As a young child I already had a fether who had a keen interest in specific areas of troical fish and who would go on to have a pet shop that became, in it's day, quite famous and appearing on several TV programs.
Unfortunately later in life this happened again and not in a very good way.
For me it was a moment when my father was out of the shop and despite all the tropical, coldwater and maribe fish I was surrounded by there were some transparent plastic containers he kept hidden away on to of the tallest aquariums.
Inquisitive by nature I scaled a ladder while my father was absent and my eyes widened at what I discovered.
One box contained a large newt which was marbled black and green with a red stripe, a smaller newt in the second which was blue in colour with silvery flashes and black dots. In the third were four toads a brilliant grass green and underneath black with flashes of fiery red.
These were..
Female Marbled Newt - Triturus marmoratus
Male Alpine Newt - Messotriton alpestris
Oriental Fire Bellied Toads - Bombina orientalis
This later also happened with some Denbrobates (genus name change?) lehmanni a red and black banded member of the Posion Arrow Frog group.
Indeed that time I was caughet red handed and had my ears swiftly flattened by the palm of a hand.
Well they were poisonous!
This was just some of the weird and wonderful things that came to stay for awhile in my father's store and it was like the Jungle Hotel for Exotic Animals...
Foxbats
Celebes Black Apes
Spider Monkeys
Squirrel Monkeys
Mocaques
Macaws
Blue Ringed Octopus
Indian, American Bullfrogs
Cobras
various Birds of Prey
various othe snakes
and what really caught the attention of the newspapers and tv?
A Red Kneed Tarantula called Miranda!!
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