[FinnickHog]

Since I have things scattered all over the place, as is typical with me, I thought I'd just start fresh with a properly titled thread. (If you mods want to lock the others feel free!) So here goes.

First off, a thread introducing my pets that I had when I joined the forum: Pictures of My Pets.

After that, I added some new members, and that happens over here: New Family Members.

Here's a running total of everything I have right this second:
1 African Pygmy Hedgehog, male, Finnick, 1.5 years old
1 Australian Cattle Dog, male, Oz, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Senegal parrot, female, Pepper, 3 yo.
1 Blue Tongued Skink, female, Rocket, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Ball python, unconfirmed male, Illidan, 7 and a half yo.
1 Mexican black kingsnake, male, Sherlock, 3 yo.
1 Green tree python, male, Akihiko, Estimated 2-3 yo.
1 Veil tail betta, male, Keitan, 5 months old.
2 Tiger salamanders, one wild, one bought, unknown sex, Squee and Shaw, Estimated ages 2yo and 1 yo.
3 Crested Geckos, two female, one male, Nanamo, Mordin, and Grunt, all 1 yo.
3 Dwarf blue day geckos, two male, one female, Skaro, Lil Dude, and Kaylee, estimated ages for Skaro and Kaylee 4 yo. Lil Dude is 6 months old.
7 Dendrobates auratus "El Cope" poison dart frogs, two female, three male, two juveniles. All named after Adventure Time characters, Adults estimated 2 yo. Juveniles are 3 months old.
1 Saltwater fish tank. Contents: corals, pistol shrimp, hermit crabs, snails. All brand new.

Pets with estimated ages were either adopted later in their lives, rescued, or wild caught/farmed and imported. I've had a vet as well as an importer help me get as close as possible to everyone's actual ages.

I'll be embedding any future pictures of my family here, so they're all together in one spot. Not including Finnick of course, who can have his own threads, but will likely be duplicated here just for archival's sake. I also post videos from time to time and mean to do a lot more of that. You can see my YouTube account here: 5ubv3rsion. And I'd like to point out a specific video that I just added of Finnick chasing crickets around the bathtub. I took this a few weeks ago and forgot I had it, so here it is now: Pet Hedgehog vs Crickets.

And also, here's the fan favorite Finn Dust Bathing in His Mealworms.

Thanks for reading, and I'll update again soon! Maybe with a video of the ball python having a swim, and some more photos...

 

[FinnickHog]

That's awesome! Saltwater tanks are so pretty, but so much work. I have a leopard gecko as well, technically, but he's about a bazillion years old so my parents kept him when I moved out. I didn't want to stress the old guy. He's.... 19 or 20 now, I believe. I have his hatch certificate filed away here somewhere.

Is your kingsnake a California king or something different? I love Cali kings but I wanted something that stays fairly small for once :lol:.

 

[FinnickHog]

Awww they're so cute! Griffin is adorable! He's so teeny and just look at his little face! I want a variable kingsnake in the grey, orange, and black phase, or their visual counterpart, a grey banded king. They've been on my want list for years! Great little snakes. Castiel is so pretty! Is he a snow? How old is he? Mine is from back before leopard gecko morphs were even really a thing, so he's just normal. I think there's a picture of him in the first pet thread I linked...

 

[FinnickHog]

So instead of just bathing Illidan, I grabbed Sherlock and Rocket too. Here that is: Bath Time for Reptiles!

I have another video filmed, I just have to add some captions and cut it together all pretty-like.

Kelsey, I'm pretty sure a charging, mealworm-hungry hedgehog could mess you up pretty bad if you got in the way :lol:. Kind of like those angry rhino videos.

Aww, Cas is just a youngster then! You're in for a long haul :grin:. The world record for captive leopard geckos is 32 years. Mine is attempting to break it, I think.

Variable kings are stunning after a shed. (We snake-folk up here call them Thayer's kingsnakes, after their scientific name.) And all the time, really. Just wait 'til he gets older. Some kings get duller with age but those guys really don't. And all three phases are so pretty! Also, come on, who doesn't like snakes that pop out in multiple colors independent of the parents! It's like Christmas!

I can't understand why people don't like snakes either. Some things I can see being "creepy" or "gross" to someone, but I just don't get it with snakes :lol:.

 

[FinnickHog]

Yay someone gets the reference! All my snakes are named after characters with a fatal flaw (or at least an awkward quirk) in their personalities. His being both his lust for power, and his... uhh... "obsession" with Tyrande. :lol:

I'm trying to pretend not to be excited for the next WoW expansion, but I totally am.

 

[FinnickHog]

Just in case anyone is genuinely interested in my saltwater tank, here's a thread where I talk about it in more detail. I'll also show any photos, mods or upgrades there, as I don't think here is the right sort of place for technical saltwater things. My First Saltwater Reef

Poe is such a cute name! I wish I could have cats. My dog is a rescue and would eat them. It took several months to get him used to the parrot. And yay for a new baby hedgehog!

 

[FinnickHog]

And for my final (large) update of the day, I present to you a Video Tour of My Pet Rooms!

