A:  You're lucky.  My wife hated snakes.  Once, a garter snake got loose in our basement (fish room and laundry room).  She did no laundry until I found the snake two weeks later.  I turned it loose outside (not in our backyard).  My father hated snakes also.  He would chase them with his lawn mower.  Some people have weird DNA when it comes to snakes.  I'm looking forward to your pics.  LA

A:  Thanks for your info.  I added it to my hedgehog page.  LA

A:  Healthy female birds often lay eggs without the presence of males.  Parakeets cannot mate with doves and vice versa.  LA

A:  They're real eggs.  She made them herself.  She doesn't know they're infertile.  She likely will lay more.  Don't throw them away or she may keep laying.  Each egg depletes her calcium reserves.  Give her a cuttle bone or calcium block.  Most birds incubate their eggs for 21 days.  Throw them out after a month.  Handle them carefully or you'll find out what hydrogen sulfide smells like.  LA

A:  Get serious.  How are you guys going to come up with that amount of cash?  LA

(The above came out of Mexico.)

A:  We're not a distributor. wholesaler, or internet marketer.  We're a retail store in Des Moines, Iowa.  I started doing the Fact Sheets for our customers, and the entire process got out of control.  But as one of the guys in our local water garden club says:  "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."  LA

A:  I'm not sure what you mean by "assorted."  We have a 55 full of adult trade ins we've priced at $25.  The others we price by species.  We also have our standard "Buy Three get the Fourth FREE."  Give us a call @ 283-0300 and we can give you prices on each species.  LA

A:  Truck at night and outdoors in the day sounds good.  If you're concerned about mosquitoes (west Nile fever vectors), wrap their cage in mosquito netting.  LA

A:  I'm only guessing theorizing that it relates to your water composition.  Buffers utilize a base plus a weak acid to maintain the pH at a specific level.  Perhaps one of the ingredients in Wardley's recipe didn't agree with your shrimp.  Question:  Did you add any thing else that contains copper?  Aquarisol, for instance?  Copper zaps invertebrates.  LA
PS  We'll leave the lights on for you.

A:  We used to order 300 ghost shrimps at a time because customers want for feeders.  They had a high mortality rate -- no matter what we did.  Even the 100 packs did badly.  So now we just sell them as individuals instead of as food.  The weird thing is, when we ordered them from Florida by the box, they did just fine.  Go figure.  Unfortunately, airline connections with Florida are less than satisfactory these days.  LA
PS  It got above zero yesterday.  You should get the same in two days.

A:  Putting that higher salinity (nearly 50% seawater) on your goldfish would just stress them and make them more susceptible to disease.  Treat your feeder goldfish as you would treat any fish you intend to keep -- except maybe a little cooler.  Feed them a good variety of foods.  Change a portion of their water weekly.  And inspect them before you scoop 'em and serve them for dinner.  LA
PS  If you want to give them a saltwater dip before serving them, that may help also.  I don't know.

Here's an email that just came today.  Note the date.  Shades of the movie "The Philadelphia Experiment."

A:  The ones you're considering sound fine to me.  Since you sent the email four months ago, any answer is probably moot by now.  LA

A:  Yes, you can over-fertilize an aquarium but it's kind of unlikely.  Because when you add more than enough, the algae reproduce fast enough to eat it all.  Your water turns nice and green.  On average, the plants you listed don't need much fertilizer at first.
Nitrogen (N) encourages plant growth and dark green foliage.
Phosphorus (P) stimulates the roots and helps plants produce blooms.
Potassium (K) ensures plant strength, increases disease resistance and promotes root growth.
In general, your plants get plenty of N and P from your fish wastes.  Most fertilizers recommend weekly inoculations.  Sales promo or necessary advice.  I don't know.  You don't need to squirt the fertilizer near the plants.  Most of the ones you list absorb nutrients thru their leaves.  Your Wisteria is another Hygrophila (H. difformis).  All the H.s grow like weeds.  Anacharis is a weed.  You have selected all fast-growing plants -- those that respond quite well to fertilizers.  LA
PS  Give them 12 hours of light.  You will need more light than the standard aquarium bulb in your 55.            

A Whoops:  I forgot to answer your de-chlor question.  As far as I know. most de-chlorinators use sodium thiosulfate to get the job done.  I know of no harmful effects of excess sodium thiosulfate.  LA

A:  Looks really good to us humans.  Of course, the salamanders prefer to dig under an old log or pile of wet leaves.  I'm surprised they're not in that Tetra wood cave.  LA

A:  Probably enough in volume, but you need to give them other foods also -- and maybe add powdered vitamins.  You can feed the vitamins to your crickets or dust an occasional night crawler.  Anyway, give them some variety in their food.  LA

A:  Feel free to mix the sexes now.  If your newbie turns out to be a male you can always add another tank.  And you may change your mind about breeding them by then.  LA

A:  With day temps of 36F and 6F nights, it will be awhile before you can take her outside.  If you put her in a pond, she will no longer be your pet.  She will revert to her basic instincts fairly fast.  If she's still friendly to people, one of your neighbors will "liberate" her.  If you want to breed her, she'll need a sandy area she can bury her eggs.  They take a long time to hatch.  LA

