My Top 10 Beginner Mistakes

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by B-NICE

It comes when your viv is established. Its not, its all natural.

Actually, mold tends to go away when the tank become established. It's when the tank is new and hasn't matured that it grows.

[LarryLee]

welll.....
IM glad I read all these first...... I have just began with my 45-55 gal corner tank.. i resealed it several months ago and have been working up a design... want it simple, no water feature, and I think i will build a removable back ground incase I fail as a vivarium frog keeper.... there are so many varieties of frogs im not sure what type yet..
I have had various terrariums and have kept a few tree frogs.....this is new.
My advice as a newbie is do tons of research...ive been researching for the last couple of years.......
Still cant make up my mind on what frogs....
Larry

[bratyboy2]

this was the high light of my day!!!! i dont think i have ever laughed this much

[B-NICE]

Originally Posted by LarryLee

welll.....
IM glad I read all these first...... I have just began with my 45-55 gal corner tank.. i resealed it several months ago and have been working up a design... want it simple, no water feature, and I think i will build a removable back ground incase I fail as a vivarium frog keeper.... there are so many varieties of frogs im not sure what type yet..
I have had various terrariums and have kept a few tree frogs.....this is new.
My advice as a newbie is do tons of research...ive been researching for the last couple of years.......
Still cant make up my mind on what frogs....
Larry

No more tree frogs for me! They have different requirements than Darts, and I have not been successful.

[Jguy2020]

nice. done them all too

[Noort]

Thanks to you all for writing this!

I'm not very good at making lists, but I've done some extremely stupid things as well:

I've been building backgrounds in my aquaria for years, so a lot of mistakes are made in that period: like getting the 2:1 mix-in amounts for my resin the wrong way and almost burnt my hands! Plain luck it happenend in a glas container that actually tolerated the extreme temperature. It only cracked *after* the stuf was hard enough not to leak everywhere.


Back-up tanks... have MULTIPLE!! (really , I am not kidding)
I absoluely *had* to get my first trio of pumilio before their designated tank was complete* (I broke a door and was waiting for the supplier) but -no sweat: I had a back-up all ready to receive them- which I broke the very day I got the pums home .
Needless to say they didn't take kindly to the improvised back-up-back-up one...
(that was a couple of years ago and I am still kicking myself).

My leuco's are more forgiving

*judging those now-or-never deals are a pain: I've wanted to keep pumilio since the moment I discovered they were on the planet and there was this nice man who was downseizing his collection and had a confirmed breeding trio of my ultimate favorite ones...

(the only comfort I have is that they already had reproduced)

Converted a chameleontank to house my pums (second time): a lovely piece of work, and for once I didn't screw up the build!
(Overplanned like mad, second guessing myself every step, it took forever!)
It was my first tank that didn't start out as an aquarium, so I wasn't prepared for the relative flimsiness of the glass resulting in vulnerable seams!!
Not sure what happenend (prolly a see-saw move when I dit some work next to it) but -as tradion demands it- everything went perfect up to the point my pums were nestled in, starting to call and THEN I woke to the sound of a slow drip-drip-dripping ...

I still have to fix it/ probably have to tear it apart ->it hurts.
(I really loved the way it turned out and functioned)
The 'back up tank' isn't pretty at all.

=> never put a tank where is isn't protected from forces it isn't built to withstand

And of course: buy a very large tank that you can't get into your house!

I measured everything a dozen times, decided *not* to buy it, but then a friend told me it would fit -> and I believed him!
(Whisfull thinking and to much selfdoubt?? Lethal combination!)
He doesn't even live in this building!!
So I ended up buying it anyway, got stuck (stairs) and had to revert to breaking the viv down to pieces (shattering panes etc.in the process) and am still re-assembling to this day ...

[Vincebus]

Thanks all for writing this, i've built a couple (rank) amateur terrariums/vivariums and have made many mistakes over the last couple of years, always remember to:

measure twice and cut once on the critical measurements.

Avoid impulse buying, just because it would "look soo cool in my tank". Looking cool and working/surviving in the tank are two totally different scinarios. Remember the old saying "look before you leap"?

Never asume your children and their buddies won't open up the tank out of curiosity while your not around and leave the door/lid open when they're done. So your beautiful and possibly un-nerving inhabitants can take a nice vacation from the enclosure to taunt house members that may not necessarily like a tarantula or other (insert critter name here _______) coming over for a visit, or causing an hour long freak-out looking for them... Lock up your tanks if at all possible.

(We also have a neighbors kid that we have to watch like a hawk since she likes to "borrow" animals/critters (I was gonna bring it back...)). We're still missing a hamster to this day and I just have a hunch that this is most likely what happened, R.I.P. Sandy Cheeks, ugh... Funny cause, she was missing and the cage door wasn't open, nice of whomever took her to close the door so the fluff wouldn't get out.

if your children have critters that they like to handle, make sure that whomever does the wash checks underneath collars and whatnot for hitch-hiking critters going to the washer machine, they don't fare well in there and usually don't survive the whirlpool effect, glub glub...

sorry if I repeated anything that might have already been mentioned, I'm sure i'm not the only person here in the forum with kids. These are just a few that i've learned over my lifetime of keeping critters in the house.

[SWReptiles]

Great post I picked up a few good things

[WildcatWalker]

My #1 mistake was when applying my eco earth mix to the background. I was impatient and applied the mix while it was still a little moist. Black aquarium safe silicone can get costly. Lesson Learned

[SWReptiles]

Has anyone here ever used clear polycarbonate for a top? I have some pieces that are about 1/4 thick. They say it does not warp. Cheaper and easier to work with then glass. It looks a lot a corrugated type material