarist in Oakland

[oaklandNewtist]

Hi,

I put up a blog post, so I'll keep this brief. Glad to find this site. I'm Jonah Sharkey a married father of one in Oakland California. I have an extensive fresh and saltwater aquarium background and after 2 years out of the hobby to get my son to 2yo. I'm now ready to build out a newt tank and am interested in N. African species. Hopefully I can also grow some ornamental flowers as long as there aren't toxicity issues.

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

The Starting Place

I'll post pics to flickr, and will start a project thread once I've done anything.

 

[Azhael]

Welcome to forum!
North Africa?? Wow, that´s limited...only Salamandra sp., and Pleurodeles sp. are present in the north of africa that i can think of right now.
The kind of set-up you´ll need will greatly vary depending on the species you intend to keep....so the first thing would be stablishing which species you want to keep, and then plan everything according to that.
Salamandra, and Pleurodeles are very eassy animals to keep, so you shouldn´t have problems.

 

[Kaysie]

And the biggest issue with 'ornamental' flowers is temperature and light. Caudates require low light and cool temperatures, which usually is not conducive to ornamental plant growth.

 

[Jennewt]

Welcome, and I look forward to future photos of your project:happy:

The tank you have looks like the kind that isn't recommended for holding water (reptile tanks have thinner glass). So that limits you to a mainly terrestrial setup, which rules out Pleurodeles. Also bear in mind that all members of genus Ambystoma are technically illegal to keep in California (just in case you are considering sals from other parts of the world besides N. Africa).