A:  When working with fish you have no prior experiene with, it's usually better to add them one at a time -- with three or four weeks between adding new ones.  You can probably add most of those fish if you don't try to jump into all those species at once.  LA

A:  Thanks for your input.  I always agree with anyone that agrees with me.  Go figure.  I'm adding your report right below Sam's report.  LA

A:  Newly hatched lizards eat small crickets and/or flightless fruit flies.  Big lizards eat smaller lizards.  I would not add the leopard gecko.  LA

A:  Any frog with a good lid on it cannot jump out of its tank.  The lid also keeps potential threats out.  Newts don't mind cooler temps.  But when you keep them at 45, they probably try to estivate.  Were you keeping yours in your refrigerator?  LA

A:  One of our customers called this morning about driving his large fish to the Florida panhandle.  I gave him pretty much the same info.  I think your Coleman Cooler idea works better than the Styrofoam shipping containers.  Thanks.   LA

A:  We never found out what the larva was.  It died when it emerged.  It seems like it would have to be one of the wasps that prey on tarantulas, but that's purely a surmise.  LA

LA
Synodontis brichardi

LA
Synodontis eupterus

A:  These two pics should help you identify your Synos.  If you send me a pic of any you want identified, I'll try.  There's still a bunch I can't ID.  LA

LA
Zebra pleco, L046.  Formerly from the Xingu River.  Eats worms.  Locally bred.

A:  The simple answer is no.  Brazil cut off their export quite a while ago.  All zebra plecos are tank-reared these days.  We haven't had one for about three years.  Randy, a long-time buddy living much farther from the river than Aqualand (but located lower in elevation) had a significant breeding colony -- right up to our last levee breach in 2008.  LA

A:  Fish that live in the mouths of river endure sudden salinity changes every time the tide comes in and goes out.  They can adapt fairly well -- much better than the freshwater fishes can adapt to the added salt.  You'll probably need to moderate the amount of salt you add.  That means go easy on the salt.  Lots of dragon gobies wind up with owners that have never heard the word brackish.  Your other salt choices include Kosher salt, iodized salt, table salt, hand-ground sea salt, sidewalk ice melting salt, water conditioner salt (crystals, pellets, and chunks), free-range salt, and I can't remember the other ten.  The main ingredient you want is sodium chloride.  Some people think the exact contents make a difference.  I don't think brackish water fish are quite as demanding as some of the marine invertebrates.  LA
PS  Since I clean lots of fish tanks every day, I do not like shrimp pellets even a little bit.  I am obviously prejudiced.

A:  You sound like a good candidate.  Unfortunately, we have no openings at this time.  LA

A1:  I don't know if you're yanking my chain or not, but copper is deadly to most invertebrates.  Copper Power is chelated to make it less toxic to fish (and evidently shrimp or they'd be dead).  It can't be removed by carbon and remains "active" in your water for months.  No matter how "weak' its effect on shrimp, I'd do a total water change. 
A2:  The green on the shell is probably algae and will disappear at the next molt.  If you leave your lights on for long periods, you will encourage the algae to grow.  I doubt you can scrape it off, because it's very likely inside the shell.  Anyway, get rid of the copper.  Live with the algae.  LA

A:  Okay.  I don't know what the white skuzz is or whether it's harmful.  I've never seen it, but he'll probably lose it on his next molt.  LA

A:  I'm no expert on curing frog diseases, but it sounds like Leap has "red-leg."  I'd recommend a quarantine tank with frequent water changes to keep his water clean.  Then treat him with Triple Sulfa or whatever bactericide you can get get your hands on.  Red -leg usually results in death.  Sorry for the un-optimistic prognosis.  LA

A:  Nian gao to you, Harv, and may you receive many red packets.  I'd never touched, seen, or heard of the Arafura file snake until just now.  A quick google search will answer your questions.  They stay in the water, grow to 6 or 8 feet, and stay fairly mellow.  They seem to demand clean water and eat fish.  (Sounds like most of us.)  Don't let the dancing lions stomp on you next week.  Over here, we have line dancing.  LA

A:  I would not even attempt it myself.  I really doubt you can keep a sturgeon alive.  LA

A:  I was perhaps being a bit hyperbolic trying to get the point across about Salmonella being a problem, so always wash your hands.  I do not know if water monitors defecate 100% in their water bowl or 90%.  The point is, always wash your hands after handling any lizard.  LA

A:  Fifteen bucks is really cheap  I don't see that as a problem.  Evidently the store wanted to get rid of him.  I'm not sure I can relate to your timeline.  You bought him yesterday and now he's gone without food for close to 7 days?  Obviously, he's intimidated by your oscars.  They own the tank.  He doesn't.  I'm surprised your oscars haven't eatren your young parrots.  You may need a separate aquarium for him until he gets his appetite back.  Eating comets won't make him any more likely to eat your parrots.  If they fit in his mouth, he will eat them.  LA

A:  Jaguars (in good health) are very strong feeders.  If he's still reluctant to eat, you may want to quarantine him in a different tank -- always a good idea with new fish anyway.  In the meantime, tempt him with feeder shrimps, earthworms, or frozen plankton.  LA

A:  I don't know what the proper term is for a scratched eye.  Usually they heal.  Sometimes they don't.  Every time you discuss your tank, you seem to have more inhabitants.  Your tank is rapidly filling with large fish.  LA