R. Ventrimaculatus - 18x18x24 Build Journal

[DigitalPunk]

Bill your forum inbox is full

[deranged chipmunk]

Bill your forum inbox is full

i know. i fixed it. downside to being a mod is a lot of pm's and no more inbox space than a regular user. LOL

[DigitalPunk]

lol I figured you knew just wanted to give you a heads up

[DigitalPunk]

I decided to do a 2nd coat of the slurry after all. I will get to that in a minute though. I need to share something first.

While I was downstairs working on the tank my daughter came down (she is 11) and was asking 1000 questions about the frogs and then new tank and life. I was just enjoying myself when I caught some movement out of the corner of my left eye. I turned to see what insect was sneaking up on me. It was a black cricket.. So I moved the trashcan it was by so I could capture it to return it to the cricket bin. As I leaned over to grab it (I didn't have to get out of my seat) it started to move towards me. Silly cricket. It stopped just shy of my food. I put my hand down behind it to hopefully scare the cricket into it when it Hopped into my hand. I pulled my hand closer and it wasn't a cricket after all. It was a R. Vent. Covered in dust and lint (looks almost black). It layer its little head down on the plan of my hand and didn't move or try to escape. It let me gent ally remove the dirt and lint from it. I filled the palm of my hand with water and it moved down into the cent of my palm and soaked for a few mins. Then it climbed up onto my finger and looked over towards the cages. I opened the Vent tank and it walked off my hand and onto the driftwood. I put some flies in and it ate a few before going to soak some more.

I don't know yet if this is one of the original 2 that escaped or if a 3rd got out more recently and I am just finding that one. I will try to determine this over the next few days, but right now I am solo glad he/she is home.





now onto the tank.

I just did some spot 2nd coating on the tank. There were to many smooth spots still. I took a picture previously of the pot of slurry so this time I took a picture of a top of slurry on my brush and my brush putting some one.





and now we wait for it to dry.



I then decided to go ahead and finish up the lid for the tank. I took the screen out of the exo terra top and took it to a local glass shop and had 2 pieces of glass cut and installed into it. This cost $13. I had them leave the glass 1.5 inch short of the front. This will be the vent. I siliconed the screening over it tonight.



More to come soon. I had a flash of brilliance on what I could do to add some more style to this tank. I will post more about it as I progress.