MOTW - Apr 28 - May4 2013 - Demon Amphibians

[Jenste]

Congratulations to this weeks Member of The Week!

Sorry for the late posting - I must be shutting my laptop too fast so the pages aren't saving!



Monday, tell us all about you! We know you obviously like amphibians, but we want to know about the rest of your life. Details about you, your life, hobbies, families, past times, favorite colors, poems you have written etc etc....just use this post to brag/boast/bore us how you please.


Today is all about you, you, you! Tomorrow is for the frog talk and Wednesday is for pictures/videos etc!

[Gnag the nameless]

Congrats!

[Jenste]

Tuesday, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....

Feel free to do Monday and Tuesdays posts together =)

[demon amphibians]

Thanks guys sorry for the late start. Its been a very busy week for me at work so looks like i will need to make up for lost time.


I am 28 years old, I was born and raised in southern Idaho. My home town is Oakley. I grew up in a very small farming community but my family business was and still is mining natural quartz (this is used to build houses and landscaping). I grew up with many hobbies. I loved the outdoors from the day i could walk. Living in the small town that i did it was hard to find fun thing to do. But it wasn't a problem for me. I grew up with fishing, hunting, rock climbing, hiking, ski and snow boarding, wake boarding, and when i was a small boy i loved going out and catching and collecting bugs and lizards and stuff. In high school i played football and did power lifting. I was never the kind of person who could sit still in class, If you are wondering no i do not have have any learning disability's, i just was to impatient for school and wanted to do something fun so i decided to follow in my grandfathers footsteps and enlisted in the United States Navy. I am a very patriotic person, even though i could not disagree more with our state of government.
I have been in the navy for about 8 years. My job, i cant really be very descriptive of, sorry i wish i could tell you because it is super fun but unfortunately i will be putting myself at risk. Since i have been in the navy i have traveled all around the world, I lived in Japan for 3 1/2 years Which I absolutely loved. I will tell you this Japanese people are the nicest people you will ever meet. I traveled to a wide variety of places, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and many others. The ships i have served on are the USS Kitty Hawk, USS Tarawa and the USS Pelelui. On the Tarawa and Pelelui i served with more marines then navy type in which i found to be a very interesting experience. Right now i am currently shore stationed and loving it because it allows me to once more pursue my other hobbies i so much enjoy, One of them which brings me to FF. But i have only one year left and i am dreading leaving the hobby for another period of time. But traveling is what i love as well and it is for a good purpose.
I currently live in San Diego, I love this place yet i still miss Idaho because of the out door activities and the seasons. If you have never been to San Diego be prepared to see no season changes lol. But it is always sunny so i can't really complain.
My other hobbies are quite extensive: I love to read. Right now i am on the 5th book of Game of Thrones, I am into those kind of books like lord of the rings and such. My Girlfriend who lives with me., looks like Daenerys in the Game of Thrones series so i think i found a keeper LOL. Now my next hobby may throw you off after what you probably already know about me with the nerdy frog and roach hobby and the reading aspect, i am a professional power lifter. I have been taking a 1 year break from it due to a surgery i had. But before my surgery i was challenging 3 world record for at the weight class of 165 lbs. I unofficially broke them all and even beat the current world record holder in bench press in person. His record stood at 385 and i beat him with 505 when he made a guest appearance to my ship. But like i always say what isn't paper is vapor. I am drug free and supplement free which explains why i am always giving nutritional advice on veggies. And i would loose my job if i were on drugs. I had a sponsor from actions sports but lost it when i had to have a surgery to save my life (which was not power lifting related.) Since then i have had several follow up surgeries so i have been out of the sport for longer then i would like. But all that is behind me and i am in week one of my training hopefully within the year you will be able to look me up on the Gueniss Book of World Records. Also another one of my big hobbies is cooking. I love to cook, I love to eat so i must know how to cook right? I have never been to culinary school. All i have learned is from cook books and learning from pro's them self's such as sushi chefs as well as online. I like diversity so i cook every ethic food that i come across. From Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Irish, french, Greek you name it I will have at least one good recipe. Also my Girlfriend is a vegetarian so that added to my cooking adventure.
The thing about me is i love learning new things which is one reason that brings me to the Forum. I am a certified welder and mason, I do wood work, landscaping, love planting gardens and cultivating stuff,( Even though my experience with aquatic plants hasn't proven to be very fruitful.) I could never make up my mind what i wanted to do with my life besides the Military so i just decided to learn how to do many things. After the military i have decided i want to do federal law enforcement. That is 5 years away but I have been preparing.

well i guess that is me in a nut shell.

[Mentat]

Congratulations !

[Jenste]

Wednesday, show and tell. Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips.

[demon amphibians]

Tuesday, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....

Feel free to do Monday and Tuesdays posts together =)

So how i came to frogs...
When i was young i loved to go out and catch and collect bugs, snakes and other animals. The animal that was the hardest to catch therefore it was the coolest at least as far as a 5 year old was concerned was frogs. They were always the big mystery to me. Then when i was 8 or 9 my grandma got me a pac man for my birthday. I named him Trigger. He passed away just before my 21st birthday so i had him for most of my life. When he passed i was devastated and have been wanting a pac man ever since but I don't only want to get one of them i want to get many different colors and species. Right now i don't have the means to house that many so when i buy a house i am going to build a really cool set up that includes a rain chamber for breeding.
Another story that i have that got me so fascinated with frogs.. when i was in high school i took my 8 year old nephew fishing down by the snake river. We were having no luck so i told him lets go frog hunting. the sun was setting and we could here them croaking. That is when we came across the larges female bullfrog i have ever seen in my life. It was a mind blowing 9 1/2 inches from vent to snout. I fed her small adult rats (which now i know that it wasn't the best meal choice) I also feed my brothers lizard collection to her when my brother caught me he went out and caught a Garder snake that was almost 2 feet long and put it in the frog tank to get revenge on me for feeding his lizards to my frog. His plan failed because the frog ate the snake too. I ended up letting her go after a few months because i just didn't have a tank big enough to house this frog. To this day i still cant believe how big it was but my mom has a pic of is somewhere buried in a photo album in her storage unit. When i go home to Idaho again i will for sure be looking for it.
Since i have been in the navy i haven't been able keep frogs until I came to shore duty. I am just dreading the day i will have to go back to sea. the last thing i want to do is get rid of my slimy little friends.

[demon amphibians]

don't worry everyone i have pics coming today too.

[SCF]

Congrats Demon amphibians, Very interesting read. I look forward to your pictures.

[Gnag the nameless]

So how i came to frogs...
That is when we came across the larges female bullfrog i have ever seen in my life. It was a mind blowing 9 1/2 inches from vent to snout. I fed her small adult rats (which now i know that it wasn't the best meal choice) I also feed my brothers lizard collection to her when my brother caught me he went out and caught a Garder snake that was almost 2 feet long and put it in the frog tank to get revenge on me for feeding his lizards to my frog. His plan failed because the frog ate the snake too.

Bullfrogs sure are big eaters, aren't they? They get massive too. 9 and 1/2 inches... man, you gotta' tell me where you found that thing!

Can't wait for the photo's, I just know they'll be awesome.

[demon amphibians]

I found it in an overflowing bank of the snake river Between twin falls and Burley Idaho in 2002. I have seen several frogs in the area in excess of 8" but the only one i was able to catch was the big one. In the area Bullfrogs are in the tadpole state for 2 years on average. I think that is what greatly impacts the size of frogs in the area. I have been trying to buy from a person in Alabama who is a breeder, he clams to have a couple Bullfrogs over 9" in length. He has other people who have seen these frogs who agree that they are that large, yet i have not seen them. Still waiting for him to successfully breed them. He hasn't sent pics so i am a little skeptical.