My Top 10 Beginner Mistakes

[Shenanigans]

Originally Posted by Water Man

This is great, I was working with great stuff yesterday, took off a glove to answer the phone...went back to work without the one glove. Looks like my fingers are rotting off. Acetone and goo gone cant take this stuff off. lol

Haha... yeah I did that cuz I thought I'd be careful enough "just to touch up this one spot real quick" without a glove. If you look at the can it says if you get it on your skin it must be "mechanically removed" or just allowed to come off after forever and a day. LOL mechanically removed!?! I guess that you'd have to cut off your finger before it'll come off on its own!

[Label]

Be careful not to drop your Iphone on your darts while taking pictures of them!

True Story... I was so excited when I got them and wanted to show them off. Opened the lid and started taking pictures of them.The phone slipped out of my hand and fell right on top of two of them!

Now when they see me any where near the tank with my Iphone in hand they all make a run for it!

[Mtupup]

this is pretty deep in the thread, but maybe it'll help someone:

Gojo (or any pumice hand cleaner) helps get great stuff off.

[TimrekWTF]

I may be able to do a GS top ten mistake list.

1. When they say it expands, work in thin layers....they arn't lying to you.

2. When you realize you have not worked in thin layers and it is indeed expanding don't leave the room. It will take advantage of the fact that you are not there to expand some more.

3. When you come back from leaving the room and find that it has taken advantage of the fact that you were not in the room and expanded further...do not try to remove it.

4. If you see a great place to carve a cave into semi-dry GS foam resist the urge, put the knife down and back away. The inside of the foam will become the outside of the foam and it will expand further, and you will have no foam under your now over expanded foam.

5. On to silicone and coco fiber. After hydrating your coco, dry it well.

6. Once your coco is dry....dry it again. And then bake it in an oven for a while, and then threaten to set it on fire. Damp cocofiber doesn't stick to silicon.

7. If you have put black silicon on the inside of your tank, dont expect to be able to re-claim the tank for another purpose later. Whoever said wet silicone doesn't stick to dry silicone lied.

I know there are more. I have a mental block stopping me from remembering the rest I think.

[Boondoggle]

Originally Posted by TimrekWTF

2. When you realize you have not worked in thin layers and it is indeed expanding don't leave the room. It will take advantage of the fact that you are not there to expand some more.

LOL...so true.

[moscontheroad]

When I finally received my 3 Azureus I left the container where I received the frogs unattended for less than a minute; my cat was quite happy, she thought we brought live treats for her.

While transferring the frogs I flipped the container into my terrarium (tried to do it carefully but got distracted) and one ended up buried under the sphagnum moss and survived more or less an hour while my wife and I (and the cat) were desperately looking for the 'fugitive' frog.

Creating a Christmas environment inside the terrarium with 'little snowmen' instead of powdered fruit flies each meal for the first few meals, and leaving, for the frog's standards, 30 centimeters of 'snow' around the feeding spots and a handful of 'snowflakes' on top of each frog due to the excess of supplement, and lack of experience calculating the right amount of supplement and flies.

[Boondoggle]

Always get as much info as you can about the heritage of any frogs you buy at the time of purchase. You may be in love with the suckers and not care a wit about where they come from, but when they start throwing froglets you're going to be asked specific questions from potential buyers. Going back to the one who sold them to you two years later is not always fruitful.

[jward]

ugh... just worked on my first viv... wet cocofiber that wouldn't stick and grape wood features....

Wish I would of read.... This is a great thread, thanks all for helping!

[davecalk]

Originally Posted by Shenanigans

Haha... yeah I did that cuz I thought I'd be careful enough "just to touch up this one spot real quick" without a glove. If you look at the can it says if you get it on your skin it must be "mechanically removed" or just allowed to come off after forever and a day. LOL mechanically removed!?! I guess that you'd have to cut off your finger before it'll come off on its own!

Acetone actually will take 'Great Stuff' off, but only if you go after it immediately, while the foam is still in it's wet and sticky stages. Once it has set up, only time and new skin cells will cure the rotting fingers look.

[jgibeau]

This thread started about six months after I returned to the Army, GOD it brings back some funny (now - NOT so funny THEN) memories.

Phil Tan breeds a special kind of fantasticus with a warp drive organ juuust forward of their back legs. When placing them into their new home, PLACE THE ENTIRE CONTAINER INTO THEIR NEW HOME, THEN REMOVE THE LID.

Should you get some fantasticus from Phil, and you try the old "open the lid of their new home, open the lid of their travel container and try to drop them in", you might (if you are lucky) see a black and orange streak approximately three feet long. This streak will extend to the back of the tank, to one of the walls of the tank, then straight as an arrow OUT of the tank just under the closing lid to your neck, where they will immediately be out of sensor range. @#*$#$% What the hell was (@$@#%*(#$)@#$%*!!!!!!! JENNIFER, GET A TOWEL AND BLOCK THE BOTTOM OF THE FROG ROOM DOOR!!! NOW NOW NOW! HURRY!!!!!!

We all like to believe that our captive bred frogs do not produce poison. This is especially a nice belief to have where your GORGEOUS adult orange terribilis are concerned. BUT, if you happen to be moving them from one tank to another, and they freak a second or so in your hand, then stiffen up and secrete some slimy mucousy crap onto your fingers - DO NOT THEN TOUCH YOUR FINGERS TO YOUR TONGUE. Don't worry, you are not going to die. You are just going to WISH you had died. Think of your worst migraine. If you thought it was almost unendurable, you are about to experience a pain that is almost ORGASMIC. Jennifer found me literally crying in the bedroom about an hour later. She said "If you don't die, I will kill you myself. Idiot."

Fruit fly media is great stuff for growing fruit flies. Erin and Dave Mclay make some of the best there is. I always found the directions for the water ratio to be a little too dry, so I always added a liiiiittle more water. Once your frogs are on auto-pilot, sometimes it is easier to just lay the culture on it's side in the viv, and let the flies hatch and grow out of there all by themselves. MAN, do Erin and Dave's Super Media give those female flies a good breeding boost! The frogs sit and wait right there for the flies to come out. Yeeea. really soupy cultures = something akin to the La Brea tar pits. "FLIES FLIES, waitaminuteIseemtobestuckandwhatthehe... glug glug. That one stung too, because it was a pair of WC Powder Blue tinctorius, which were, I kid you not, 3.5 inches SVL. Both went the way of the mastodon.

Always have a double lid on your tanks. Meaning, a piece in the front, and a piece in the back. Silicone the back piece down, then TAPE it down. Those tender little loving plants our frogs love so much? They push. HARD. Don't think so? Wait till some of that gorgeous purple passion you think is so pretty pushes up the back of the tank lid just enough for all your vents to take a one way carpet safari. You will make up new words then, for each poor, dead frog you find. trust me.

Never turn your back on an open lid. That one has cost me plenty, and Murphy will always make sure that ONLY your most expensive prized frogs will have been waiting for just such an opportunity.

Don't try to show off your hole cutting abilities with a glass bore in front of the entire frog society while they are at your house. You are gonna screw it up, and they are gonna tattle on you to your wife.

Final No no. When your drunk, the frog room is off limits. You will have A LOT of questions in the morning, and that is surely how long drawn out "YOUR A MONSTER!! hybrid threads get started.