# Life Happenings



## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Heh, I was hoping to have a more appropriate start to this thread. I just haven't had the chance! Finals week is a killer!

I'll do a quick post. For those who do not yet know, I sadly do not own any bettas right now. I someday would like more. A male, and maybe a sorority(Oh, I love female bettas), but right now that's not going to happen. When it was realized it would cost me as much to set up a 10 g sorority as it will to set up the 55 gallon, let's just say I had a bit of a push to go with the 'better deal'. 

But someday, someday I'll keep my ladies. Hopefully someday soon.

The last few days have been full of school, animals, and studying up to get a 55 gallon tank ready to be cycled! It was last used for a snake and so it needs a looot of cleaning! I keep hearing to either use vinegar and water or bleach and water. Of course I won't do anything til I know for sure. But cleaning that tank is next on the agenda.

The best part is the tank also came with lots and lots of driftwood. Yes that driftwood is dirty, but it can also be cleaned. Woohoo! Already got some tank decor.


People say you need 90% coverage to get a silent cycle, but what does that mean? 90% of the tank is plants? Surely not. I haven't found any pictures explaining what it means. It would help me figure out how many plants to buy. The aquarium store online I was going to buy plants from has a 20g package. But if I buy two, or even three..is that enough just to 'make the tank look good', or is it enough to cycle the tank? Blah blah blah. I just need a reference. Maybe someone will read this and help? :-D


Nagini always looks her best on the days I don't bring my camera. I swear, she does it on purpose. We need a light box! But she's so active I laugh at thinking I could keep her in there! I got some iphone pictures, but they are all a mess because she was flying around the room wanting to look at everything. What a nut! She's so big now. I can't believe she used to fit in my hand! Eventually I'll probably be saying, "I can't believe I used to be able to carry her weight in one hand!" Hehe...She's gonna be a big girl! :lol: :lol:


Back to studying for me!


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

Good luck on your exams! I would just like to make a recommendation take a look at mikeswetpets on aquabid he has an awesome package for a 55 gallon set up for $53 that I ordered and it would be enough in my opinon to cycle your tank for you. His plants are awesome and his customer service is great to here is a picture of my tank so you can see what I got from him. The only thing that was already in my tank was a bananna plant, frogbit at the top, and the piece of water sprite that is almost in the middle along the back it was 21 plants in all there are a few that you can not see because they blend in I am going to be replaceing the brown gravel in a few months with black to help the plants stand out more:


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Awesome! And I was planning on having even more plants than that!  I should end up pretty stable then if that works.

I'm also helping my boyfriend and his sister look for the bearded dragons they really want But good lord are they picky. Nathan wants a solid orange/red monster like this:










And his sister wants a white/yellow beauty like this:











Going to be some serious money! But they'll be the ones paying for it. I'm just here to find them the beardies of their dreams..lol.


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

Wow those are nice!


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

AHA, And I'm sure they are very expensive. The only beardies we see around here are brown and yellow. I have no idea where to find these ridiculous lava colored ones. Oh dear. Well, they'd be the ones paying for them! 

I need to start cooking again. We've been living with my grandmother while we are moving(our new house is a foreclosure..which means we have to wait for the bank to get their act together to finally close on the house and let us move in!) and since we've been here I've just been laaazy. The most I made was a "pizza" using a portabella mushroom as the 'crust' and some spaghetti squash. Other than that I'm just making salads salads salads and sandwiches. But mom keeps trying to buy me frozen veggie meals, but they aren't so good. I'm NOT too big of a fan of the store bought veggie burgers, yuck!! But dude... I make a mean bean burger. :-D I need to make some of those soon.


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

LOL yeah I did not even know that bearded dragons came in different colors. ; ) I eat meat but that bean burger does sound good and I love portabella mushrooms cooked in a little bit of Terriaki Sause.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

I eat meat too, just not much!  I feel too sluggish and lame afterwards. But sometimes I don't mind going after a real burger or one of my grandpa's steaks! But other than that, I'm pretty veggie. It all really depends though, I just happen to like the taste of vegetables the most haha!


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

LOL I love when my dad grills steak and my mom makes baked potatos when I go visit them. MMmmm now I am getting hungry. LOL


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I didn't know they came in different colors. If I was getting into reptiles I would consider beardies. They're fun to watch.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

They are REALLY good ones, decent beginner lizards, though on the expensive side. They need UVB light which must be replaced when the UVB goes out(the light itself may still work), which is about every 6 months? They need a minimum 40 gallon breeder tank or enclosure.. Lots of heat... Greens and bugs... Pricy. But some of the BEST personalities of any lizard, they become like people's children. Very chill, they will just lay back and sit with ya all day.. 

