Caiman at the nat'l aquarium in Baltimore

[usafschue]

6 footer, great lookin, love these pics, they are among my favs

http://www.fluidserver.com/tony/caiman1.JPG

http://www.fluidserver.com/tony/caiman2.JPG

http://www.fluidserver.com/tony/caiman3.JPG

[Rudy]

Thanks for the pics. I love Caimen. I used to have one as a kid when you used to be able to buy them for $50. Now they are hard to get and huge dollars.

[dwarfcat]

At a petstore here in town they have something labeled alligator for 125 bucks. Is it a caimen? It is already rather large. I cant believe they are allowed to sell these things.

[Rudy]

Could be an American Alligator. I used to know a guy who had one here and the thing was as tame as a dog.

Every caiman I have ever known is on the verge of tame and aggressive. I have been bit by many reptiles and suchwhen I was young. 3 foot caimen was probably the most painful. The worst was a monkey.

[wudman]

They are still available here in Houston for under $50... A few years ago, I use to keep one in my tank with an Oscar, catfish, arowana and a few other fish... There was an opening at the top of the tank for him to climb out of the water and relax... He would grab a feeder from the water and take it back to the top of the tank to eat also.

My caiman would often bite the tail off my arowana... Unfortunately the arowana got fed up with this once it outgrew the caiman and they had a very bad fight... The arowana grabbed onto his leg and thrashed and when it was over, the caiman limped out of the water with a broken leg. He died shortly after.

[bevoman]

Aros are unbelievable! Sorry about the caimen.

[BlueRam]

I've been to the baltimore aquarium. Its pretty darn nice! When I worked in a petstore in NY (a crappy one too) my manager wanted to order some alligators cause they were on the list. If I remember correctly tho, in NY you have to have a license to keep them. I convinced him NOT to order them. I didn't think it was a good idea just because someones going to come in and be like oh thats cool.. take it home and not know anything about care... and yeah we all know how that goes....
Cool pics tho :D

[Victor Creed]

I've kept both Spectacled Caimans (Cayman crocodilus) and 2 American Alligators (Alligator mississipiensis) and I must say for the beginner Crocodilian-keeper, American Alligators are by far the best choice. They are the tamest and most docile of the entire 24 species, and while Caimans may look cool, they are often very ill-tempered and nearly impossible to tame down. Two species come to mind that would suit the beginner Croc-keeper better than A. mississipiensis, the Dwarf Caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus) and the Smooth-fronted Caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus). The former is the smallest species in existence, with males reaching 4.5 feet, and females rarely growing larger than 3.5 feet (some even at 2.5 feet). P.trigonatus is about a foot larger w/ 5.5 foot males, and 4.5 foot females. Both retail for around 250-300$. Another reason Caimans do not do well in captivity is because they have a very high UV-light requirement which is not easily met by your typical Herper, let alone easy to find powerful enough lighting at stores that won't FRY the poor creature. A. mississippiensis does NOT share this need.

Yes. I have been bitten several times.

Yes. A 3 foot Crocodilian bites hard and it is not only painful but can get infected.

YES. A 5 foot Crocodilian bites even HARDER and has bigger teeth :(

Yes. I still have scars from both experiences.

Yes. If you keep A. mississipiensis in any state it naturally occurs in (w/ the exception of Alabama), you need a permit or it is just plain illegal for civilians. PERIOD.

Yes. Even though the aforementioned species are much smaller than than A. mississipiensis, the American Alligator is STILL the least aggressive of all Crocodilians and rather EASY to tame if raised from a hatchling and handled frequently.

[DogWalker]

Apparently the singray thing was a hoax - Steve Irwin is alive and well and has joined this forum!!

Seriously, if this forum starts a 'Creepy Things, Oddities and Oddballs' corner I nominate you for curator. Between this and your other recent posts, a very impressive résumé in that department :ok:

[Victor Creed]

Apparently the singray thing was a hoax - Steve Irwin is alive and well and has joined this forum!!

Seriously, if this forum starts a 'Creepy Things, Oddities and Oddballs' corner I nominate you for curator. Between this and your other recent posts, a very impressive résumé in that department :ok:

LOL @ you

He was a great man and one of my mentors and when he passed I cried, it was a very dark day for animal activists/conservationists everywhere.

Ironically, I almost lost my left hand due to a massive Stingray wound in 2004 while fishing Long Beach Island, N.J. during Hurricane Charlie. We hadn't even been there 30 minutes and the storm and rough waters washed in a whole plethora of species not usually seen in the Great Bay. The ray was about 4 feet long and 3 feet in diameter.

It became tangled in the net we used due to it's massive weight, and when i stroked it to keep it calm as I was untangling it and pouring water over it, she whipped her tail and in a snap crackle and pop, I was impaled. Fortunately it missed the main artery in my wrist by less than 1/4 inch.

The 3 inch stinger was more than halfway through my wrist, and quickly pumping toxin into my bloodstream, so I did the only thing I could: I risked causing further damage to myself to stop the envenoming by twisting the stingers and ripping it out of my arm. It was extremely painful, and the amount of pressure built up from all the toxin caused blood to shoot out over 6 feet. I threw my best friend my car keys and told him I need to get to a hospital, and as we were leaving I told the remaining fisherman gawking over the ray, "Make sure she gets back into that water safely, don't kill her, she was only protecting herself" I passed out 3 or 4 times on the way from the pain, which is an extremely intense rollercoaster-type of pain, and it makes you feel like your blood is on fire and going to burst from beneath your very skin.

3 days in the hospital and $10,000 later I went back to work, and I still was under risk for possible amputation for next few weeks until it healed. As if the 6 hour wait from the emergency room because i didn't have insurance wasn't enough.

This event paved the way for Stingray injuries, as it had been the worst case anyone at that hospital had ever witnessed or heard of, and then, about a year later, our beloved Steve Irwin gets stabbed in the heart by a 300+lb. Stingray and dies. The hospital that treated me were *ssH*l*s and I SHOULD have sued the pants off them, but I don't really believe that is the answer. They simply would not take me seriously and were brushing it off as nothing, just because THEY never heard of a serious stingray incident.....and then someone DIES from it.

How's that for irony?