Broly the new super saiyan beardie

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Wow. I guess a power outage can be even harder on fish (and other aquatic critters) than it is on reptiles. :(
Hopefully your fish tank residents won't suffer any lasting ill effects from their environmental conditions being less than ideal for the time it took to get everything up and running again. Sounds like you did everything you could for them under the circumstances. :)
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

Thank you! I tried to make them comfortable. Kingy is hiding he never hides! Gator is lying down (he stresses easy). Dawn and Leprechaun are acting like nothing happened. Pichu and Twitch are inside their shells so will check them later if they come out. Jolly however is still happy. I do have a master test kit (it's liquid it's not expired so it still works). I did check water because most everyone is stressed. Ammonia is 0ppm and Nitrate is 5ppm. Seems ideal because two zeroes (ammonia and nitrite) and nitrate building. The tank has bacteria on the stuff inside and cut up bits of old mature media inside the filter. Idk why Kingy and Gator are acting up. I think Pichu and Twitch are too Im not sure. Yes, power outages are very hard on aquatics. I didn't have a battery powered filter so I couldn't keep cycle going. Broly has a battery to keep lights on if needed. They take it hard the most when their cycle breaks. My other two tanks are fine. This tank with a broken cycle is my 150 gal. My 10 gal and 20 gal are ok. Broly is even ok though he's acting crazy running his tank.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
I guess it's a little easier to get a reptile through a power outage because you can just take them out of their tank and cuddle them and use human body heat to keep them warm.:love5: But you can't do that with a fish, and I guess it's a little more complicated to fix water chemistry that went south while your filters were off than it is to just turn the heat lamps back on so the reptiles can get back to basking.

It sounds like it may take at least half of your aquatic family a day or two to get over the stress, but hopefully no permanent damage was done.

My husband has a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) for the computer -- basically a great big battery with delusions of grandeur. Maybe you could get something like that for your fishtank(s) so you could keep them going if the power goes out. Some people around here have gasoline powered generators too, but I think it's a major project to get one of those things hooked up properly -- you pretty much need an electrician if you want to be sure it's done "right". We sometimes get wind storms that knock the power lines down, but for the most part they do a pretty good job keeping the power grid up and running, considering what they're up against. :mrgreen:
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

Yup, much harder than a lizard. Water chemistry is much harder to maintain than uvb and heat lamps. I'll ask Tom if we could get the UPS. Sounds like a great idea thanks! Gator is doing better and eatin now. Kingy was always the baby and loved being hand fed so he's eating. Pichu and Twitch are doing well. Kingy and Leprechaun are Gator and Dawn's sons. Jolly didn't make it but he seemed happy. We'll get another snail when the tank is 100% finished. We buried Jolly (it was like 5 years old) I wasn't too upset about it but Tom is taking it hard. He didn't wanna lose anyone and again ammonia wasnt that high. It's at least 0.25 nobody really suffers from that level it's 0.50 and above that causes chaos. 0.25 are the safest you can get considering what happened anyway. Jolly was Tom's snail he raised from a snail egg. Everyone else is taking ammonia better. They dont mind since it's not green in the test tube. If it though I will do water change. It's sitting between 0 and 0.25 right now.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Sorry to hear that you lost Jolly -- at least it sounds like "he"(?) didn't suffer. Is 5 years a ripe old age for a snail? (What I know about aquatics you can put in a thimble -- I never maintained a fish tank for more than a few days.) I'm glad to hear that the rest of them seem to be recovering and doing better though.
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

I believe 5 is ripe. He didn't seem to suffer. Im not sure if it's a she or he. I never heard of snail living older but probably possible. Tom won't talk about Jolly right now. It was his baby.
Broly was being bratty this morning and was giving cal and he moved and got in his eye. He had it closed for 5 minutes. I checked his eye and it's fine not red or anything. He's had it open all day since the incident. He never learns LOL! He knows he shouldnt move when I have to syringe cal and bromelain. It's like a nurse giving a shot or taking blood you dont move!! Theyll mess up and it won't be their fault.
Most days he doesn't move and let's it happen. Other days, he'll just be a brat and move as it squirts.
I've had three fish tanks back in 99-2000. We had no knowledge of filters or fish compatibility or cycles. We had a 10 gal with 3 goldfish (lived 6 years), tiger barbs, catfish and other fin nippers (yeah we were such newbies we didn't research). I research ever since then. We kept two betta fish with the goldfish and two others in their one gallons. I know better these days. I check compability, filters and cycles and know how important this info is now then I did as a 12-13 year old.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
I think snails are "hermaphrodites" -- both male and female in the same individual, but I hate to call them "it" because it makes it sound like they're not living things. The English language is long overdue for a gender-neutral personal pronoun, but best not to get me started about that one... :roll:

I'm always after my husband to be careful not to get calcium powder in Puff's eyes when he feeds him -- "don't dump the bugs out of the container right in his face after you just dusted them..." etc. Makes it easier for him to catch them right away but I'm always afraid he's going to get the powder in his eyes. So far so good, but I worry about my "baby" and fuss at my husband when he doesn't do things exactly my way. :oops:

