My Top 10 Beginner Mistakes

[fishr]

-Arroganence - as a teen. Probably my biggest mistake is underestimating someone who has been in the same hobby less than you but even though not as long, it doesn't imply the person cannot further your knowledge base. Asking to cite sources is perfectly acceptable.

-Afraid a question was too dumb to ask

-If you do not learn to cross-referance, you're setting yourself up.

[John1451]

Another good beginner tip that I saw is put a small piece of fruit in the cage and the small food insects for your darts will cling to it and not stress your frogs by climbing on them....then frogs chow bugs off of fruit!!!

[manicmatt]

Not even set up yet and I have a mistake and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Siliconing pvc supports before putting in the back wall that your constructing on a piece of plastic outside of the tank only to realize that once you have to put the wall in youll need to remove a bunch of supports in order to get it into place.

Fail.

Oh, and I know this was stressed on many a post, but holy expansion with the great stuff...wow.

[Teckdragon]

Originally Posted by manicmatt

Oh, and I know this was stressed on many a post, but holy expansion with the great stuff...wow.

It also shrinks by just as much. This was my mistake. I started carving it almost immediately after it dried only to find that within a couple days it had shrunk in size by almost 40-50% of what it was originally. Had to force a second layer down the back to keep it from falling off.

[Arpeggio]

Do a practice run for your tanks before filling them. To see if the seals are good.

[Mapp]

I guess my top mistake was getting ahead of myself.
In the beginning, all I wanted was a simple set up with some nice B&B auratus. I read and read and read for about six or seven months, and then I joined Dendroboard. I still had my mind set on auratus, and I didn't pay much attention to the smaller and flashier species. Until, of course, I saw a thread someone had posted about their new varaderos, and I fell in love. Now I was planning for a pair of imis. About this time I finished my first viv. It was rushed, and looked horrible.
My probable pair of tarapotos came in july. They did well for the first few months, the male calling almost constantly, until I noticed they weren't eating.
Shortly thereafter they died.
I'm still not sure what caused their death, and there is no way to find out without a proper necropsy, but I'm sure that if I had more experience with larger and hardier frogs, I would have been able to identify the problem and possibly prevent them from dying.
I'm not saying that Imis and other thumbnails aren't good "beginner" frogs, just that they weren't good beginner frogs for me.
Oh, and Imitators weren't the only frog I considered. At one point I wanted pums. And I posted a thread about it, both here and on another forum. As you can imagine, I received some.... eh.... "enthusiastic" responses. I'm still too embarrassed to post on that other forum. And I'm very glad I was talked out of it. After my experience with my imis, I wouldn't trust myself with any pums.
Right now, I'm planning a 30 gallon viv for those auratus I never got. And maybe a larger display tank in the far future. You should see a build thread from me soon! :]
Sorry for the illegible jumble of thoughts I call a post,
-Matt

[Conman3880]

Beginner mistake?

Never getting into tincs.

I've been in the hobby for, jeez, 4 years now and I never wanted tincs. They were too common, too boring, too aggressive, etc.

I got a pair of Patricias a couple weeks ago, and now they're my favorite frogs I've ever had (out of auratus, tricolors, galacts, imis and pums), both aesthetically and personality-wise. I've actually had my female eat waxworms out of my hand. Also, it's a nice change of pace to be able to SEE the frogs in my display tank.

[MorningDew]

This thread was hilarious! Hopefully I learned a little....VERY new to this (only have been researching for a couple weeks) Looking to build a viv for a couple anoles and some fish to start. My mistake already, Really so I can't just silicone plexi glass to split the take in half and put substrate and plants on the other side.... So glad I didn't jump into this and found this thread!!!

[ryank458]

Fun post. Thanks!

[JakkBauer]

Originally Posted by frogface

When dealing with fruit flies, be sure to put your hair in a ponytail before you take off the lid and lean over the container.

‪Crosby, Stills and Nash - Almost Cut My Hair - Madison Square Garden, NYC - 2009/10/29 & 30‬‏ - YouTube

‪Crosby, Stills and Nash - Almost Cut My Hair - Madison Square Garden, NYC - 2009/10/29 & 30‬‏ - YouTube