Video: Frog, Chemical, Water, YOU

That's really intresting, Thanks for sharing John. Some of those mutations where pretty strange.
 
Thanks for posting!

My question : what are some of the chemicals and practices we employ in newtkeeping (and aquarium keeping) that could potentially harm the environment?

E.g.
Malachite Green
Activated Carbon
Dechlorinators
greatstuff
 
That was a little depressing, but a nice composite of current information.
 
Malachite green is toxic to all caudates to some degree so you should probably not be using that anyhow. In any case, it's reactive and unless you are releasing significant amounts of it into the environment it is unlikely to pose a threat. Aside from that, the rest of the things on your list aren't toxic. Great stuff is completely inert - the problem with it is that it is not really biodegradable.

I think you need to look at pollution from the standpoint of your whole life rather than just your hobby. For example, the surfactants in most washing-up liquids are harmful to some degree. Probably the biggest issue for American households at least (they are far more active at recycling on average in much of the rest of the western world, but far worse in the developing world) is plastic container waste. Everything from the plastic film around DVD boxes to the plastic of a milk container is a huge problem in terms of how much it costs to produce (energy use, carbon dioxide emission), what is used to produce it (many plasticizers, the chemicals used to change the malleability of the plastic, are pseudo estrogens), to how long it takes to biodegrade (in the case of most plastics, they take far too long to begin to degrade in landfills).

I could talk about this subject for a few hours so I will try not to get carried away and leave it there.
 
Thanks for posting!

My question : what are some of the chemicals and practices we employ in newtkeeping (and aquarium keeping) that could potentially harm the environment?

E.g.
Malachite Green
Activated Carbon
Dechlorinators
greatstuff

Another way to spin this comment is looking at the great care we go through to ensure that our newts/sallies live in a toxic free and healthy environment. We tightly monitor aqueous levels of N2, PO4-, pH..., wash hands before handling newts to avoid chemical exposure, issue quarantines on new animals, and even take measures to make sure their food sources are as nutrient rich as possible. But how many of us think twice about about the things that we'd never put in our aquarium, but will contently put down the drain or in the trash.

One of my personal kicks is the great care that I go through to try to add "healthy compost" to my worm bin. However I won't add bleached/inked paper, etc. In essence, it's saying that the paper's not good enough for my salamanders, but it is good enough for the worms and their predators "out there". Even though I'm aware that the health of the population "out there" is far more important to my ability to keep a microscopic fragment of that population "in here".
 
N2 is nitrogen.
 
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