Pet Suggestions

[Vertmorpheus]

I have a new favourite pet... it asks little, gives much, and I am not even sure if it knows I exist. It cleans up after itself, and everything it shares its lil world with, is the only survivor from a hatch of a few hundred young, radiates an air of zen tranquility and is the least offensive creature in existance.

All hail the Aquatic Snail.

any other recommended pets, aside from the usual garden shitting, leg humping, shoulder clawing suspects?

Oh, the free range forest roaches are nice too, look like a roach, behave like a mantis... hide in the firewood and then spend a week commandoing around the loungeroom trying to blend in with polished boards.

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[Teotzlcoatl]

Kangaroo rat.

My dad had one... he said they could jump well over 4 feet staight into the air... but my dad's kind of a bullshitter

Edited August 26, 2008 by Teotz'

[Torsten]

For a moment I thought this must be an australian species, but to my surprise it isn't!

I find it kinda weird how people in europe and the USA are allowed to keep australian native animals [which were bred in captivity], yet we can't do that in australia. There is something not quite right when you are allowed to keep noxious animals as pets, but not native ones. In Victoria they've relaxed a lot of the native animal laws and there are quite a few you can now keep. I think a native animal would be the obvious choice.

[apothecary]

Triops.

Along the lines of the aquatic snail, but with less care involved and the bonus of being one of the oldest crustaceans on earth. I think their fossil record is 350m years.

There is also a native species to pander to patriotic hippy pet keepers like Torsten however I believe its life cycle is somewhat shorter than the European species making it less viable as a bucket-o-pets.

You can usually buy them these days anywhere you can get Sea Monkeys aka Brine Shrimp. They are the same deal with the cryptobiosis eggs and then they hatch and wander about but they're something like 10 times larger than the Brine Shrimp which is what actually makes them a much more interesting pet! You can see what they're up to...

The Chinese and Vietnamese raise grasshoppers as pets I think.

[baphomet]

The Chinese and Vietnamese raise grasshoppers as pets I think.

Are you sure they're not farming them for food?

Edited August 26, 2008 by baphomet

[apothecary]

Pretty sure. Also, after a bit of googling, seems it was crickets, not grasshoppers.

http://www.insects.org/ced3/chinese_crcul.html

[nabraxas]

seems it was crickets

i believe they are kept for their song & for fighting

The cricket culture in China dates back 2000 years and encompasses singing insects and fighting crickets. During the Tang Dynasty from 500 BC to 618 AD, the crickets were respected for their powerful ability to “sing”. It was during this time that they started being captured and kept in cages so their songs could be heard all the time. In the Song Dynasty from 960 to 1278 AD, a new sport was developed called “cricket fighting”.

http://www.asianartmall.com/cricketcagearticle.htm

[Vertmorpheus]

Aquatic Snail... ultimate in Cool. Animantrated animals, very peaceful.

"There is something not quite right when you are allowed to keep noxious animals as pets, but not native ones."

I think that becomes an issue of what do we reckon can spread faster, further and most ferociously... some intro'd animal, or every other bogan with a cat trap and some spare time hunting up "pets" for resale.

Many of our more intersting animals are nocturnal or pretty close to it too, so whilst a narrow nosed planigale would make a cool pet, it'd only be cool when the lights were off

Like the wildlife place at the Gap in Brissie...gold coins to get in, to see a bunch of dozing furballs at one with their heat bulbs haha.

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[Genesis]

I recently got a Phlogius "Sarina", a type of Aussie tarantula. Very cool pet, no noise, no smell, nothing. All it does is hide all day. Feed her once a week, one roach or grasshopper wait till she's done and take the remains away. Let her do her thing for another week. She is awsom.

Also when people come over you can drag her out and show her off. Every body loves a spider.

They live up to 25 years and my one could possibly grow as large as 18cm's.

If I were so inclined I could get a male, breed her, and sell the offspring for 30 bucks each. Note that an egg sack can contain thousands of eggs...

Gen

[paradox]

i went & visited my relo's in tassie recently & my aunty was showing me her fish tank. she's right into bushwalking & all & everytime she goes for a walk to a new place she simply brings back a bottle of water from a creek or something & pours it into her tank, then over the next couple of weeks she just watches all the life emerge.

it's amazing the amount of small fish, snail & macro-invertebrate eggs which hatch from a single bottle of water, not to mention the algae's & macrophytes etc.

i thought this was such a great idea. every different place that the water is collected the life is so different & you never know what you're gonna get. great if you've got kids too i reckon.

[Plantsoma]

Heres my shingleback lizards:

They're really lazy and placid. They don't like humidity much though.

[watertrade]

[Vertmorpheus]

haha, love the rock, but I hear they like to have a warm lizard to sit on during the day!

I have another pet, a combo of the rock and Sinas lil mug wrigglers, it's a fossilised Ammonite (prehistoric mud snail thing)... all the pet, all the rock, and it fits right in my pocket. It's getting a bit long in the tooth at a few million years old but I look forward to plenty of good times with Rocky :D

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