Yes, it's always good to do the research before you get the critter so you have a good idea what you're getting yourself into and so you can be reasonably sure you can meet their needs. :study: But even then you usually run into some surprises -- there are some things you can only learn from experience. My husband got a big kick out of hearing me say, "Squirmles didn't read the snake books," and predicted that I would also be saying, "Puff didn't read the bearded dragon books." :wink:
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

I research a lot of stuff. I have heard of snails being one body but different genders together. If memory serves me right I have apple snails and supposedly theyre not hermaphrodites. I hate calling Jolly it! I'll say he anyway. English language is sometimes terrible I have to agree. Before knowing Broly's gender (Petco said boy luckily right he is a he) I called him dragon. I avoided the word "it" on living creatures so I said dragon till I knew for sure he was a boy. The cal happened once before (liquid) and called my husband about it and said "he'll be ok, he'll tell you if he's in pain." He was definitely ok. Powder different story, it could irritate the eyes. I don't use powder...I used to. I remember accidentally getting sand bath in my gerbils eyes. His eye was red but after wiping with a damp cloth he recovered. My hamster gets irritated eyes every now and again. She's been to the vet with 3 eye infections. She's fine now but she still has irritation that shows up every now and again.
I worry about both dragons and geckos. I pretty much get called annoying or OCD about an illness that hasnt shown up yet. Your gut feeling is sometimes right though. I have ADD, Asperger's Syndrome and OCD. It's not fun when my other beardie Alucard having yellow fungus and stomach cancer combined with mouth rot and ADV..I was pretty much traumatized. He died though didn't make it through treatment. I'm seeing therapy for it now to stop stressing over Broly he's ok no fungus or ADV or cancer.
I like you Bailey..youre an awesome friend! I've had some but some dont come to my thread because I "stressed" over Broly and couldnt take it anymore. Sorry for having Asperger's!!! ? I dont like the condition myself but I've learned to live with it.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
I'm no stranger to ADD and OCD and Asperger's -- a number of my family and friends have one or the other or a combination. Nothing to apologize for -- it's not your fault, just something about the way you're "wired". I was "lucky" enough (out of this rather interesting gene pool and somewhat functional/dysfunctional family that I come from :roll: ) to end up with unpredictable and debilitating episodes of depression and fatigue. They've never really been able to get a good diagnosis, but "cyclothymia" and/or "chronic fatigue" probably come the closest. Psychotherapy has just as much chance of doing me more harm than good as helping me at all, and medications either make me crazier than I already am or don't work at all, so like you, I don't like it but I've learned to live with it as best I can. It ended what was left of my career when I was only in my late forties, but I'm lucky to be married to a man who is willing and able to be the sole breadwinner for a semi disabled wife and two reptiles, and willing and able to help me take care of them when I'm not up to it.

I used to use the liquid calcium -- I'd spray it on a superworm and roll it in Reptivite to make Puff a tasty little vitamin treat, but that was before we swore off superworms after that lovely little afternoon at the vet's trying to find a live superworm that I'd seen crawling around in his head behind his eardrum. :puke:
If he can't chew them up more carefully than that, we're not doing that anymore... Now we dust the vitamins and the calcium on the crickets.

It sounds like you've got yourself quite a little menagerie -- I wouldn't have the energy to take care of that many critters, and my poor husband would probably get stuck with most of the chores. And since I'm not up to doing my fair share of the work more than half the time, we're maxed out with my husband's full time job, one snake, and one beardie with his little entourage of crickets and roaches.

So I don't feel particularly "awesome" but it's nice of you to think so. :mrgreen: And I just realized this thread is over 4 years long and I only signed on here late last year. So one of these days I hope to go back and read the whole story... :)
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

Well that's good youre no stranger to my condition.
Asperger's was the first to be diagnosed at age 26 years old but they said I could work...nope! I couldnt hold a job for more than 2 days. Im too slow to learn better. Age 27 went in again diagnosed Asperger's, ADD and OCD. The lady that evaluated me told social security there was no way I could work with the way I was wired. Sure some with autism can work but I can't and I at least tried. I get fired before getting better. My parents let me have all the animals to keep me occupied. i do have sensory overload and have tantrums and need to be held down till I calm down. For sensory I just find a quiet place to relax. Tantrums is different, I scream, kick and scratch (rarely bite). My family know how to deal with me. Tom has learned from my dad to hold my arms down so I don't scratch and sit on my stomach. Im 29 and have more sensory overload than tantrums. Animals keep me from going insane from being bored. I have games and animals to stop boredom. Youre welcome and I still believe youre cool. Eww supers..I don't use those. I use pheonix worms, crix, roaches and silk worms.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
It sounds like you've been through some real hell. :(
Interestingly, I was also in my late 20s when I was first diagnosed with "depression" -- a long time ago. I'm 60 now, but I remember a lot of it maybe a little too clearly. Some hard times that I wouldn't want to go through again. Maybe it was a miracle that I lasted in the work force for as long as I did -- 17 years full time, but I burned out and had to quit two different jobs. The second time I never recovered, but by then I was lucky enough to have married the love of my life in the meantime, and he was willing to be the sole breadwinner for both of us, although it took him a while to get his career off the ground. I'd been telling people that we have an old-fashioned marriage -- it's his job to bring home the "bacon" and my job to cook it, but lately I'm not even up to cooking most of the time, so he's eating out of cans and out of the freezer, but he still appreciates every little thing I'm able to do and doesn't complain about it. :love5:

