Reptile & Amphibian Forums

for those of you that answered my last post, thanks for all the helpful suggestions, i have implemented some but my housing management finally fixed the problem with the hose/faucet so i was able to refill his pond, so the heated water with the waterfall and airstones so my roughneck's habitat is finally back and his behavior demonstrates it. i fed him a bull-frog tadpole today, it was pretty fun to watch him hunt it in the water and i have a few more that i am thinking of feeding to him at some point (especially after metamorphosis) but i was wondering if you guys thought there might be any issues in feeding him tadpoles and bullfrogs they were store bought). also, i know goldfish carry a fair amount of diseases, but do any of these harm a rough neck? is it beneficial to him at all to provide him with fish? will he even eat them?
thanks guys,
-jake
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I will never forget"

Im not really familiar with rough necks, but I know many species of monitor will happily take small fish.

Feeder goldfish though are some of the dirtiest, most disease ridden, nutrition deficient food items you can offer. If you want to offer small fish, I suggest species like platys, swordtails, mollys, and danios (giant danios are great for young monitors, but smaller species may be too hard to catch).

These animals are relatively clean, are usually kept in better conditions than feeder goldfish and are decent sized (not to mention pretty). They also have live young, so many times you may purchase a bloated looking female only to find a few baby fish in your cage later on.

Just from my experience, something Ive noticed my Nile REALLY loves are rather strange: dojo eels. He hunts them down easily, grabbing em mid body like he would a snake and pummeling it, then down the hatch it goes!

Crayfish are also greedily munched. I usually buy 10-30 of em, freeze them, then offer a few at a time. My Nile loves em!

thanks for the tips, i think they will be fun for both me and my monitor. i'm not sure if his snout is wide enough to take a lot of what you mentioned, but ill look into a lot of those fish, how much is a dojo eel?

>>Im not really familiar with rough necks, but I know many species of monitor will happily take small fish.
>>
>>Feeder goldfish though are some of the dirtiest, most disease ridden, nutrition deficient food items you can offer. If you want to offer small fish, I suggest species like platys, swordtails, mollys, and danios (giant danios are great for young monitors, but smaller species may be too hard to catch).
>>
>>These animals are relatively clean, are usually kept in better conditions than feeder goldfish and are decent sized (not to mention pretty). They also have live young, so many times you may purchase a bloated looking female only to find a few baby fish in your cage later on.
>>
>>Just from my experience, something Ive noticed my Nile REALLY loves are rather strange: dojo eels. He hunts them down easily, grabbing em mid body like he would a snake and pummeling it, then down the hatch it goes!
>>
>>Crayfish are also greedily munched. I usually buy 10-30 of em, freeze them, then offer a few at a time. My Nile loves em!
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I will never forget"

Petshops like Petco usually sell em for anything from $2 to $7.

Make sure you get a healthy looking one if you try it, and make sure its the right size for your animal.