My Top 10 Beginner Mistakes

[bruce]

"Throwing away a lifeless frog":
One time I almost threw away 2 pairs of adult yellow galacts that arrived in a January cold spell. Looking lifeless,cold and upside down I called the sender for advice. Take some pictures and send them in for a refund. I swear they were dead! They didn't move for easily 10 hours! Next morning I woke to take them in for pictures and they were all moving around like nothing happened.
Last week received a trio of auratus and the female was upside down and lifeless. Emailed the shipper and was advised a check would be sent. Next morning I went out to throw out frog and its moving around. Another pie on my face moment, and I have had frogs for years!
Makes me wonder if the terribilis female I pitched many years ago was indeed dead or should I of dug through the garbage.
Moral of story, upright "dead frogs" spray with water and leave them be for a day or two, you might be surprised.

"Using pothos ivy"
How many times have I found glass hoods of tanks ajar allowing frogs to escape? Why because of the slow pressure from pothos! Whenever I use it now I duct tape the top on to prevent the eventual frog loss.

And finally, while this is an exception to the usual, "How many times have I not used American Express to pay for the frogs? With all the vendors here I have used and received great service, but when venturing into cyber space and purchasing "frogs that never arrive", "the wrong frogs" "dead frogs" etc, American Express has "no quibble" refund policy that vendors who use them agree to that makes the rare unethical frog vendor settle to your satisfaction.

I could list MANY more mistakes but I am depressing myself from reliving the above expierences.

[crentania]

#1 After spending countless hours on my background that was gonna be SOOO coooooool I realized styrofoam floats. And I'd made a big rock with a waterfall to sit in a large water feature. Alas.

#2 Brown GEII Silicone does NOT always cure. you may end up with some VERY sticky gravel if you don't check it before you put the rocks into it.

#3 Fruit flies are the bane of my existence. I use the super duper media, and still have problems with smell.

#4 Fruit Flies are the bane of my existence. How many times am I going to have to run and buy 2 $6 tubes of 20 flies just because I forgot to make my cultures a month ago?

#5 Fruit Flies are the bane of my existence. Hydei DO take a month+ to bloom in Utah. Expect it. Embrace it.

#6 Fruit flies are the bane of my existence. Apparently, after months of eating only Hydei, my Vittatus look at Melanogaster as some sort of "sub-par" food. Melanos and Hydei mixed into one dump of fruit flies. They will pick out the Hydei EVERY. DANG. TIME. So much for cheaper and faster to culture.

#7 Do a "test run" with the flies BEFORE putting your frogs in. Get a culture that's going to be thrown anyway. Dump the flies into your tank. Watch where they go and how they crawl out. Silicone. Quickly. Or else you might think one day "Oh! Flies are getting out here. SIlicone this and that and.... wait. Fumes are probably noxious to those poor frogs... Didn't lose a single one. Thankfully. Still gives me nightmares though.

#8 Do NOT expect a DIY tank to cost less than that $50 background sitting in the pet store. You WILL use 3x the amount of GS you expect, AND you WILL buy the wrong silicone/grout/adhesive/cocofiber.

#9 If you hear calling, it's time to start the grow out tanks. They will take you longer, and that first clutch is going to come sooner than you expected.

And #10 Do. Not. Freak. Out. That frog you haven't seen for 5 days is fine. He just hates your big nose. He did not drown. He is not being bullied by his friends. He is happy, and will come out and chirp for you when you don't have time to sit and watch for hours.

[Dragas]

running water does whatever it wants to.

[rpmurphey]

Frogs and dogs don't mix.

When feeding your frogs, pay attention to where your frogs are if they are bold.

Know where your dog is, when feeding your frogs.

Feeding time in the morning for the frogs and I opened up the front of the cage and wasn't paying any attention and to my surprise one jumped out onto the floor as my dog was trying to help me catch him. loved that little fiasco. The frog is still alive, thank god.

[fishdoc]

After a year and a half:
fruit flies taste good with whiskey.
fruit flies don't like diet creme soda, unless you add whiskey.
cook with coarse ground pepper so company does not realize they are eating fruit flies.
you can never have too many fruit flies.
closed systems mean dry water features.
look before you slide the glass closed.
pothos will grow anywhere, plants that like moist conditions don't really like moist conditions.
You can rasp great stuff off off with a horseshoe rasp.

[Estrato]

Originally Posted by bruce

"Using pothos ivy"
How many times have I found glass hoods of tanks ajar allowing frogs to escape? Why because of the slow pressure from pothos! Whenever I use it now I duct tape the top on to prevent the eventual frog loss.

Uh oh, I have some in my pum tank thats been growing like crazy lately. Glad you posted this.

[winyfrog]

Great Advise. I am new to dart frogs and just starting to build my viv.

[cbau45]

Awesome thread for a newbie. I've never kept dendros so this should be interesting especially since it's my first viv. Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm working on a 60gal cube for about 5 Azureus so it's good to read up on all of these mistakes. Gives me lots of ideas questions to post in a seperate thread, don't want to hijack this thread and ruin a good thing.

-Craig

[earthfrog]

1. Assuming that if I don't add a siphon tube to the tank that the water will just naturally evaporate up through the substrate onto the glass and diligent tank-wiping will take care of it. Great idea if you never mist the tank, but then the frogs would die. Plus, being arm and all in the tank doesn't facilitate breeding...

2. Watching the frogs too much during the day. It stresses them out, then you never see them and then you go digging for them.

3. Not keeping FF cultures going strong. They crash and Petsmart doesn't always have replacements---at least not of Melanogaster.

4. Putting too many frogs in one container for quarantine. I bought two juvis from a pet store (private breeder, not imports), put them in a 2.5 gallon that was sparsely planted. One died of sheer stress since I touched it with my fingertip.

5. You finish this out with five of your own...

[bobberly1]

1) Don't be too concerned with price. Obviously, don't spend beyond your means, but opting towards cheap or expensive frogs just aids damaging popularity fluctuations.
2) ALWAYS add some type of drain, even just a tube to siphon from siliconed in, to your vivs.
3) Make sure you safely store accurate information on your frogs, such as age, subspecies, and line.
3b) Kind of relates to the above. Always make sure that the frogs you are breeding are from the same line before breeding them. Don't just but "a male imi" for your female before doing research on the origins of both.
4) Make sure you are always enjoying it. If you aren't, why bother?
5) Support dart frog companies by buying supplies (and frogs if they have what you want), you may spend a few extra dollars, but the information and offspring they produce with their large collections are priceless.
6) Get a varied collection at first, then find something to focus on. You'll be a lot more satisfied, productive, and knowledgable with a focused collection.