 

[FinnickHog]

That was my boyfriend's doing. There's a line where someone, I think Wrex.... says that if they have a baby girl they'll name it after Mordin. So our first female is Mordin. :lol:

 

[FinnickHog]

I'm still really liking it. I'm planning to add some more varieties of substrates in the near future. It's working well the way it is right now so I haven't bothered updating on it .

 

[FinnickHog]

So a few things are new around here. First and most importantly, Finnick's old two-storey sleeping house absolutely reeks, and I can't find a way to get the smell out. The inside is just plastic, so I can wipe it down, but the outside is purple sheep-patterned fleece, and it is not pleasant. So while I work on making it smell at least tolerable again, his usual house has been replaced with a little pink igloo. You can see it in the tour video I posted, and the old hut is in the closet for now, perched on top. He's had his sheep-hut almost since I got him just over a year ago, and he's not so sure about the new igloo. I had to stuff it 100% full of fleece strips to convince him it was alright, and I still catch him sleeping wedged between it and the wall some nights. I think he's too impatient to find the door. The sheep one had a tunnel and a door, so he had less trouble finding an entrance that worked. And with this new addition, I'm finding fleece strips everywhere. In the sandbox, in the wheel, underneath fake plants... I have no idea what he's thinking!

He's also decided it's hilarious to knock over the cork bark hut the second I put it together. The bark weighs almost nothing and is just gently stacked into a cave-type structure. Finnick goes in, pokes his entire self out the smallest hole he can find, the whole thing topples over, and then he runs over the dismantled pieces. Not it's intended use, but oh well, at least he's using it somehow. :lol:

The cresties are all old enough to move in together for a test run, so both ladies are in with Grunt now. Grunt keeps singing his manly crestie-song to them, and Mordin at least is accepting of it, but every time I've seen Grunt approach her after singing, he messes up somehow. One time he spooked himself and fell off the wall and into the bromeliad. Mordin stared at him for a while and then went back into her bush. I'm not sure about him making a very good father, genetically speaking. :roll:

And last but not least, in saltwater-ville, the smaller crab has worn around every single shell I put in. He can't seem to make up his mind. He even convinced his roommate to switch shells with him, only to ditch that shell for a different one a few minutes later. The other crab had to go across the tank to get it back. And Seamus, my candy cane pistol shrimp, has started eating from an eye dropper that I fill with food and dangle in his face. I'll waft some of the tank water mixed with shrimp particles past his rock holes and all of a sudden two little antennae will pop out. He uses his smaller shrimp-hand to take the food nice and gently right out of the dropper. I'll try to get a video of that in the next few days. I think it's absolutely adorable, but I have an addiction to invertebrates.

 

[FinnickHog]

Finnick is the kind of guy who would rather knock everything over and make a mess rather than cuddle. He thinks I'm a jungle gym when I sit on the floor with him. I usually have to hold his bum while he climbs Mount Leg so he can sit on Knee Point. :lol:

Hopefully Grunt grows into Rico Suave soon. He hasn't caught a single lady yet that I've seen, and when he embarrasses himself he just gives up. The females have also hijacked his sleeping spot. Grunt has been in this cage since I got him, and the girls were just added. They went straight for the fake bush stuck to the wall. When he tries to hide with them they stick their noses out and glare at him until he leaves. He's been sleeping on the cork bark near the floor. Poor guy.

But nobody is nipping or being nasty, so that's good at least! Crested geckos are one of those weird gecko species that don't grow their tails back if they lose them, and I'd prefer to keep all my tails. There are so many breeder geckos out there with no tails that it makes me wonder if their owners care about their wellbeing at all. Cresties have a sticky pad like their toes on their tail so it helps a lot with climbing and balance.

I have no idea if there's a shell shortage in the water... That would explain his behavior though. He's switched again this morning into one of the white turbo-ish shells. Someone also knocked one of my zoanthid plugs onto the sandbed. *glare at big snail*

Well hermit crabs are super cute, so of course they look adorable when they eat! That's just common knowledge, right? :lol:

 

[FinnickHog]

Quick video of Seamus eating:

Naturally he's in the one place where my arm covers the lighting.

 

[FinnickHog]

I love how he flails at the eye dropper when it's empty. "Heeeeeeey, deposit food here please!"

 

[FinnickHog]

Here's that crab gif I promised. He says "Hi Kelsey! Thanks for the shell!"

Cute little guys, and they're growing so fast!

So I got to go to the fishie store yesterday for my birthday and pick out a fish and a coral. I haven't gotten great pictures of either yet, but I hopefully will soon. Here's a mediocre fish picture for now:

He's a Wheeler's shrimp goby (Amblyeotris wheeleri). They get about 3 inches long and pair with a pistol shrimp. He's already hanging out with Seamus! I haven't seen him today so I'm a little worried, but they are quite shy at first. Hopefully he's just under the rock decompressing from the move. The car ride home was 90 minutes, and then I had to acclimate him, so it was a rough day yesterday.

The coral is a small tubbs blue zoanthid frag. Someone knocked it off where I placed it, and Seamus grabbed it to use as a door to one of his burrows, so I feel guilty moving it, but I'll have to take it away and glue it down tomorrow, and then I can hopefully get a picture of that.

