Josh’s Aussie Reptiles

27/08/2024

Been a bit of radio silence on here recently. It’s been a big month of field trips in my final year of my degree with the most recent trip being to north west Victoria within the Mallee region doing some wildlife research. The other trip was to the Anglesea Heathlands doing botanical studies. Each of these trips contributes to long standing data collection and research. And bonus for me is getting to find some really cool fauna and flora!

16/05/2024

Dreams do come true folks

Since the ripe old age of 13 I’ve dreamt of being involved in a presentation for the Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS). Little did I know that it would come only a few years later. To say this was an honour is an understatement, truly a career highlight and one I will cherish forever. Thank you to all who reached out with messages of support and those who attended on the night.

To the next generation coming through, the key takeaways for me are these:
1. Talk to everyone you can, you’ll learn so much.
2. Back yourself, take some risks and even try something out of the ordinary.
3. Enjoy the ride along the way!

08/05/2024

Our next meeting is only a week away! Don’t miss out on a great night with our guest speaker Josh from Josh’s Aussie Reptiles! Start time is 7.15pm at The Victoria Hotel Yarraville! Everyone is welcome and we will be kicking the night off with our usual auction!

03/05/2024

Little fella got a slight tank upgrade so he had some time in the sun. Looking forward to building something special for this guy in the coming months.

25/04/2024

Feel free to give this a listen folks! Many reoccurring themes will be addressed within my talk at the VHS as well! Thanks to Scott and Tie of Cold-blooded Contributions Podcast and Nature 4 You for having me!

Our second interview is up and live. Thanks to Josh for dropping in (and waiting while Scott's dinosaur of a computer took its time to work!) As always for us, it was awesome chatting to Josh. You can listen to it here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NzagOQdAFla9yslRkHdo2?si=f77be0630f1843ad

You can show Josh some love and follow him on the links below. Thanks for listening guys!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshsaussiereptiles
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshsaussiereptiles/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshsaussieadventrures
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-fastuca

23/04/2024

A taste of what it to come on the 15th of May at The Victoria Hotel in Yarraville folks. If you’ve never been to a Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS) meeting this one maybe the one for you. The talk will be two parts, the first you’ll get to hear me harp on about the wonderful world of wildlife that I’m involved with. The second part will predominantly focus on the benefits of having an incredible h**p society like the VHS. This event is free to attend but I will ask if you are in a place to do so feel free to either sign up as a VHS member or enter the raffle on the day. Any support is greatly appreciated! Look forward to seeing many of you there!

17/04/2024

To say I’m excited, nervous and honoured is an understatement. To the Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS) thank you so very much for this incredible opportunity. Feel free to come on down and listen to me tell a few stories!

16/04/2024

Was an honour to be interviewed by Scott and Tie Eipper for the Cold-blooded Contributions Podcast. Definitely keep an eye out and give a listen to their existing episodes as well!

We try to record a month in advance as we are pretty time poor and know our guests have busy lives also.

We recorded our second interview a while back, and we are pleased to say we were lucky enough to get some practise in on being less awkward with Josh Fastuca from Josh's Aussie Reptiles!

It was an awesome chat with Josh, as it's refreshing to get a younger perspective every now and then. (I can say that, I'm old!) Josh shared with us his passions, his keeping successes and failures and his gratitude for the support network he has around him.

We hope you enjoy listening to the podcast as much as we enjoyed chatting to Josh. The podcast will be airing on the 28th April, so keep an eye out for it!

You can show Josh some support here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshsaussiereptiles
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshsaussiereptiles/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshsaussieadventrures
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-fastuca

Thanks for listening!

14/04/2024

14/04/2024

Another great weekend spreading the world of reptiles! Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS), Minibeasts Enterprises, Black Snake Productions, Yarra Reptiles Next To Nature With Harry

14/04/2024

Day 2 at The Pet Show, don’t forget to come say hi.
Thanks to all our volunteers for your help this weekend and of course our sponsors Minibeasts Enterprises, Yarra Reptiles and Black Snake Productions

10/04/2024

I’ll be hanging around with the VHS again this year, feel free to pop in and say gday!

