40G Build Diary f/ Poison Dart Frogs

[ToadPaparazzi]

What kind of dart frog do you planning on working with. Are you orienting the tank vertically or horizontally? I recommend against water features... They usually become a pain in the rear. Depending on the species of PDF, a water feature might also be useless... Unless you are getting a species that utilizes communal tadpole rearing sites (I think the epipedobates (sp?), ameerega (sp?), and phyllobates species use this).

If you plan on getting a thumbnail species, most will more benefit from having a vertically oriented vivarium and will utilize bromeliads and film cups for egg and tadpole deposition.

If you are set on the idea of a water feature, keep two things in mind:

1. PDFs are not known to be very good swimmers so you will want a shallow pond with plenty of ways for them to get out.

2. If you plan on using a pump, make sure that you make it easily accessible (pumps are known to have issues and many people scrap their water features before long).

Also, leaf litter is very beneficial for PDFs and the microfauna that you will want to seed in their tank.

If you haven't cultured fruit flies before, I'd recommend getting your culturing skills and stock up at least 3-4 weeks prior to obtaining your frogs (unless you plan on spending a ridiculous amount of money every time you buy a culture.

Good luck with this adventure... PDFs are amazing little jewels!

-Christian

[J Teezy]

Fruit Flies are pretty easy to culture if you can read and follow directions. When i first started i bought a starter kit from Josh's frogs. Think it was the Deluxe Melo kit with flies. I use a sterilite 3 drawer bin for storing my cultures. Oldest on the bottom, newest in very top and rest in middle. I use the jurassimite spray to spray on paper towels that i put in each drawer to set the cultures on. I change this out on the 1st of every month. Throw out old cultures once they are 4 weeks old (i freeze the culture and then recycle my cups and lids). As mentioned leaf litter should be a must as well as seeding the tank with springtails. I didn't have springtails before i got my frogs so i ordered some from josh's and moved them into a bigger container to start a colony. After a couple weeks the colony had exploded so then once a week i add a few hundred springs to the viv. My viv has plenty of springs in it now and my colony is huge. Water features aren't really necessary and i'd steer away from one in your first build. Sure they look cool but a lot of trouble can come from them. Get an mistking, you'll thank me later. put your lights on a timer. Get some leaf litter (did we already mention this =) ). Get your isopod cultures now so you can start them producing so you will have plenty when the tank is ready to be seeded with them. Along with springtails, Giant Oranges are good tank janitors and PDFs wont eat the adults because they are too big for them.

[AReaHerps]

What kind of dart frog do you planning on working with. Are you orienting the tank vertically or horizontally? I recommend against water features... They usually become a pain in the rear. Depending on the species of PDF, a water feature might also be useless... Unless you are getting a species that utilizes communal tadpole rearing sites (I think the epipedobates (sp?), ameerega (sp?), and phyllobates species use this).

If you plan on getting a thumbnail species, most will more benefit from having a vertically oriented vivarium and will utilize bromeliads and film cups for egg and tadpole deposition.

If you are set on the idea of a water feature, keep two things in mind:

1. PDFs are not known to be very good swimmers so you will want a shallow pond with plenty of ways for them to get out.

2. If you plan on using a pump, make sure that you make it easily accessible (pumps are known to have issues and many people scrap their water features before long).

Also, leaf litter is very beneficial for PDFs and the microfauna that you will want to seed in their tank.

If you haven't cultured fruit flies before, I'd recommend getting your culturing skills and stock up at least 3-4 weeks prior to obtaining your frogs (unless you plan on spending a ridiculous amount of money every time you buy a culture.

Good luck with this adventure... PDFs are amazing little jewels!

-Christian

My thoughts at this point are to keep Dendrobates auratus. I'm going off the description from Josh's Frogs website. I really want a frog that does well in groups. I figured since I have a big enough floor space, I could get more than the usual 2 or 3. Thanks for the insight on the water feature. I'm not completely sold on it yet so I definitely take your opinions to heart and really determine if I want to do that or not. One of my reasons for wanting it though was to ensure there was a consistent overall ambient humidity. I have looked into some auto misting features as well. If I did not go with a water feature then I would definitely be creating a false bottom type enclosure.

As for feeders, the only things I have not cultured in the past are springtails but from what I hear it's relatively simple. I used to culture FF when I had baby chameleons. I figure, I'm anywhere between 2-4 months from actually putting frogs in this tank. I'll definitely get some solid microfauna cultures going before I introduce the frogs.

I do have an upcoming show next weekend and I was curious if you guys have any experience on keeping frogs on basic setups (almost like a quarantine setup) and how happy they are. What I'm getting at is, if I find some really healthy and good looking frogs at the show, even though my main viv is not ready, could I house them happily in say a 10-20 gallon with nothing but essentials? Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated!