I bought one FRT from a member on MFK in March/April 2014... then sometime in the summer, someone posted 2 pairs for sale on MFK.. the ad was taken down shortly after because MFK does not allow FRT sales. Anyways.. I was able to see the ad before it was deleted and contacted the seller. The seller claimed he had an adult pair of mated FRT's that were 20 years old and another pair that were around 12 years old. At first I was skeptical, I asked for pictures and videos... in one of the videos provided I did see the adult female leave the water and start digging in a sandy area! This was enough for me to pull the trigger. I rounded 2 of my buddies and we decided to hit the road the following morning but didn't get going until 3pm....OC coffee shops and a tune up slowed us down!Los Angeles to OKC is roughly a 19hr drive, nonstop.
So, we drove nonstop from LA to OKC with the exception of gas and food stops and it ended up taking 22 hours. Met up with the seller(kool dude) and he had the turtles separated in rubber holding tubs filled half way with water. When I asked the seller why they were in the tubs.. the seller pulled one of the partitions and the male instantly mounted the female... I mean.. within one minute he was on top of her doing his thing! So we packed up the turtles and the seller wanted to give us a whole bunch of things(rubbermaid tubs, pumps, intex pool...etc) but since we drove in my buddy's tacoma that had a snugtop.. we were unable to fit much more than the FRT's. These guys are BIG! Long story short, we left for home and barely escaped a storm that had multiply funnels that were forming. We made it back around 1pm... time elapsed... 45 hrs. No sleep and we were all beginning to smell a bit! lol
So I guess my answer is Yes, John. I have a full set of TMNT and Splinter too!
That's a crazy story! Glad everything worked out for you.
If the shark smells the blood in the water, it will come.... I should text him since I have his number and send a link to this thread.
:lipsseale
Back in the days.. it was only 'Tigerfish'.. that's it.. no TATF, VATF, GATF etc..just Tigerfish! haha It would be years before I buy another VATF. This time around.. I think it was 1992-93.... I bought my 2nd Tigerfish from Sam of Cathy's in Alhambra CA. The tigerfish was barely 2.5 inches and I had to feed her baby guppies for almost 2 weeks before she could take normal sized guppies. Started her in a 20 gallon tank... 2 months later.. 100 gallon tank. A few months after that I got her a 180... then I upgraded to an 800 gallon tank. Almost destroyed my sister's house trying to bring that tank in.
I braved the waters again a few years later but lost interest quickly because my hobby was beginning to feel like a job and gave up ATF fish keeping for 17 whole years! When I got back into this wonderful hobby (1 year ago) and my second purchase was a group of 10 VATFs. They are all alive and well! One of my goals is to grow these guys out to at least 24 inches... would be an awesome looking pack, wouldn't you all agree?! In case anyone was wondering...My first purchase after my 17 year hiatus was an Aimara!
