In this episode of Reefs & Reptiles, we are going to talk about one of the easiest reptile pets to take care of, the crested gecko.  Crested Geckos are very special geckos, having thought to be extinct until the mid 90's when they were rediscovered on the island chain of New Caledonia.  If you are a first time reptile keeper, cresteds make a good first reptile pet.  They are easy to house and feed and require little day to day maintenance.  I'll talk about the basics of crested gecko care along with the basics of housing them in a bioactive terrarium.  I recommend that crested live in a terrarium with living plants.    If this sounds good to you, then join me for a deeper dive into the world of the Crested Gecko.

In this episode of Reefs & Reptiles, I will be reviewing one of my favorite books of all time, The Empty Ocean by Richard Ellis.  This book was published in 2003, but its contents are still as relevant today as they were back then.  Richard walks the reader through many subjects including declining fisheries and organisms that have gone extinct under the watch of human eyes.  I have always enjoyed Richard's writing style, his books are easy to read and you feel like you learned a lot after reading them.   I will go over some of the highlights of Richard's book to give you a glimpse at the remarkable research that Richard has done.  This is a must read for any wildlife warrior.

Amazon Affiliate Link to order The Empty Ocean - https://amzn.to/3rwaA6e

In this episode of Reef & Reptiles, I'll give a run down of easy freshwater plants.  All of the plants I mention are available at aquariumcoop.com - Freshwater Planted tanks are a new venture for me, and so the advise I give is from a novice approach to plant care.  There have been a few plants that have given me fits and I mention those as well.  Some of plants we will go over in include, cyptocorynes, amazon swords, anubias, monte carlo, java moss, java fern, vallisneria, pogostemon stellatus octopus,  and a few more. 

In this episode of Reefs & Reptiles, I go over my experience breeding ball pythons.  In 2012, I got my first male het pied ball python.  A few months later, I got 2 female 66% het pied ball pythons and the wheels in my head started turning.  Could I create my own piebald python?  Well it took about 5 years, but the results were amazing and it ended up being one of the greatest experiences of my life!

In today's episode of Reefs and Reptiles, we will be talking about Pea Puffers.  Pea Puffers are amazing little freshwater fish that can be a very rewarding pet.  While these puffers exhibit many of the same traits as a saltwater pufferfish, they come in a very manageable size and they stay in freshwater their entire lives.  This makes water changes much easier!  Pea Puffers have a lot to offer and if you don't know about them or having been thinking about getting them this episode is for you.

In this episode of Reefs and Reptiles, I will be giving an update on my clownfishes' battle with brooklynella.  The good news is that using Seachem Metroplex, my clownfish are now cured!  I'll go over things I learned and other observations from battling brooklynella.  A special thanks goes out to Humble fish and the Humble.fish community.  Check them out if your saltwater fish is ill, they can give you great advice and help you identify what is wrong.

In this episode of Reefs and Reptiles I talk about Hawaiian reef fish and the importance of keeping them in Hawaii.  There have been a few articles out there asking people to email the Hawaiian government to allow people to collect and export Hawaiian reef fish for the aquarium hobby.  After living in Hawaii for 2 years, I've come to know many local reefs and I would say that they are far from thriving.  My view is that the reefs need all the fish they can get to stave off the influx algae due to coral deaths.   I realize this opinion won't be shared with many in our hobby, but I do think that the more we protect our reefs the more sustainable and enjoyable keeping saltwater fish at home can be.  Aquaculture is the future and the more dollars we spend on fish that are aquacultured, the more fish we can keep in our struggling oceans.  

If you'd like to email the Hawaiian government to protect marine fish and keep them in Hawaii, please email - [email protected]

In this episode of Reefs and Reptiles, I am going to give you all the recent events that unfolded to my pair of Ocellaris clownfish.  They were doing great for about a month and then I noticed some discoloration on the white bands of one of the clownfish.  I give a day to day account of what is was like to try and first identify what was wrong with the clownfish and then treat them.  I ended up coming to the conclusion, with the help of Humblefish and his friends that my clownfish had "Brook." Brooklynella hostilis or Brook for short,  also known as "Clownfish Disease" is a rather nasty ciliate parasite that can quickly take over your marine fish.   My hope is that this episode can help those that might think their fish have Brooklynella.   I can say that over the past couple weeks I've found that freshwater dips of a duration around 5 minutes did seem to help the brook infestation.  Ultimately the dips were a stop gap until I got more appropriate medication, in this case Seachem Metroplex.  As you will hear in the episode I do think that dosing Ich-X initially helped to keep the Brook at bay while I waited for the Metroplex to arrive.

In this episode we will be covering the Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi).  Neon Tetras are some of most beautiful fish in the world.  Match a school of neon tetras to a planted aquarium and you have a breathtaking scene that you will enjoy immensely.  We will go over the water parameters that neon tetras like and cover other topics regarding their care.   If you are thinking about getting some neon tetras this episode is a good intro to what it takes to keep them.

In this episode of Reefs and Reptiles we will be focusing on feeding ball pythons (Python regius).  Most ball pythons in captivity are fed rats and we will focus on what size prey to feed your ball python and where to get your rats.  We will also talk about tips and tricks for feeding picky ball pythons.