And here's my tiger salamanders being adorable:

Shaw, the rescue, is on top. He's looking so much better now, and he's adjusted to captivity insanely well. He's staring at Squee saying "hey brother, what are you doing!?" and Squee is staring at me going "FOOD!?" Shaw still follows his big brother around the cage relentlessly. Squee will dig a burrow to get away from him and then pop up across the cage and Shaw will run over to him again. It's pretty silly. They're super nice to each other until feeding time, and then it's best to keep them on opposite sides of the cage because they'll both snap at anything that moves, including each other's toes.

And here are some pictures of Mister Finn trying to sleep in his fleece tunnel, irritated because I'm sticking my phone in his face:

"Soooo sleepy..."

"Go away, mom. I'm busy!"

"I'm not even here. I'm just spikes. Go away."

"That's it! I'm giving you the bum shot!"

"Ugh. Fine."

Poor hoggy. I let him sleep after that, honest.

Also, Akihiko has turned white. This will be his first shed with me, and likely his first shed in Canada. I sprayed the whole snake down this afternoon, instead of just his cage. I'll know in a week or so if my hunidity is at the right level or not. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

And that's what's new around here today. I'll hopefully have a cage update soon, as I've ordered some other beddings to try.

 

[FinnickHog]

More pictures! I moved the tubbs blues just after I posted. Normally when you move a coral they end up angry for at least a few hours but these guys were like "hooray light" and opened back up beautifully. While I was at it, I took some of everyone with my fancy PAR38 led tank bulb on, since I just changed the schedule to accommodate my new chaetomorpha algae (I'll update on those green balls of fluff later). The pictures don't really show you the size variance between different types of zoanthids. The butterflies are huge and the unknown ones have really thick skirts. The fires and the tubbs are little teeny guys but they're packed really closely.

Tubbs blues:

Fire and ice:

Butterfly wings:

And the pretty pink ones with no name:

They're starting to look a lot more like the gorgeous pictures you can find online. I'm super pleased with how things are going. Can't wait for them to spread all over the place. The butterfly wings have tripled since I got them, so they'll be the ones I'll have to weed out, I expect.

I also forgot to add earlier that I finally found a job sort of. It won't pay for probably a year, but a friend is working on a video game and he needs someone to do graphics and story. I'm fine with graphics as long as they're sprites, and the game is a side scroller kind of like Mario or Metroid, so they won't be out of place. And writing is what I'd hoped to do professionally so that's excellent news. Sadly it means that once we really get going I may not be around as much. I'll probably still check in once every day or two though, so I won't be vanishing completely.

 

[FinnickHog]

I'm pretty sure they can hear the camera coming out seconds before you even think to grab it. The kingsnake is awful for that. "look how cute I am! Okay I'm done now bye!" And then I pull out my phone 30 seconds too late.

 

[FinnickHog]

Update time!

The fish is doing well. This is my second one of this species. The first one made it a whopping two days. I've had this guy 5 days and he's eating and not throwing fits like the last guy, so fingers crossed that he's the one. Almost all marine life in captivity is wild caught and then shipped out, so a lot of the fishies don't make it. I feel like a monster for losing two in a row, but I took my water in to the store and they said it's all good, so it seems to be nothing I'm doing. He looks just like the last guy, but he's a bit more shy still. He was in the store for 9 days and now with me for 5, so I'm thinking he's probably good. If he dies on me now I think I might give up on fish altogether and get a little anemone. We'll see how it goes.

Aki shed. He did it in two big pieces instead of one, but everything came off, so I'm happy with it. He's super bright green again and his usual friendly self (which still weirds me out considering his species). I want to get a video of him exploring at some point in the future, but he's so squirmy it makes manual focusing on him difficult, and the auto focus on the Nikon D5100 is garbage. Or I'm an idiot, I don't know which.

I took a video of Akihiko entering "drape mode" though, and it's pretty alright. His color is off slightly because he was about to shed. Here that is:

And here's the rambling Sennie. She was babbling her head off so I grabbed the camera. Naturally she immediately stopped talking, but here she is anyway, getting some pats and arguing with me about touching things:

And one of miss Rocket sniffing my slipper, just for good measure:

Enjoy!

 

[FinnickHog]

Just a side note for those viewing the videos on YouTube: Google auto-sets the quality low so that they load faster, but they're shot in full HD, so if you click the Settings cog in the lower right hand corner of the video, you can turn the quality up if you want to. They look much better that way!

 

[FinnickHog]

Akihiko is my only graceful pet. Everyone else is super clumsy :lol:. I love watching him coil up into tree snake mode.

Skinks are awesome! She's so receptive to me and she's actually pretty clever too. If you decide you need a lizard they're way up there on my recommendation list.

 

[FinnickHog]

I took a very sad video of Oz this evening. He's a rescue, and he's doing really well now, but he has this one quirk where if you try to set a cookie on his nose he just breaks down. I decided to give up trying to get him used to the trick, since it's a silly trick anyway and it'll never be important, so I took a final video of it.

He's normally a very happy guy, I swear!

There's a bit more of his backstory in the message below the video. Here it is: