Pondering a return to keeping

[apoplast]

At one point, back in the wild west of the late 1990's, I kept and bred amphibians when I was a kid. I mostly kept newts and salamanders, but I had a few dart frogs (or "poison arrow frogs" back then) and a tree frog or two. I liked breeding them, though I am learning that what I thought was a feather in my cap back then, can be considered to be pretty pedestrian by today's standards. I bred my darts and my red-eyed tree frogs - standard fare for today. For caudates I managed to breed my smooth newts, my eastern newts, my alpine newts, my fire salamanders... All things that I'm getting the sense are no longer considered tough to do. Which is good!

I started keeping darts again a couple years ago and I was blown away by the advances in the hobby! I can only imagine the advances in husbandry techniques and understanding that have happened with these critters too. And I am eager to learn! But I will beg your patience with me. I don't know the new stuff yet. I want to care for any animals I get with the best conditions possible, but I'm going to ask dumb questions, say things that I don't know are no longer considered standard or acceptable for care, and sound totally out of touch at first. My "wild west" comment earlier wasn't just because I am old (though I now am - I mean the only way I'm getting described as young at this stage of my life is if I die). It was also because I was the wild west. We got imports in, and bought them. I thin did as much research as I could to build them a proper enclosure with the right land/water ratio and went from there. But nobody I knew was keeping amphibians in any serious way. In fact, one of the local pet stores hired me because they were selling these things and had no advice to give to customers about care! But anything I did felt like feeling my way forward in the dark.

I didn't keep mixed species enclosures. Probably because I knew fish breeders kept single species tanks to breed stuff, and I wanted to breed them. I kept them in fairly large tanks for the time; a little mole salamander would get like a 20 gallon long tank (hard to find back then!), and my newt colonies would get like a 35 long (which I don't think are made any longer) or a 55 gallon tank. I built epoxy back drops with rocks for dripwalls and ledges (having Tap Plastics down the road was a boon!), and used live plants. I hope none of that is too out of date. But my terrestrials got potting soil, but live plants and leaf litter, so maybe that still wasn't the worst. Still, everything was in aquariums, because as far as I knew, there were no front opening vivariums. I mean even the reptile folks used aquariums back then!

Apologies that this has gotten so long! I just wanted to give some context for when I inevitably say something that is off. Something that sounds like I am advocating for care that is now recognized to be substandard. Or worse that is now known to be unethical. Please know, I am not trying to do that. I am drawing from experiences, some of which will carry forward well and others that very much will not. But which fall into which category will not yet be clear to me. And this is why I thank everyone for their patience with me!

 

[minorhero]

Welcome back, the dart frog hobby has changed a lot since the 90s with misting systems being common breeding conditions being much better understood. The newt hobby has not changed as much due to it being a much smaller community. Once you decide on a species you can get into more specific information, but generally speaking if you are keeping an aquatic species (alpines, eastern, firebelly, etc) keeping them totally aquatic and in the 60s is pretty standard. Some folks provide a floating bit of cork bark as an emergency haulout, but honestly after a few months of doing that for my alpines and them never using it, I removed it and haven't regretted that decision. So long as you keep up with your water changes so your water remains clean and your temperature remains cold, your newts will be happy.

 

[apoplast]

Thanks for the kind welcome and reassurance, @minorhero ! I have an idea of what I am after, but I'm still researching them. I've got a 75gal I can devote to a nice setup. Well, nice I hope!