track43
New member
Hello all.
My name is Jeff, and I'm an architect in Los Angeles. As a child and young teen, I used to ride my bicycle to a nearby reptile store, Exotic Life, in the San Fernando Valley. I had many small (always inexpensive) fish and lizards growing up. I remember my geckos, and Carolina Anoles. One of my favorites was always my Cynops orientalis, Fire Belly Newt.
Now that I am in my mid-30s, I told my wife about the Cynops, which instantly fascinated her. Thinking they would still be $4-6 each at the local pet store, I agreed that we can go pick one up. Little did we know at the time about the importation restrictions and the scarcity of those little guys. It was a mission to find them though, and by some miracle, in a dingy old fish store we found a guy who still had one left, and apparently didn't know about the scarcity, because it still sold for $4.
Flash forward about 2 years. We upgraded Nigel's tank (yes, Nigel the Newt) to a 10 gallon aquarium, and decided to plant the tank with water grasses, mosses, and spider wood in a Japanese aquarium style. aquariumarchitecture.com has some beautiful examples, which we were trying to do the amateur version of. Unfortunately, a few days before the new tank's water had cycled and we could introduce him into his new place, Nigel escaped and has never been seen again. We discovered some small gaps in the built in cabinetry, along the floor, that cannot be accessed by anything over newt size, which we believe he went into. We have two cats, and they are both still alive, so we are confident they did not eat him. But it has been over a week and all of the dishes of water we placed all over the apartment are still empty.
Little did we know the escape artistry of the Cynops orientalis. There are many "escaped newt" posts in the forums we've now seen. But we would like to try again, having learned a hard lesson. I know there are some Reptile Conventions and other shows that move around the country. Would you all see this as the best chance to find these little guys? At this point, we would love to buy two. Any suggestions? Of course my budget will move way above $4, and will pay any going rate.
My name is Jeff, and I'm an architect in Los Angeles. As a child and young teen, I used to ride my bicycle to a nearby reptile store, Exotic Life, in the San Fernando Valley. I had many small (always inexpensive) fish and lizards growing up. I remember my geckos, and Carolina Anoles. One of my favorites was always my Cynops orientalis, Fire Belly Newt.
Now that I am in my mid-30s, I told my wife about the Cynops, which instantly fascinated her. Thinking they would still be $4-6 each at the local pet store, I agreed that we can go pick one up. Little did we know at the time about the importation restrictions and the scarcity of those little guys. It was a mission to find them though, and by some miracle, in a dingy old fish store we found a guy who still had one left, and apparently didn't know about the scarcity, because it still sold for $4.
Flash forward about 2 years. We upgraded Nigel's tank (yes, Nigel the Newt) to a 10 gallon aquarium, and decided to plant the tank with water grasses, mosses, and spider wood in a Japanese aquarium style. aquariumarchitecture.com has some beautiful examples, which we were trying to do the amateur version of. Unfortunately, a few days before the new tank's water had cycled and we could introduce him into his new place, Nigel escaped and has never been seen again. We discovered some small gaps in the built in cabinetry, along the floor, that cannot be accessed by anything over newt size, which we believe he went into. We have two cats, and they are both still alive, so we are confident they did not eat him. But it has been over a week and all of the dishes of water we placed all over the apartment are still empty.
Little did we know the escape artistry of the Cynops orientalis. There are many "escaped newt" posts in the forums we've now seen. But we would like to try again, having learned a hard lesson. I know there are some Reptile Conventions and other shows that move around the country. Would you all see this as the best chance to find these little guys? At this point, we would love to buy two. Any suggestions? Of course my budget will move way above $4, and will pay any going rate.
