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Originally Posted by killgorian
As for frog's, Im thinking P. Terriblis at the moment because of their personalities and they seem to be semi forgiving to raise. They group well and also dont require cultures if mature, which sound tricky to master.
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P. terribilis do require you to culture their food--you can't get around this--they are eating machines and you will still need to culture fruit flies as a staple, or obtain pinhead crickets, field plankton and other stuff for them to eat year around, or both. The first thing P. terribilis learn after you obtain them, is who the "Food God" is, and where the manna is about descend from heaven. This is part of their charm. They are among the most fearless of all darts.
On the plus side, fruit flies are a no-brainer to culture. Just start with a kit from one of the breeders and suppliers, which you will have to maintain. This consists of some deli-cups, with lids-- media and starter flies of your choice. You really don't need to go into making your own media, etc., although your can, if you want to. You can buy dried fruit fly media, have a little bit of bakers' yeast on hand and perhaps some excelsior, which is just shredded aspen wood you can get at any crafts store to stuff in for better production. Insist upon the lids that are already vented and lined with a net cloth. Flies don't escape from this as they do from other methods of cutting a hole and lining with paper towels, coffee filters or sponges. (These can be washed and recycled several times.)
Unless you have a very large vivarium and a lot of expertise, bbrock's wonderful "totally self sustaining, without feeding" vivariums idea won't work for a beginner with limited resources, but it's certainly worth considering for the future, when your become addicted to the hobby, and most of the ideas of biological recycling should and can be incorporated in even a small vivarium. In the meantime, you need to build your vivarium, plant it, and make sure it is maintaining the proper temperatures and humidity. Start your food cultures, usually fruit flies and springtails. Then just enjoy.