These colors are upwards of 100 dollars though, pricier morphs.. Sometimes the babies who start out brown 'normals' will turn into insane looking adults like this. Sometimes babies born bright turn dull! It's hard to tell, cause their patterns and colors can change so much as they age. But all beardies no matter what color make very fun pets! 



Today I did a massive cleaning of the 5 gallon and rearranged everything a little bit. It's fun seeing what different ways I can set up the tank. But golly is gravel a pain in the butt to clean hahaha.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I read a little about them in one of Petsmart's care brochures and, yeah, the stuff you have to hasve is expensive.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Uhhhm, let me check the petsmart care guide.. I don't usually trust those with reptiles...Also, they like to sell things that are over priced. Most things you can get for reptiles you can get for cheap at lowes.

Okay, yeah, SERIOUS PROBLEM!

Calcium sand=DEATH SENTENCE for reptiles. The amount of calcium in just a little bit of sand is enough to cause an overdose in humans. Constantly breathing in, licking, eating on, living on the sand... That's killed more bearded dragons and leopard geckos than I care to think about. Even regular sand isn't great--they can get a mouthful(thinking they see a bug) and get an impaction--and you can't use epsom salt on a bearded dragon if its constipated! 


40 gallon breeder, yes that's important. But you can get it on their 1 dollar per gallon sales. So 40 bucks! Or cheaper on craigslist sometimes! 

Substrate: go with tile or paper towels. Reptile carpet is pricy, holds bacteria, and little beardie feet get stuck! Sand..we already went over those risks! You can get tile and slate rock for cheap.. When one gets dirty, just pick it up and rinse and clean it in the sink--the replace it! Done.. Paper towel..Just replace the paper towel.

Light: Can't skimp on the uvb. You don't need both a heat light AND a ceramic heat emitter(which is basically an invisible heat light...Causes heat but no light)...The light in the room+the UVB light gives the beardie plenty of light to see.. The ceramic heat emitter gives the beardie the warmth they need! The heat warms up the rocks the beardie sits on and gives him belly heat! 

Also: Never get a heat rock for any reptile! When a heat rock fails--it fails "ON"...meaning it gets hot as heck... Bearded dragons don't have the same heat sensory we do... So if it's laying on that rock...It'll burn..Or even cook. It's not good. Not to mention, having a plug inside an enclosure is asking for an electric shock if it knocks over it's water bowl. A heat rock is more useful if you cut off the cord and use it as a paper weight! Pet stores like to sell them because they can charge a lot for them. They are dangerous though.

The beardie then needs a small water bowl...get a cat dish or something. The rest is up to you. Don't want to spend 30 on a little tiny piece of cage decor? Build it out of styrofoam..and seal it with grout(not the anti fungus grout though). 

Feeding is the most expensive part of owning a bearded dragon, and it gets cheaper when the beardie is an adult. As babies they primarily eat bugs..Bugs get expensive, especially if your only source of bugs are crickets..a big beardie could eat HUNDREDS of crickets! (Thus why some pet stores carry roaches) 

But as they get older they switch to 80% greens. Meaning they lighten up on the bug eating..And greens and veggies aren't so pricy.


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## LittleBettas (Jul 23, 2011)

vegetarian for almost 12 years!
lol, my family had a bearded dragon a few years ago.... awesome dude, they really do have a lot of personality  they do get pricey (thats how we ended up with ours, teenage kid couldnt afford him anymore so gave him to my mom in exchange he could come over and visit.... which he did  )


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks for the info, Purple.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

What fun! We went to the reptile expo today! I got to hold a leachie gecko--the largest gecko species in the world, sometimes reaching as much as 19 inches long, and weighing as much as 400 grams! 

This is my friend holding the same leachie! He's a big guy too..You can see how big this little gecko is! 











We also have been talking more with the guy who owes us money. We think our 'free' pet we'll be getting will be a captive bred trio of red eye croc skinks!










Insect diet, high humidity, and temps between 72-82.. Not too bad.  

We almost considered the leachie, but the one we want will be well over 1000 dollars to get a locality specific 'giant', so we don't think he's willing to give us one of THOSE hahaha! We'll just wait til we can afford one of those beasts! They are cool though--like room temperature, eat the same diet as crested geckos, and get big!


