Man has it been a long time!

[Revolution1221]

I haven't been on this site in almost 2 years I wonder who is still around and who will even remember me here. I sold off all my fish tanks to pursue my passion for reptiles and breeding them. Sadly I did not have much time to spend on this awesome forum. The reptiles have taken off for me and I am finally settled in a place and am comfortable enough financially to get back into fish but more about that shortly.

Since I left the site I have grown my reptile collection tremendously and refined it to include lots of awesome projects. At first I spent all my money on geckos (mainly crested geckos) Within a few months I had nearly 100 of them and hatched a bunch of babies my first year. From the sale of the babies I was able to fund getting into more exotic species of geckos, but that proved not to be where I wanted to take things currently so I started getting big into snakes. Recently I sold off most of my rare terrestrial species of geckos. With a few trial and errors I found my favorite species of snake which is Western hognose (Heteredon nasicus) I currently have around 40-50 hognose of different lines and morphs. I also am working with carpet pythons and have about 10 of them. I also have about 20+ random species that I also really want to breed but not on a larger scale like the hognose and carpet pythons.

I moved a few hours from home in January this year to pursue a reptile management job at a large local pet store here in Madison, WI which thus far has been amazing and allowed me a lot of opportunity for myself and the store. On August 21st I experienced one of the most life changing events when my son was born just a day after my own birthday. Sadly my son lives about 2 hours from me in my home town but I make every attempt I can to go back to see him (about every 2 weeks I go for 3-4 days) I am not with his mother but I hope soon I can be close to him if his mom ever decides to move here for work which was a plan of hers originally.

So onto the fish related stuff A few months ago before my most recent move I traded a baby hognose to a guy who cleans our salt water tanks at work for a set up. My plan is to do a nice reef set up. I already have a handful of Acan and Zoanthid frags as well as a couple plate corals and mushrooms set aside in a display tank for when my tank is ready in what seems like will be too many months lol.

For a $50 baby he gave me a tank (believe 30 or 37 gallons) a stand, a brand new never opened Fluval 206 canister filter, a glass top, and a sea clone skimmer which I plan to get a different skimmer soon. Currently the skimmer needs a new ventury? which I have on order right now. Monday night I got the tank set up. I started by adding 40 lbs of Aragonite as we were out of Aragalive and the RO water with reaf crystals. That night I treated the tank with Kent Marine Pro-Dechlorinator and Essential Elemants. I also added to the tank an Aqueon 700 power head. I plan to return the power head and replace it with a Korolia when we get some more in stock. Last night I picked up some omega one marine garlic flakes and "fed" the tank and dosed with Instant Ocean Bio Spira. Today we got Aragalive back in stock so just a few minutes ago I added 20 lbs of Aragalive bringing me up to 60 lbs of sand and a nice deap sand bed. I also picked up a 36" coralife T5 fixture. I will be replacing the fixture with an LED system in the next few weeks. I also added about 4 lbs of live rock to the tank tonight. Tomorrow a co-worker is bringing me about 20+ lbs of extra live rock from her tank. So anyways that is where I am at right now and I am sure I will have a lot of questions very soon.

As soon as I am done with this I will hop on photo bucket and post some pictures

[BV77]

welcome back Rev...good to "see" you again.

[Revolution1221]

There's a "face" I remember lol

[lohachata]

hey kid ; great to see you back.....welcome home...

[bullseyejoey]

I know this is for fish, but I have a Texas Rat Snake and wanted to know if you had experience with rat/corn snakes.


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[emc7]

Its been awhile. Good to see you haven't been eaten by a snake (yet).

[Revolution1221]

Lol thanks guys! So here are some pictures.

The first picture of me and my son.








A picture from work.


At the wildlife discover center.


Diamond Jungle Jaguar sibling Carpet Python


My most expensive snake (until sunday) an albino female hognose.


Toffee Belly male hognose.


Extreme red het albino male.


A clutch of babies some albino


And a tiny little baby.

[Revolution1221]

Hey Bullseye I do have some experience with rats and corns.

[emc7]

I expected the baby to be cute (he is), but the snakes are cute, too. Not the thing with all the teeth, though. Looks like a fish-eater.

[Revolution1221]

Thanks That is actually a salt water crocodile whose growth is extremely stunted for no reason. The owner of the wild life discovery center took it in. It should be over 10 feet at the age it is.

[Betta man]

Welcome back revolution! I don't know if you remember me, but I sorta remember you. Nice reptiles. I wish I could keep snakes, I don't have room and money enough and my mom is afraid of snakes.... Nice snakes though!

[BV77]

Yeah, that croc has some nasty looking teeth. Some very pretty snakes, too.

[TheOldSalt]

Revo! Good to see you, man!

That pic of all the hatching eggs is awesome!

I love Hognoses. Nice to see someone taking such a major interest in them. They're dying out in the wild, so it might be up to you to save them.

[Revolution1221]

Thanks Bettaman, and yeah I definitely remember you!

[Revolution1221]

OLD SALT! Glad to see you still around Yeah that was a pretty exciting clutch for me. Those were the first ones I ever hatched. The male was proven het albino but the female was only chance het. Incredible feeling to come home and see the first head poking out is an albino. On top of that I hit ridiculous odds. Statistically about 25% of them should have been albino. There were 11 eggs so roughly 2-3 at most. I not only hit 5 albinos but there was 1 male and 4 females! The females being worth much more.