MESSAGE TO CARRA GRAESER

This moron has accused me of being fake and the blogs and photos not mine?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear .. YES THIS IS MINE AND I DID GO TO SOUTHERN ITALY!!

Yo can lead a horse to water but yo cannot make them drink, but you can make them look like an opportunistic tool though!!

EYELASH AGAIN

https://www.flickr.com/gp/89426160@N05/3E8t30

EYELASHES AND THE REEDS

Been awhile ..

Probably be on and off for a bit due to a whole set of unseen circumstances, some health revelations many of which are very potentially fatal that include cancer, sudden death syndrome, heart problems, Autism, blood clots and several deficiencies that cause some of the aforementioned and others.

There ha also been some media stuff .. well as it turns out somewhat earlier than expected. We knew of one that was coming we had a date for. We knew of another definite one but no date and we are aware there are to be many others over the course of the next year or so. But the one we had no date for kind of came a few weeks earlier than the others one and completely out of the blue.

Currently that is on the cover of Love It Magazine, to which we have a copy of each and others have or are finding out about.

By the end of June there will be another one and this is a completely different subject but also just as horrific and it will take a dozen or more of these .. publications to unveil the whole truth.

Including those reasons behind why I have taken so bloody long to do anything with some of my blogs, such as this one.

In the meantime ..

A friend of mind has been breeding Shovel Nosed Tree Frogs (Yucatan?) of the latin Triprion petasatus.

He also has some Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs .. would be damn cool if he breeds those!

A new Hyperolius .. concolor I think? I was expecting to see Hyperolius taeniatus which I thought he was picking up but turns out he was not but that the guy he met does have them.

So here are some pictures ..

https://www.flickr.com/gp/89426160@N05/ZM3ggy

THE LONG PAUSE

I have had a serious issue going on for seven months now.

It should have not gone on this long but it did.

There was delay after delay and I am not even sure why, with most if not all of them.

As I stated on my corruption blog .. it will mean some big changes when it occurs and will mean that I can buy a shed load of things that are for professionals, like camera equipment.

But before I could buy anything else I needed something that would help me acquire these other tools, of which there is a long list.

Of course one of the other issues I have had is that I use my mountain bike for a lot of work and .. well the weather has been dreadful for me and my health condition. My condition does not like it when it is hot and humid and it was exactly that of late.

Well .. that is until it turned to rain and last night I could heard this horrendous and loud noise and I thought 'That sounds like really, really heavy rain but that kind of rain I have not witnessed before!'

I got up and looked out my window and I think many local Indian people could be forgiven for thinking they had been teleported back to India in he middle of a monsoon!

Anyway yeah so I needed the bike and as has been the case for years now .. if it is really hot, raining or even just a wind stronger than 10mph then getting anything done wildlife wise, or anything else for that matter .. is impossible!

But ..

.. not anymore!

As I stated previously .. many tools to come! Lol!!

Hmm a host of new shops, countries and breeders can now be reached by me! LMAO!

ALPINE NEWTS COURTING - Mesotriton alpestris alpestris

I made another stupid error and without realising it, until after an hour searching for newt eggs, I realised I had lost some newts that had gone walkabout.

I was left with a single plump female Alpine Newt that was plump with eggs and I had just spent an hour looking for what turned out to be infertile eggs! Dumb-arse!

Anyway I picked up a male from someone I know, as the female still looked plump, and I plonked him in the tank.

Only immediately I noticed the female rushing across the tank towards him and at first I just assumed she saw the movement and thought he was potential food?

But I decided to watch and when she got up to him she nudged at his cloaca region continuously and I grabbed the camera. He immediately started tail fanning her, where he came out of a cage 3 minutes before with no tail fanning going on. Then to my surprise she started tail fanning him?!

I had not seen this behaviour in any female newt beforehand and I have been doing this a very long time.

I had figured that I had come across a unique event which was bought about by a very plump female wanting to lay the rest of her eggs who had spent a whole winter with no male and no scent of a male in her aquarium. I had emptied the water out twice so there would not have been any scents at all in the water.

Then with her fit to burst and had already laid half a dozen female eggs I drop in a male Alpine Newt still in condition, mostly, and she must have picked up his scent and rushed over to him.

He had come out of another tank that had several other Alpine Newts of both sexes and I had not seen any courting going on at all but yet after having his cloaca nudged and a little tail fanning from the female his immediately started tail fanning her!

They then spent a long time following each other around the small aquarium they live in.

I guess I will get fertile eggs from these two after all?

I have several pictures for viewers and I even have a video of that female tail dance ...

PYRENEAN FIRE SALAMANDERS (S.s. fastuosa) - IMMATURE

After a lengthy hiatus caused by health issues brought about by a couple of evil UK public services I am ... back.

After 2016 got ruined in so many ways by so many different people I now plan to get my content not only back to to where I was, frequency wise, two years ago but fully intend to go way beyond that even.

I have had several things in development but did not want to say too much about them previously and I still do not want to say too much.

Among many things there are two main ones and these are now both inevitable and the one that will bring about the biggest changes by far I am now in the period of which it could end. This is an 8 to 12 week period and I could be theoretically into week 10. So it could finalise in two weeks.

However ... more a subject for my corruption blog and at a later date ... another evil failed public service refuses to state if they are working on this when they are working on it or even when it is likely to end. When you realise what it is you will ask yourself why in the world they are refusing to release this information. Trust me on that and even my landlord and landlady are absolutely dumbstruck about their attitude believing I have every right to be told.

It is not just me and there are at least 8 of us in the exact same boat.

I also have something else ending in about four to eight weeks and I hope the two things coincide but I hope to at least be informed about the former before the latter ends.

When the details of this one are realised it will become obvious some major changes are going to take place but I am not sure how much and in theory, at least, these changes could well be humongous. But for an unknown criminal factor. Lol.

The other of the two things will also bring about its own changes too and it has already motivated me into action.

Even today I will shortly be off out to acquire content to be uploaded to various blogs and my YouTube channel.

I have still been up to many things ... just my actions and endeavours took a wild hit during 2016 ... but ...

Anyone recall the Giant Pyrenean Fire Salamanders I own giving birth? Well here is a video of two of those now not so youngsters ...

The bigger one in thew video is at least 4 inches long.

There are three, was four but stupid schoolboy error cost me one of them.

Also keeping an eye on adults as in around a month or two new babies should appear, more than there was last year and a great deal healthier this time around.

PEREZ'S FROG LARVAE & OTHERS

The paired up Perez's Frogs did actually lay eggs in my friend's shop in Enfield.

They have also now not only hatched but were free swimming when I was in there next.

Here are a few videos which includes some Iguanas, Chameleon and a Glass Lizard ...

A Glass Lizard ...

A Veiled Chameleon, or Yemen Chameleon ...

Couple of Green Iguanas ...

PEREZ'S FROG IN AMPLEXUS (Pelophylax perezi)

In a friends store he has some unusual looking Perez's Frogs without much blotching, if it all and I need to look close.

These have gone into amplexus and might breed.

I might raise some youngsters if they do?

Once again this is a store in Baker Street in Enfield.

SOME THINGS AT A FRIEND'S STORE

If your into Budgies and Lovebirds .... especially interested in breeding Budgies and Lovebirds ... a friend has got a hold of a breeding flock of each from another friend in his store.

This is in Baker Street in Enfield.

SOME THINGS AT A FRIEND'S HOUSE

An aquarium and a few Salamandra salamandra terrestris larvae, with some fastuosa in there somewhere.

COMMON SNAPPING TURTLE EATING MOUSE

A friend of mine got hold of this Common Snapper who then sold it to another friend of mine who put it in a one metre long tank. Same tank I have as a terrarium for my Fire Salamanders.

SOME NEW SHOP FISH

A few fish at my mates shop in Enfield ..

Some small to medium size Angels, always a popular fish among tropical fish enthusiasts ..

While you there why don't you P-P-P-P-Pick up a Penguin?! (groaner I know!)

THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOL NIKON P900

After a long, long wait and my Sony Cybershot being technically broken for about 6 months I have finally gotten around to replacing it!

My Sony has a 50x zoom, which I cannot use anything close to any longer and has now been relegated to being permanently attached to a tripod for filming in the house. As short range it can still manage to do.

After an arduous journey and battle with London's public transport, some stupid mistakes and several times where I had to stop and hand near my pocket to grab my phone and call for an ambulance, I managed to somehow struggle through it and find the camera!

Rather oddly I had left the address behind of the Camera World store I was aiming for and though I knew its rough location I was a bit worried about ending up in hospital so headed for faithful old Jessops!

Before even exiting the station at Russell Square on the way there I was slumped against a wall on a staircase!

Only when I got to where Jessops was the last time I was in there ... it was not there!

That is the other problem with Fibromyalgia ... memory problems! I had forgotten to take the address to Camera World with me and never thought of checking to see if Jessops was still at the location it was when I was last in the in New Oxford Street! Dumb-arse!

I do not know if the slumping against the wall ore the burning, tingling feelings I had for thirty minutes afterwards was anything to do with Fibromyalgia, lack of blood pressure pills or something else? Or just an unfit bastard? Was a bit rough though, which means a lot of i say that.

Walking up Oxford Street instead of heading back into Tottenham Court Road, where some loom directed me, I walked past some scaffolding and there was a PC World! I know, I know I have had a refurbished item from them and it could have happened again. But I just wandered in just to see if they had a display one. They did. It was huge!

I saw an older gentleman who looked Indian standing  looking miserable. I got the impression he might not be happy as all the younger sales people probably intercepted any sales and I asked "Well you look like your not doing much?"

After initial shock someone asked him something and walking him tot he camera I asked if they had any in stock. They did. He got the box out, I checked for any seals over the lid of the box, dead give-away to refurbished items, and there were none.

Often there are these little seals that are clear but when pulled off say the word 'void' in gold that magically appear.

I had these on three Nikon cameras I bought a few years back from Argos. Nikon do not put any seals on their box and Argos swore blind they did not do it and stated it was Nikon. Wrong.

I also had an Olympus camera that went wrong in a line of consecutively received and amounting to four cameras from Argos.

I had one professional Corsair Vengeance Keyboard with a large dent in the aluminium base plate from PC World, just in case you were wondering. Oddly the Roccas Ryos keyboard I exhhanged that one for and around 8 months down the line started missing keystroke now and then and also adding one, or even bloody two extra keystrokes! So I guess we can safely take a stab in the dark about where that came from?

To be fair the Sony Cybershot came from PC World and that was new. It ias also the only thing that I have bought that has worked flawlessly for well over two years until it got dropped on its head and it still works to a degree!

Anyhoo ...

Thought you would like to see the new camera?

Nikon Coolpix P900 ....

FULLY DEVELOPED PYRENEAN FIRE SALAMANDER BIRTH

It would appear that an opinion I had regarding the large form of Pyrenean Fire Salamanders from several years ago is wrong.

Several of the Salamandra genus give birth to fully formed baby salamanders (i.e. minus gills and terrestrial). But these are all smaller species of Salamandra atra, Salamandra atra aurorae, Salamandra bernardezi, Salamandra alfredschimdti, Salamandra lanzai and an undescribed one, as far as I know, from Northern Morroco, Ceuta, otherwise described as Salamandra algira.

I should point out that I am aware of at least four, seem to recall a fifth, different Fire Salamanders from North Africa from one small one with yellow like bernardezi like qualities, a very nice largely cherry red and yellow large form from the Atlas mountains of Morroco, an almost completely black one I have seen and a rather long and gangley one from near Algeria.