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

Those are some neat looking lizards. LOL


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Oh yes..very neat looking!!! :-D


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Checked out our local petco for the first time. Good news= they don't sell baby bettas. Bad news=the bettas they did have all had severe SBD and just looked kinda sad. Not a happy boy in the whole house. 

I also finally understand what people are saying when they warn against those 'aquatic plants' sold at pet stores. Every last one was a LAND plant. And the plant they called wisteria was NOT wisteria! It looked like catnip actually. They also had succulents for sale..lol. Well, shriveled husks of succulents I guess. Very sad, I don't think they were watered once in the past..well, year? 

now, IN the tanks they actually had a lot of really nice healthy plants. I actually might go back and get some of those, they were a good price too. They had snails on them though so I'll have to keep that in mind and check for them. 


Reptile section...Seemed to be a hit or miss. Some healthy ball pythons, sad looking leopard geckos, a SAVANNAH MONITOR was labeled as a beginner pet and said to only get to 2 feet...They did have a healthy crested gecko for 20 bucks. They also sold thermostats which was surprising and nice. But then they also sold vita sand and calci sand and heat rocks which was disappointing. Our pet co had stopped that.

They did have correct housing for hermit crabs which was SHOCKING. Though all of them had painted shells that were chipping off nastily. 


I bought some new fertilizer because mine had almost ran out. They had a huge section of products for fish care. I was very surprised.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Went back to the awful pet store. That discus fish is STILL THERE...




















Is this a birth defect? An injury? 

They never cleaned out the aquarium all the firebelly toads died in. It's been over taken now!











Sad sad store! Very empty now, they don't seem to be replacing animals when they die.


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Christmas was AMAZING... First off, we did family christmas(extended family)

I got a 25 dollar giftcard to petsmart, and nathan got a 25 dollar gift card there as well! Since we basically share all our pets, that means we have 50 dollars to spend there on anything. So excited.  Food...decorations...fish? Who knows! 

From my parents I got 100 dollars in giftcards to our local aquarium shop that has tons of plants and supplies. O_O that's 100 dollars to spend to make my axolotl tank AMAZING.. I already have the 55 gallon, the light fixture and lights, the large rocks, and the display stand. All I need are two sponge filters and plants plants plants PLANTS!  I can afford to get one of those AMAZING giant pieces of driftwood too!! I have to say I was SHOCKED that i got that card. 

I also got a super macro camera lens that I am so pumped about! Means great pictures of my animal friends! Hehe, since my boyfriend and I have been on a sushi rampage, his family bought me a sushi kit, and my family got me a rice maker. How fun. 

Nathan also got money in cash and we both got Visa gift cards. 


SO many animal supplies will be bought.

I'm thinking of doing a LOT of moss in the axolotl tank. Moss is very low light and low maintenance, but in huge numbers it REALLY helps with ammonia.









First off, I'm planning on doing a moss wall in the back, not over the full back though. Picture the back wall separated into thirds, the edges will be moss wall, and the center will be a cool rock wall/cliff area. 

















For the rock sections, I'm considering sort of a fusion between these two. I like the dark bluish color of the second rocks, but I also like some of the flatness of the first. Might be some elements of both.


As far as plants, I'm planning on most of the tank being dark, but having floating plants that need medium/higher lighting that will also block most of the light down below. That may be a fusion of both fake and live plants if my live plants do not block the light enough.










Above is a good example of a dark tank with the plants up top soaking up most of the light! 


For the most part, I'd like the foreground to be decently simple. I love the look of this--










Maybe instead of some of the smooth rocks, they will match the big rocks in the background.










I love how this above is a tank that is mostly moss. Still looks GREAT though! I'd like to have a lot of coverage like this.


Those are my ideas anyway!  SOOOO excited!!!


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

I am so in LOVE with this little baby tarantula. He or she has started webbing around the hide we gave it like CRAZY! So cute.  They are so much more sweet and adorable than I ever gave them credit for. I was always frightened of them, and even when I wanted one I hated looking at pictures of them. Owning one really changed my view of them!


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

So the little fishie who I am now dubbing Shore Leave(heehee) is now happily swimming in his big tank. Well, more like hiding in the leaves. He's a bit shy, but he's in a new place after being in a store so I don't blame him. Thankfully he happily eats pellets! So no need to convert him or anything. He's really cute and REALLY blue!  When he is more confident I will get a better picture of him!


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