Only 1 week left until The Pet Show is back in Melbourne!! 😻⁠
⁠
Prepare yourself for an unforgetting experience filled with cuddles, exploration and education about everything you need to know about dogs, cats, fish, birds, reptiles and small animals. 💞⁠
⁠
If you love pets, you won't want to miss this! 🐾⁠
⁠
⁠📅 Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 April⁠
🕜 10am - 4pm⁠
📍 Melbourne Showgrounds⁠
⁠
Tickets available via link below. 👇🏼
⁠bit.ly/petshowmelb0424

See you there! 😘⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

21/03/2024

For those of you who purchased animals from me this year, here is what some of that funding has contributed to. I make a habit of doing this each year as a way to contribute and give back to conservation and protecting many of our native species.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy

09/03/2024

And just like that another incredible Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS) Reptile and Amphibian Expo is in the books! A crazy couple of days in both the prep work, the pre-expo dinner with a talk from the always amazing Scott and Tie Eipper from Nature 4 You and then of course the expo.

To those that said g’day and have followed along thank you so much for the support and the great words of encouragement. For those who picked up animals from me, good luck to each of you please do send me updates every now and then I can’t wait to see how each of you go with your animals.

No expo is complete without me also coming home with something, I’d like to welcome ‘Tana’ the male Tanami Woma from the lovely Cindy and Marie from OCD Reptiles. Watch this space for some hopefully cool builds to come for this guy.

Thanks also to the inspiring work of the VHS and the Committee, I’ve been lucky enough to help with setup and backdown of the expo the last two years and to say that is just the tip of the iceberg for what goes into organising this event is an understatement. If you’re in Victoria and you aren’t a VHS member yet, and you like keeping reptiles, get behind it folks!

Also a massive shoutout to two absolute legends that I could not have done the expo without. My old man and Dane from Blue Horizon Reptiles if you spoke to either of them throughout the day I’m sure your day was better for it! Thanks to both of you for your assistance and ongoing support.

07/03/2024

Only two more sleeps to the 2024 VHS reptile and amphibian expo! And only one more sleep till the pre-expo dinner with Scott and Tie Eipper! We would like to thank the team at Amazing Amazon Aquarium and Reptile Store for donating a 45x45x60cm terrarium with a heat dome, lamp and substrate valued at around $400 for our raffle prize at the dinner. They will also be in attendance on expo day so make sure you head past and check out their stall!

05/03/2024

Come and find me at Table 8 folks. Will be an awesome day!

04/03/2024

Start getting excited as it is officially expo week! We can’t believe the big day is almost here! This is set to be one our biggest and best expos yet!
We would like to thank Minibeasts Enterprises for being our major sponsor for this years expo! And of course all our other fantastic sponsors: Yarra Reptiles, Pop-up Chameleon, Going Troppo Fish and Pets, Exo Terra Australia, Ballarat Wildlife Park, The Unusual Pet Vets, Critta Cam, Black Snake Productions, Jurassic Jungle and Animals of Oz!
Make sure you head past and support their stalls on the day!

You can still pre-purchase tickets through the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2024-vhs-reptile-amphibian-expo-brought-to-you-by-minibeasts-enterprises-tickets-802710226897

02/03/2024

Alrighty folks we are under a week away from the Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS) Reptile and Amphibian Expo of 2024!!!! I don’t know about you guys but I am incredibly excited for it as always! So here’s the list of what will be at my table this year it’s quite different to last but I’m sure many of you will find something you’ll be interested in. If something isn’t on the table feel free to ask not all of the animals will be on display at one time.

1.0 Juvenile Cape York Spotted Python produced by the one and only Peter Birch's Colourful Critters

0.0.4 Juvenile Lowlands Blotched Blue Tongue Skinks

2.0 Sub-adult Male Lowlands Blotched Blue Tongue Skinks

0.2 Parthenogenic Bynoe’s Geckos (one has laid eggs this season) bred by the fantastic OCD Reptiles

Looking forward to seeing many of you there! Feel free to come and say gday and chat all things h**ps!!!

02/03/2024

For those who haven’t been before this is the best expo in Aus! It’s well worth a visit. If you haven’t heard yet I will have a table with the assistance of Blue Horizon Reptiles. So folks come on down and say gday maybe even come home with a new animal!

We are one week away from the 2024 VHS reptile and amphibian expo! We can’t wait till this time next week when we will be in the midst of one of the biggest reptile expos in Australia! This year every table in the pavilion has been reserved so we will have a packed house. Don’t miss out on a great day out for the whole family with reptile and amphibian breeders, shops, educational reptile shows, displays and talks, face painting for the kids and more!

