More Pets!

I mentioned, several weeks previously, to several co-workers that I thought turtles were abyssmal pets - fussy to care for, tedious, and expensive. The smallest species of turtle I'm aware of grows nearly two feet in diameter and needs a tank of several hundred litres with additional special requirements to be properly kept.

I did, however, mention a fondness for tortoises (I was thinking European Box Tortoises), and low and behold, someone has come up with a pair of C. carbonaria Red Legged Tortoises for the store to carry and maintain for a while.

Tortoises are free-roaming pets indoors, so long as they have sufficiently warm areas to bask. They're "land turtles", in essence. And the price we have for them is fantastically inexpensive.

A few articles ago, I posted a picture of a school of baby Pink Tailed Chalceus. We've since acquired an adult, nearly two feet long, who went in with the Monster Tank where he could live and be relatively happy with a Green Terror, a trio of spotted Clarius catfish, and a Red Tail catfish. This might be the single biggest species of caracin I've ever seen.

Bunnies are in, just in time for Easter  but I caution all of you not to buy pets as holiday presents unless the recipient has expressed an interest in having one.

For the record, "Mommy/daddy, I want a-" is not sufficient interest to merit attention. Pets, even rabbits, require sufficient research before and during care that their care is equivalent, more or less, to a moderately calm child. It is a daily, ongoing chore that you are adding to someone's schedule and you should be prepared to step in and take over if its standards of care turn out to be substandard.

A number of baby Savannah Monitors have been delivered to us. These fearsome lizards reach over three feet in length, have a viscousness about them, and act like perfectly adorable little puppes if appropriately hand-tamed and acclimated to human handling.

As a result, "play with the Savannah Monitors" actually appears on my nightly list of work-related tasks. Go figure.

 I finally have my own photo of Thai Glass Catfish to use on the previous Fish Profile article, so expect to see that updated presently.

For the record, I've heard some complaints that "they belong in schools of six or more" is a good way to bolster sales. While this happens to be true, it's not why I (or my coworkers) say it. It's because they belong in schools of six or more, and isolate individuals often refuse to eat and die a month or two later of otherwise perfectly preventable starvation.

This little guy (click to enlarge) is special. He's a PacMan Frog - a blue one. The blue colour strain was not isolated until relatively late in the 90s in captive breeding programs and, until now, has really only been seen in Asia, particularly in Japan, where these frogs are highly popular pets.

We have the first pair in New Brunswick. Period.