I had not known of a larger type of Salamandra salamandra to produce fully formed young ... until now with my Salamandra salamandra fastuosa. I should now point out that there are two very different forms of fastuosa. Both have continuous bands running from the head to the tails. One smaller with uniform bands and one much bigger and with yellow spots and markings breaking up the black bands. The yellow bands are normally wider than the smaller form too.

I have always noted that in these forms the yellow is always noticeably greater in width in the males than the females.

Well after checking my terrarium for more larvae something was spotted on my peripheral vision and I thought "well if I did not know better I would have sworn that was a young salamander!" only when I shifted and looked down ... it was! Lol.

So I managed to find five of them, though one was still-born, and exposed one pair of the adults with the female looking particularly bulbous!

Here is a video ..

BIRTH OF PYRENEAN FIRE SALAMANDERS (Salamandra salamandra fastusoa) LARGE FORM

Well I seem to be getting things done without actually focusing on them!

In my terrarium I noticed a male putting in a daytime showing, a little odd unless they are ... amorous, and then a females tail dangling over the edge of the pond area.

The ferns, particularly the Maidenhair Fern, was a little overgrown and I could only see a small part of the actual body of water. Still I looked through the small gap anyway and as I peered carefully I thought I could make out the outline of a very small head submerged in the water. As I was looking intently to see if this might be what I thought it was I noticed a banana like shape that had four structures at either and and thought 'they are legs! I am sure of it!' and due to the angle not belonging to the head shape I first spotted.

So I decided to go in and have a look but then thought about setting up the camera on a tripod, to get a video of me guessing and then pulling out any salamander larvae, or tadpoles.

Sure enough I was correct in my assumptions and the video got uploaded, now I am uploading other videos on me getting into vaping! Yes I went from cigarettes to vaping recently and am quite hooked on all the technology available, as you will se in the next two posts, lol.

Anyway here are just two videos of a male Pyrenean (or Lourdes) Fire Salamander and then the one of my netting out some babies with their feathery gills, think tiny Axolotls as that is in essence, waht they are .. well .. sort of, just different species, lol ..

Male making daylight appearance ...

Me fishing out salamander larvae I think I spotted the outlines of lol ...

BUILDING A TERRARIUM FOR SALAMANDERS (Part 3 of 3)

OK so there might be a fourth part to this but I will call it an update.

As I was looking and filming what was supposed to be the finished article I saw ... things I would like to ... alter and others I would like to add.

Well .. I did not find my Button Fern at any rate and might not be for a couple of months yet so was never really going to be finished quite so soon anyway.

So what I have done thus far to .. almost .. finish the terrarium off is ..

• Add a one metre long moss covered log to the back at the top, tied with cable ties onto a support
• Add a Mentha alpine plant to the right hand side in front of the boggy area near front glass
• Add a Thymus alpine plant to the left side on the right of the cork cave entrance
• Add a semi-aquatic/aquatic plant, Hemianthus or Baby Tears, to the boggy area itself
• Add a few Lichen covered branches and couple ore Moss covered logs
• Spun the Rabbit Tracks Prayer Plant around to get more light to other areas and show the leaves off better

So it is .. mostly done.

As well as wanting to add the Button Fern ... that ... Prayer Plant being tropical is bugging me. So I might replace it with a bigger Fern ... or something else? We will see what turns up on y radar.

I am also looking at some types of aquatic moss, like Versicularia ferrieii or the one called Christmas Moss, cannot remember Latin. I have Versicularia dubyana in my metre long aquarium that grows quite well and may have some in the garden, I may use that? It can grow out of water too and changes to look like a normal Moss. Might use it to cover the last bits of plastic.

Also I am not too happy with some of the cork tiles showing either ... a little too much in places. I might attach a plant, or plants, that will sort of drape down the back. Weeping Fig or similar?

Doing this caused me some hassle with my ... afflictions, lol. But that is to be expected when something you do not see for years that you want suddenly becomes available!

I might have had to wait another couple of years or travel to a show in Europe to acquire these Pyrenean Fire Salamanders myself. Provided they were the right form that is. The other forms are nice ... but these are just so much bigger and better looking and have more yellow.

Trust me when I say I got the runts of the pack as many had been offered what was available before I got mine.

Maybe a year from now I might have many youngsters to grow on and periodic updates ... or more correctly 'uploads' of films to YouTube to show this will be taking place?

I do not know if I will add any other species to this terrarium ... it is possible but to have something I find interesting enough to buy that likes this environment will be ... rare. Young European Tree Frogs or better Stripeless Tree Frogs, Hyla meridionalis, is the only real possibility.

I do like some of the Ensatina's from North America and the Painted one, escholtzii, would be damned nice!

Hmm and another cage set up for Atelopus? Damn it! No, no, no! Not yet anyway, lol. God knows where I would get a hold of Atelopus! Had some years ago, love the things.

It is a bad time of year to find anything else.

However I would like to go to Europe in the Spring, 2016, and meet a few people and bring back a few select species. Need a bigger house, though!

Remember water, or rather where you get it, is vital to keeping the plants, or at least many of them, growing and healthy. Rain water collected into a large container using a device that costs around £6 to £8 and attaches to your drain pipes, if they are plastic that is. Then add a little liquefied Seaweed plant feed.

If I can use Seaweed on Orchids with great effect then you can use it on anything. I also use the Seaweed and the Orchid food in my aquarium, much to one brother's shock. No chemicals you see.

Anyway here is the video of the almost finished article ..

BUILDING A TERRARIUM FOR SALAMANDERS (Part 2 of 3)

Still bored stiff ... still waiting for something to happen that keeps failing to occur.

Wonder if I should just call it? Time is running out but that is still counted in weeks, just about, lol. I have been thinking about this weekend a great deal. Maybe I sense something, perhaps?

Well I was at it again due to the boredom.

Doing this really did me some damage and after I id this second piece I had a pain in my left leg but till went out into the mud and wet to get the last bits!

So I place a layer of bark chips on the bottom and then cover that with mos peat. I then put a third layer and mix that up with peat surface areas with leaf litter, oak and beech, and bark chip surface areas.

The pond and bog to the right, made using two different size Stewart humidity trays, without drain holes of course. The pond now has a rock and a small piece of cork so insects can climb out. This way they do not all die in the water fouling it up.

More moss covered wood was found and placed within it.

I add some more bits that will more or less finish it off, short of a couple specific types of plant, in the third part. Unfortunately I had everything there ready to film and my camera battery died. Odd as I was sure it was full a few days beforehand?

So the third film I am just going to show the whole thing before zooming in and panning round to show the last bits I added.

If I manage to get the other couple plant types I will do another short video of them, maybe me adding them in if I remember?

The Pyrenean Fire Salamanders are what live in this terrarium which is 100cm x 46cm and probably about 50cm tall. Hmm ... about 52cm to be more accurate, lol.

BUILDING A TERRARIUM FOR SALAMANDERS (Part 1 of 3)

I am awaiting something to happen.

While waiting I am finding myself bored to absolute death! The weather is being a right bitch and I have not been able to go out cycling. I really do not know what is going on with the weather it is so bloody miserable and has been for so long. There has been one day of sunshine in weeks and it looked weird when I did get it.

However I found myself, or rather bought, acquiring a couple of pairs of Giant Pyrenean Fire Salamanders, Salamandra salamandra fastuosa. I had not foreseen these being offered to me and after selling off a pair to a Fire Salamander and Axolotl loving friend of mine years ago I had to get them.

Not seen them in ten years and probably would not for another ten years!

I was not happy with the aquarium/terrarium I had placed them in and was on the lookout for something much bigger.

A bow fronted aquarium appeared in a friend's pet shop and another friend talked me into getting it and a bit bigger than I was after too. It measure one metre long by 40 to 50 cm tall and 46 cm in width. I then realised I could use the height to pile up some logs of wood and cork bark for them to have plenty of hidey holes and choice of homes so bought it.

The friend who talked me into it was excited because he wanted to see what I would do with it, knowing I had flair for design and do so well with my amphibians, orchids, mosses and other things.

While I was picturing how I would set it up in my head I thought it would be a good idea and maybe informative to video myself setting it up.

I did this after glueing three cork sheets onto the back glass and some wood, cork and bark chips glued onto that to have like a tree trunk looking back wall.

It is almost finished now and I only really want to add what they call a Button Fern plant to the terrarium. I might add some orchids?

There is a pond area and surrounding that is a bog area and I use a couple of different size Stewart seed trays to achieve that.

I also have a Rabbit Tracks Prayer Plant in there with a couple of Alpine plants, Thymus and one that smells of Pepper ... or was it Peppermint? I forget.

Some local Moss and Lichen covered logs were collected to adorn the terrarium along with some dried Oak and Birch leaves scattered about to good effect.

Oh and there is another type of fern I cannot recall the name of, lol.

I will make remarks about what I do with certain things in the videos so if your not clued up and want to know things then I would listen carefully.

For instance most people do not think about things like light and even water, water is just water right? Wrong! If you want to keep the plants, mosses and lichen growing and looking good then you have to get the right type of water.

For instance Mosses grown on wood mostly or on patches where there is little nutrients and food. It grows in grass a lot because grass gobbles up most of the feed and nutrients. You get it in your guttering and can have it on your roof too. So ask yourself what does it get where it is?

Rain water. This has no salts in it that tap water is loaded with, like lime, calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. Each of which it is not that fond of.

To give you an example ... Drosera or Sundews just like Venus Fly Traps, cannot remember latin name, will die if given tap water. They have to have rain water or reverse osmosis water which has little to nothing in it. Because it lives in places where there is so little fertilizer and nutrients that it has evolved to eat insects to get them!

That is why they are called and are carnivorous plants. They are one extreme and then you can go all the way to the other extremes and find plants that love hard, alkaline soils and substrates.

Mosses and lichens are not truly plants as such but their likes with water are more down the Carnivorous Plants end of the spectrum. They also need some light too. All plants need light, even aquatic ones as well as seaweed.

So I use rain water.

Anyhoo I did some videos and here is one I uploaded ...

GIANT BANDED FIRE SALAMANDER (EATING A SLUG)

Well been a long time since I had these guys and I am so glad I have them again.

I love Fore Salamanders and this form of Salamandra salamandra fastuosa (giant form) is fantastic and one of the top three or four Fire Salamanders for looks, colour and pattern.

I have a few other videos I am going to do on these and some Giant Fire Bellied Toads (Grobina (Bombina) maximaa) another Bombina and some Parsley Frogs (Pelodytes punctatus) among others.

I went out and collected some slugs to give these a treat as these guys love them and can smell the thing even. I saw one male out and him nose own with the scent and did not think immediately to grab the camera. I then started filming and you could not see the salamander so I then stopped filing and grabbed a pen that had a torch built in to be able to see him.

Here is the video of him devouring a slug ...

ARAIPAMA - ALYTES & EUPROCTUS PLATYCEPHALUS

Possibly?

Was or is the biggest freshwater fish in the world ...

Unless that strange thing caught in the Yellow River has been found and classified? Oh and MEASURED!

Nice to see these and a bit if a surprise too!

I must go back, hopefully in the next 4 to 6 weeks, and take a better camera as there were many things I did not expect top see.

Better still would be to speak to people behind the scenes about their Alytes muletensis and Euproctus, or Callotriton or whatever they are now, platycephalus breeding programmes!

Plus any others I missed!

Majorcan Midwife Toad larvae - Alytes muletenis ..

Euproctus, or Callotriton, platycephalus ..