Dart frog questions

[Teh Frog Whisperer]

How should I keep the humidity high and constant? Would I have to buy a mister, or just allow little to no air circulation? Also, what kind of supplemental heating should I use during winter if my room gets cold?

[Kurt]

Currently in my dart tank, I have a piece of plate glass, which is about an inch shorter in length than the tank, resting in the top frame of the tank. There is a folded up paper towel in the gap between it and the tank's upper frame to prevent fruit flies escaping.

A new design I have recently built, is a piece of plexi-glass that is the just a 1/16 of an inch shorter in length and width than the inside dimetions of the frame. Since you can cut and drill plexi-glass, I cut a window in it and using silicone, glued a piece of ultra-fine mesh over it. It will be installed on the new dart tank.

[John]

Unlike most other frogs, dart frogs tolerate low ventilation very well, so most of us keep the humidity up by restricting the "vent" on the tank. For example, the only air flow into and out of these tanks is through the narrow mesh vent at the top:



The brown balls at the bottom of both terrariums are LECA (Light Expanded Clay Aggregate). There is water down there and it keeps the soil above the LECA wet and the terrarium stays humid. I also mist the terrarium every 1-2 days. Both pairs of Imitator dart frogs in those terrariums breed on an ongoing basis.

The downside to having such restricted air flow is that it promotes algae growth on the glass, which you have to clean off every once in a while if you want to have a good view of the frogs.

Folks with automatic misting systems can have much better ventilation because they don't need to rely on restricted ventilation to achieve high humidity.

[Paul Rust]

That is a fantastic setup John. I have an automatic misting system so I use fans to control humidity.

[Teh Frog Whisperer]

Thanks for the help, but how do you attach the bromeliads to the sticks and stuff? And where can I find that kind of bromeliad, or any kind of "air plant" for that matter?

[Paul Rust]

Thanks for the help, but how do you attach the bromeliads to the sticks and stuff? And where can I find that kind of bromeliad, or any kind of "air plant" for that matter?

There are probably as many ways to mount them as there are people who have them. This is how I usually do it.
I drill a 5/8" hole in the mounting material.
Then i pull the roots through snugly.
Next i use Liquid Nails around the base of the brom to glue it it place.
After the adhesive sets I wrap wet sphagnum moss around the base to hide the mount.

I buy my broms from: http://www.michaelsbromeliads.com/

[John]

I usually "engineer" the wood so that there is somewhere to stick the bromeliad into. With the two setups above, in two cases I used toothpicks/cocktail sticks to attach the broms to the siliconed background - the broms then grow in roots after a few months to attach themselves.

I get my broms from Black Jungle because I only buy small growing species that hold a lot of water (not dwarves or miniatures though), so I get to see the plants in person and I get expert advice too - you can also order online from them or phone in an order for specific species. My favourite is Aechmea gamosepala - most Aechmea species are huge but this one is very small by comparison - only grows to a max of 7 inches wide or so (about 18 cm). Most of the bromeliads sold for terrariums are from the Neoregelia genus and generally grow significantly larger.



The Tarapoto imitator pair in the terrarium with it love it, and it's full of tadpoles. The only downside is that this species usually dies off after flowering (it takes a while to do that) but it produces seeds and several new plants from its base too.

[Teh Frog Whisperer]

Where can I buy plants for my poison frogs? Can I get them from Wal-Mart, or would pesticides and stuff like that be a concern?