See you guys at the Melbourne Showgrounds next Saturday the 9th March! Get your tickets now through the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2024-vhs-reptile-amphibian-expo-brought-to-you-by-minibeasts-enterprises-tickets-802710226897

27/02/2024

Less than 2 weeks to go until the **p_society Reptile expo!

I unfortunately won’t be having a table of my own this year, but you’ll more than likely find me at Josh’s Aussie Reptiles booth for the day! Hope you see you all there it’ll be a cracker of a day as always💪🏻

Save the date! March 9th 2024 @ Melbourne Showgrounds
Pre purchase your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2024-vhs-reptile-amphibian-expo-brought-to-you-by-minibeasts-enterprises-tickets-802710226897

20/02/2024

Just had an incredible week of volunteering with an Honours student’s fieldwork which focused in Kosciuszko National Park. This research was looking at small-medium skinks of the Pseudemoia and Eulamprus group. As part of this research I was tasked with s**t surveying and on occasion identification of the skinks. It was a great experience to see another methodology of h**p research and gain more experience in the weird and wonderful world of the Alpine zone. It’s a surreal place and quite a strange one with the influence that feral horses/brumbies seem to hold on both the towns surrounding and the park itself. It’s an odd sensation seeing infrastructure for people to keep horses on site within a national park. Regardless of this, Kosi was an incredible time and I’d like to say thank you for having me as part of your field crew!

On a side note, we also found a Platypus while surveying a creek side and were able to visit a well-known Guthega Skink population which were both unreal experiences.

Photos include:
Glossy Grass Skink - P. rawlinsoni
Tussock Skink - P. pagenstecheri
Southern Grass Skink - P. entrecasteauxii
Southern Water Skink - E. tympanum

20/01/2024

Some pretty average photos of some awesome animals and nature. Two weeks travelling around Victoria. Pretty happy to tick Blotched Blue Tongues off the “to see in the wild” list thanks to a stunning gravid female in the Alps. Unfortunately my photos do her colours no justice whatsoever.

22/12/2023

As we move into the Christmas - New Years period there is not a more appropriate time to mention this.

For those who have been following closely you’ll notice I’ve been posting more wildlife photos than captive animals. That is for good reason. The time has come for me to begin shifting into the next phase of my wildlife/captive animal life which involves reducing the collection to a size which is manageable for myself and also for my family when I am not home.

Part of this was having my proven breeding pair of Centralian Blue Tongues move house to life with Dane Blue Horizon Reptiles and I have no doubt he will have success with them as time goes on.

For those playing along at home, I will still be keeping some animals, just a much smaller amount than just about ever before. The VHS Expo in March next year will see the majority of my animals on the table.

Nevertheless, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years and all that fun stuff. I’ll be doing a bit of travelling over the summer with I hope a mixture of wildlife content here and travel content on my other page (on Instagram)!

17/12/2023

Some of the wildlife from a recent trip away with some great mates! Blue Horizon Reptiles

10/12/2023

Pretty successful day out along the Mornington Peninsula with a mate, ticked off a few species today including the Swamp Skink which is an Endangered species nationally. As well as a Lowlands Copperhead which was the first time I’d found one of those as well as a couple Tiger Snakes. All in all a great day of h**ping!

03/07/2023

Still have three male Murray Darling Carpet Python hatchlings ready to rock and roll. From unrelated parents so would make a great addition to a breeding project or if you want a pet they are seemingly quite relaxed in hand as well. Feel free to share it around or reach out if you’re interested.

27/06/2023

The last of the Pure Murray Darling Carpet Python hatchies are ready to rock and roll. These four are all boys and are from a NSW male x “Barmah” VIC female. Should be some pretty good looking adults as they age. Send me a message if you’re interested preferably VIC only.

Note for those who maybe interested, I will ask a few questions just to gain an understanding of your experience.

https://www.reptileclassifieds.com.au/ads/pure-murray-darling-carpet-python-hatchling-males/

22/06/2023

I didn’t realise I hadn’t formally introduced these guys yet. In March at the Victorian Herpetological Society (VHS) Reptile & Amphibian Expo, as well as being a vendor I also came home with a few critters. These guys are Parthenogenetic Bynoe’s Geckos meaning that they are both females and their offspring will be females through asexual reproduction. Very cool life strategy! These guys came from the lovely Cindy and Marie of OCD Reptiles.