My first post!

[birdvideo]

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.

 

[Otterwoman]

You might find this thread interesting! Welcome.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?p=134912&posted=1#post134912

also this thread:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/series_A_mac.shtml

and this whole section:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml

(scroll to bottom, "Photo Series: Caudate Development")...

stop me before I quote the whole site and say you'll find it interesting!

 

[Jennewt]

Welcome, Mike! You've had some very interesting experiences. We are eager for any photo contributions you are willing to make.

 

[birdvideo]

Hi otterwoman and Jennewt, thanks for the welcome. Before I decided to crawl out from under my log I spent several weeks reading most of the forum and all of CC. I agree it’s all interesting! I feel I almost know some of you having lived through similar problems and come up with similar solutions. I designed some exotic aquarium systems as part of my former research and have ideas to share. I’m trying not to post too much too fast and then disappear into the woods (literally) for a couple of weeks leaving everyone to wonder “Who was that guy?”. I have a couple of technical issues with the video sequence I mentioned and will start a new topic. I have a couple of years to “get the shot”. The most pleasing thing I’ve learned about in my reading is the acceptance of cbb animals. As an undergrad in the late 70’s I bred and raised large numbers of Bombina spp. for pocket money. Most sales went to labs. There was much resistance from hobbyist “collectors” to captive-born animals when wild-caught ones were easily available and cheap.