My nephew (who has ADD) used to have tantrums (my sister called them "meltdowns") and he also had so much energy that he'd get bored and have "bad thoughts" if he didn't always have something interesting to do. He's in his 30's now, married with 5 kids, and apparently doing pretty well. I suppose his family keeps him plenty busy, although I think I'd probably go nuts with that many human children bouncing around in my house. Talk about sensory overload... :p

Your beardies are better off with phoenix worms and silk worms anyway. The only really nice things about superworms is that they tend to be cheaper, they're really easy to take care of, and they have a fairly long "shelf life" compared to most other live feeders. That's probably what makes them so tempting for the human slaves even though they're not the best thing for the bearded dragons, even though most beardies like them a little too much.

I'm planning to see if I can get some of that "Repashy Grub Pie" that people talk about around here and see if our beardie likes it, since he doesn't seem to recognize the kibbles as food. I worry about the possibility of not being able to get live bugs for a while (in case we get snowed in, etc) and it would be nice to have something to keep around to feed him just in case the usual stuff wasn't available. As I understand, this is a powder that you make into a gel for insectivores, so it probably has a fairly decent shelf life, unlike the live bugs. The other nice thing about it if I can get it and if he'll eat it is that the gel would have more moisture content than the dry pellets so I presume it would be better for hydration. I'm not sure if any of the local stores carry it around here so I may have to order it online, but we're planning for my husband to do the run to the pet store for roaches tonight if he gets home from work on time, so we'll get a chance to see if they carry it there. That would save us having to pay twice what it's worth for shipping to Alaska. :roll:

Well, Puff has knocked his thermometer halfway off his basking platform a-g-a-i-n. I'm starting to wonder if he does it on purpose because he likes it hotter than I think it should be, and he doesn't want me to know... :wink: He's all pancaked out leaning on it halfway, happy warm color with his eyes at half mast, looking quite contented and pleased with himself.
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

It was hell in school. I had security hold me down in school teachers had to call for help. It would last 30-45 minutes. The teacher eventually had me in the dean's office for disrupting class. She understood it wasnt my fault exactly.
The kids had to learn and she wasnt gonna have them fail because I had meltdowns. These days theyre better they rarely come up and if they do they last about 15 minutes.
Repashy grub pie is great! I used it for Broly's birthday (Jan 14). He just turned 2 this year. He loved it! Most beardies I read about eat it and like it.
Im glad for your nephew. I can't do kids...too noisy for me.
If I get bored I get frustrated and tired..to keep from sleeping all day I get animals to take my time. Roach, cricket and silk worm bins. I have 3. I breed roaches, crickets and silks. I have gerbils, guinea pigs, hamster, 10 gal african dwarf frog tank, 20 gallon guppy and females an male betta fish tank with some snails. The 150 gal, 1 gargoyle gecko, 1 tokay, 4 leo geckos, two beardies, two kittens and dogs (not in the room with lizards). There's my day.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
So far we struck out with the Repashy grub pie at the first pet store we checked (they don't carry it), but did get the roaches and got them all settled in to their new temporary home to get fat dumb and happy :roll: . Two more local stores to check and then we go to the internet if no luck there.

I once had a psychotherapist tell me that I "always need to have a little critter to take care of", but after that I learned for myself that I can easily get overwhelmed and stressed out if I have too many little critters to take care of, so one is enough and two is more than enough, but they're both members of the family now so it's too late to change my mind about having too many. It sounds like you've got more than enough to keep you busy all day and then some, but if they're keeping you from getting bored and miserable and you're taking good care of them, then it's good for everyone. :D
 

BlueDragon09

BD.org Addict
Original Poster
Hey,

They do take a lot of time. I rarely get on xbox. Today I did (surprisingly I still had friends) to play. Tom helped. I fed the beardies, rodents and fish. Tom fed the geckos. I'll get the leopards when they get up. Broly did eat about 10-11 crix today (15 minutes). Kane ate 30 so yeah...I gave bromelain I wonder if Broly is full from salad last night or something...Idk. He's active so I guess it's nothing. Broly finally got shed off his back leg (some still on vent and behind knee), lips (some off) and front leg. His lips have changed to much brighter orange that was never there before. Got some Jurassic World signs (do not touch fence it's electrified) and warning raptor on the loose. One by Broly's tank another by Kane's. It works they remind me of dinosaurs even if they're not exactly from dinosaurs.
 

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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
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Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

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