Proud new owner of 4 blue darts/vivarium-terrarium.

[Wicked frogs]

Recently i saw an ad on here of a guy giving away 4 blue dart frogs vivarium/terrarium which is by the way is so awesome so we set a date to meet up so i can grab the frogs so i drove down to Fall River yesterday which is about an hour drive from Boston. When i got there i was so amazed at what he was giving away for free not joking he gave me everything.... He noted that he had invested just about a grand into these beautiful frogs and everything else. Let me start out what he gave me, he gave me 4 beautiful blue Dendrobates azureus dart frogs terrarium/vivarium 24x18x18 exo terra custom made all living plants inside light racks with 6 different bulbs a custom humidifier,hand pump, exo terra spray bottle,3 things of food (fruit flies) pumps,very little terrarium, bag of coco husk,table,books i mean everything. The guy and his girlfriend were wicked nice just around my age but i could not believe what he was just giving away due to him moving to Idaho. The frogs are in great shape there are 2 little ones that need to put on some weight but that won't be a problem i just can't stop looking at them they are sooo cool i just want to say that i am a proud new owner of my first dart frogs and i wanna say frog forum is great i know people like to see pics which i will be posting soon but for now i will leave a pic at the bottom from when that guy posted the give away ad.


Timmy Z
Wicked Frogs

[J Teezy]

nice score, now get ready to invest in another tank and more frogs because you'll be wanting more

[DonLisk]

Congrats and welcome to the dartside!!

And now that you know that Black Jungle is so so close, your in even more trouble. It is why I lived in a make shift igloo in my back yard so many times

[Wicked frogs]

Thanks guys they are so cool looking and don can i buy more fruit flys there and i got a Q for ya i have 3 little tupper ware things with flies but it looks like a lot are dead they got shipped up from FLA and was in MASS on fri is there a waiting period for them to breed so there will be more? and does black jungle sell them?

[J Teezy]

if you are looking to start your own cultures probably best off to buy one of the starter kits from josh's or neherp or somewhere else that has kits. buying your cultures from stores is way expensive for what you can make your own for

[Wicked frogs]

you know how much they run for and lie the one i got how many flies usually come in there?

[ToadPaparazzi]

I would recommend ordering some fruit fly dry media, culturing cups, and flies... I am sure there are froggers that are close enough to even sell cultures to you... Making fly cultures is easy and much cheaper than constantly buying them. On average, cultures run $8-$10. I make my own at an approx. cost of $1.35 each (I make my own media).

Your Azureus will like hydei better than melanogaster but won't be prejudice... I'd even recommend seeding new cultures with both to maximize media usage... Melanos will boom and bust first... Then the hydei will finish it off (much slower growth rate).

Feel free to pm me with any questions.

-Christian

[DonLisk]

Black Jungle (he lives close to) has the ready to go fly cultures (already producing) and cultures just started if you have flies and need cultures to start producing leter on. I buy the British Gliders from them but he will have several choices and they will recommend what flies to get. They will also set you up with their culture media and excelsior, and cup and lids. Figure you'll spend 35 bucks for every thing to make about 20 cultures.

They will also walk you through making the cultures. Takes about 5 minutes to make two or three cultures using their mix.

Try to keep your cultures between 72 and 76 degrees so the media does not melt down and so the flies keep producing.


I use both Black Jungle's and Josh's Media and like both. If you go with Black Jungles media then you will need a packet of active yeast which you buy at the grocery store. If you buy Josh's media and Josh's flies then you don't need the yeast.
Like I said, drive over to BJ and have them show you, they are great to deal with and always helpful. They also have some of the most amazing plants :-)

[Wicked frogs]

how many is in a culture?????

[ToadPaparazzi]

There should be hundreds if not thousands in each one. They are constantly reproducing until they crash... A culture's initial boom is around 15 days. I discard my cultures at 30 days (from the day I seed it).

[Wicked frogs]

i gotta look more into this i definitely wanna start this process cause right now i don't have many i have 3 little tupper wares but i used one already...

[J Teezy]

Fruit Fly Culturing Kits, Fruit Fly Cultures, Feeder Insects | Josh's Frogs

[ToadPaparazzi]

Fruit fly cultures are different than other feeders like crickets... Basically, you get a culture cup that contains most likely a few hundred if not thousands of fruit flies. They will breed and cycle continuously until the media (food) is depleted or spoiled.

[DonLisk]

When cultures start out there are usually between 50 to 100 flies added to the cup. The cup will slowly begin to be covered in little pods which eventually larva will emerge from. The pods will continue to fill the sides of the cup as the larva begin to turn into flies. Your cups will become almost black inside with flies. They will continue to produce until the media has depleted.

Have a funnel on hand, it comes in handy when wanting to calcium or vitamin dust the flies.

I clean and reuse the cups a few times. Oh and get some mite paper to place the cups on to reduce the chance of mites.