40b Dart tank - Natural style build Journal

[DigitalPunk]

Yeah the top was a learning experience for sure. Trying to re invent the wheel does not always pay off, but like you said Carlos. Posting the failures as well as successes is a crucial part in sharing with the community. Helps others get ideas and learn from mistakes already made.

This really isn't the thread to update this, but Lynn once said to me when I first started posting about our first 2 frogs that once you make them move into Dart frogs you know the addiction has set in hard and all hope is lost.

Well The Mantella tank was setup in the basement to give them some privacy and now the space looks like this.



$4 light fixture holding the grow light for the mantilla tank





The door against the shelf is a temp thing. I am looking to offload it as soon as possible lol.

The basement is slowly becoming a frog room. Complete with breeding racks, fruit fly shelves, and a 6 foot long, 6ft high, and 2 foot deep shelf to hold between 6 and 8 more tanks depending on the sizes. I am now hopelessly addicted to these little guys and gals. We now have 12 frogs in the house and the next frog purchases are already being discussed.

[DigitalPunk]

This tank suffered its first loss today. The Home Depot plant that was green with red markings passed away. It could not handle the high humidity and also disliked the Mantellas jumping on it to knock fruit flies off the leaves.

RIP you cheap big box plant

[deranged chipmunk]

I am having a moment of silence for the big box plant

[DigitalPunk]

The M. Betsileos have been in the tank for a little over 3 weeks now. It seems like much longer than that to be honest with you. All 5 of them have been seen daily at feeding time. They do not like to hang out together so after a couple days of watching them try and tolerate each other to eat (I think the feeding spot I had set up now falls safely in the territory of one of them) I have switched the past to week to feeding them in 3 to 4 areas of the tank. I basically drop fruit flies at or near the entrance to the 4 hides they use in the tank. I still don't know how many males or females I have. It seems to me that I have at least 3 males, but there has been no calling and 3 of the frogs picked a hide and spend the day either sitting up on top of it or just inside it with their little heads poking out.

Once of them has taken to climbing up the cork bark and sitting on top of it. The thing has caught me by surprise several times this past week. I think he is up there eating the fruit flies that run for high ground at feeding time, he hasn't tried to escape yet, but it scares me when I see him up there. It is a good 4 foot drop to the concrete floor in the basement and I hope I never find out if he can fall that far without injury.


The temps and humidity seem to be stable in the tank right now. The temp stays around 75F constantly. I will open the front lid and watch them just before bed time allowing heat to escape and drop the temp down to 71 - 72. I have a HydroTherm not in use and have considered hooking it up to the Aquatic Heater and seeing if it can simulate a temp drop at night and be able to recover it in the day fast enough, but have not tested it out just yet.

The humidity is will maintain a steady 70% between mistings and spike up to 80% after a misting. I am fine with 70% bottom line for now and will move into a wet cycle in a week of so and boost the humidity up into the 80% and hold it there. I have taken some cool videos of them eating and one of a Male (I think) going up to a female (I think) and puffing up over and over again and then moving on.

Here are a couple of videos I edited some shots together.

This one is a video I made for fun - Its a fake movie trailer featuring the Mantellas.
This one is a compilation of the Mantellas eating. I added some slow motion sections to try and show off some of the faster moments better.


Bill - On the swimming front I have seen them regularly just jump into the water and then swim (and they swim freaking fast) across the length of the tank (36in) and then race up the glass and jump off into a hide, It has been super cool to see!!

[deranged chipmunk]

Very cool Paul! Glad to hear they are behaving well for ya .
The one that is climbing is most likely a male. They like to climb and "survey their kingdom" lol

That is so cool that yours go swimming as well. It's amazing the behaviors that you get to witness when they are given a more natural environment.

[DigitalPunk]

Man do they love to swim. Well at least 2 of them do it often.

The water life itself has been fun to watch. The entire surface of the water is spotted with Springtails. They pounce on the fruit flies when they fall into the water. The shrimp will swim up to the water surface super fast and splash the surface causing flies or dead crickets to sink and then they enjoy their meal.

I have started offering Small (very small crickets) to the Mantellas nightly. They seem to enjoy chasing those quick little buggers around the tank. I am recoding the cricket feedings that I can and will compile the best shots into a video and get that one up on youtube as soon as I can.

If there is any other video footage you would like to see let me know and I will do my best to get it added.


-- The fogger that was placed in the tank has been removed. I did not need it for humidity control and one of the mantillas took up residence right next to its location and hated when I turned it on so I removed it while he was out eating the other day.

[DigitalPunk]

Interesting last week with the M. Betsileos. One of them has been seen in a different spot in the tank since they have been in there. Almost like he is trying to find a good home. Well for the past few days he has moved into the Split Seed Pod. Spends a lot of time in side it hiding, but I have also seen him/her On top of the stem just standing there. I will try to get a picture of Him/Her up there, but when I open the top He/She hops down with a quickness.

It has been interesting watching them explore and get use to the new home. I can't be certain, but it appears like they are making small tunnels in the substrate around their hide. I know I have seen leaves shifted around to block off the view in the hides and I have seen them peaking out from down inside the moss, well more like under the moss. The all seem to be doing great! I am making sure to still spread the food around the enclosure so they don't have to fight for food. I have cut back on the cricket feedings, I see some crickets from time to time run for it when I do a heavy misting of the tank so I figure I will wait and see if they drown or get eaten before adding more.


edit: I am in need of a new/different temp/humidity gauge. The One I purchased originally kept bugging out and showing false readings. I finally tossed it and have been on the hunt for a replacement. I bought the same kind for my sons dart tank and his is doing the same thing. Anyone with any affordable options please let me know.

[DigitalPunk]

No new pictures of the frogs. I have been leaving them alone as much as possible. I still feel bad for having to disturb them so much to remove the fogger from the tank.

On a positive note I finally found a proper glass top for this tank on amazon. It was $30+ with $10 shipping added on at checkout. Got it in the mail today and it is nice. It is a solid lid (other i found were designed for a tank with a middle brace on the top and would not work for me). I will most likely modify it for more ventilation as time goes on, but here it is on the tank. I used a fork and melted a bunch of holes in the plastic part to see if that would be enough ventilation (I am assuming it won't be, but will let it run like that for now.




The tank is steady now at 74.5F and 85 - 90% Humidity. The gauge in the tank is off by +5% so it is right in line with where I want it to be.

[deranged chipmunk]

Sweet!!

[DigitalPunk]

I don't even want to start trying to figure out how much money I wasted on this tank lid. Live and learn, though I did have to rush it because I found some M. Betsileos on sale and wanted to grab them before someone else die.. Ugh. Ok on to happier thoughts lol.

[deranged chipmunk]

Lol. I told you to go this route months ago buddy! But we all need to learn at our own pace. All that matters is you did get it sorted.

[DigitalPunk]

Yeah I know lol. My issue at the time was finding a top. The only place I found it for a reasonable price was sold out of them.

[jarteta97]

Haha, I got my glass lid for my hermit crabs from Petco for like $25. I just had to drill holes in the vinyl spacer like bill did. It keeps in humidity really well.

[DigitalPunk]

Here is a short video of a walkthrough of all my current tanks and the space I am setting up as a frog room in the basement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZUP5ShxCrc

[DigitalPunk]

Little premature to post this, but the plans have been set in motion to do a home upgrade for the M. Betsileo. I am saving up to purchase a 36x18x24 Exo terra and will design and build a new home for the 5 Mantellas I currently have. I am not at all unhappy with this tank and how it has preformed. I am however not happy with the vertical space (or lack there of) in the current home.

My Plan is to buy the tank and build it out (again in the natural style) and let it grow in for a bit before moving the frogs into it. This 40b tank will then be converted into a vertical tank and I will be setup for future undetermined frogs. I figure a 18x16x36 tank would rock for either the 5 reds, or I might set it up with ledges and stuff for some Darts to give them some real height to explore.

Anyways, I only just made the final decision to start saving for the tank so I imagine I am a month or more away from even buying the tank to being this project. I will of course start a separate thread when that build begins.


Tank update:

The frogs are doing great! Most of the plants are doing fantastic as well. Had a few plants fall victim to the high humidity level. I put a few plants in as a test to see how they would fair as well. The aquatic section and animals are doing good. I have no way of knowing how many shrimp are still alive in there. I put a bunch in at first and then added in about 10 more a few weeks ago to replace some of the possible dead loss. The two Picos are still alive and can be seen rarely swimming around.

[DigitalPunk]

Tank should be here in the next couple days. I went with a 24x18x24 Exo Terra for the M. Betsileo. All the supplies have been ordered as well (Wife decided she wanted to redo the red eye tank herself and approved fast track funds for both tanks lol).

I will create a separate build thread for this tank. Not going to do s true natural tank with this build, but I have high hopes for how it will turn out lol.

[jarteta97]

Awesome, can't wait to see! All your build journals are beautiful, and I love how you add so many pictures so that we can really see how progress goes. Hoping for more

[DigitalPunk]

Jarteta97,

Thank you! I have a blast build the tanks and sharing the progress on here for everyone to see how I do things and learn from my mistakes lol (and I make plenty of them). I will absolutely be starting a new thread once the build gets underway and will include a large amount of photos to show how things progress.

I technically will be doing 2 tanks at once. My wife (who is the Red eye keeper) is upgrading them to a larger tank. We currently have 5 Reds in a 18x18x24 Exo terra. She is upgrading them to a 24x18x24 and changing the layout quite a bit. The natural style does not work well for the reds. They are much more messy that Darts or Mantellas and we are forever cleaning the water and the glass. I will go a thread for that one as well .

[jarteta97]

Between your builds and Bill's TARDIS build, I think I am going to be very​ entertained for the next few months