NEW tank question, and frog question

[Jungle_John]

:shock: HELLO :shock: im new to this board and this is my first post. ive been reading a while now... about a month. any how i have 1 WTF (about to have 2) that i got about 3 months ago and love him. hes in a 45 gal hex and hes much fun. only recent did i know you could own PDF i tohugh for the longest you couldnt and if i new that i would of got them instead(even though im happy with my white).
ok to the reason im posting. i have a probelm and need help. i keep hearing 20inches tall is what you want for a dart. well i can buy 1 of 2 tanks right now. i can buy a oceonic cube tank for 140$ that i think is like 20inches tall wide and long and is 30gals or i can spend 30$ for a off brand tank that is 20gals 30Lx12W12H (its a book shelf tank). im trying to figue out what one would be better and hold more frogs. i was thinking the 20gal one for its much cheaper and i can make the tank nicer and maby even buy two for 2 types of dart :P .
both tanks id have a water fall the 30gal would be 6inches of water if i got it and the 20 gal would be 2 inches deap.
second thing is plants? and live rock moss... what type should i get and were? any idea on plants? i figure for sure pothos sence it so easy but i want some other nice ones.
and third but most important. FROGS what ones? Leuc's or Azureus ... i like them both so i was wonder what ones? witch one could i have more of (without stress) and if possible would i be able to house 2 diffrent color azureus together? like blue and greens together? so much to know so little time.
thanks guys and gals :lol:

[Anoleo2]

Well first of all...Welcome to the board!!

The size of the tank depends on the type of dart your getting... Personally, if I were you I would go with the 20 gallon for your first viv cause if you accidentally screw up or something on the cube you will have put all that money into nothing... :roll: But with all the help you can get from DB you won't screw up. :wink: So it's your decision.

For a 20 gallon tank you could probably put 3 (maybe four? That would be pushing it...) leucs OR 2 azureus. I would reccomend NOT mixing species of darts together... especially these two species. they can interbreed and hybridize which generally is frowned upon in the hobby. The azureus will also stress out the leucs since they are a bit bigger.

Pothos are good plants.

Well first of all, Azureus only come in blue...Are you thinking of Auratus? :wink:

[Jungle_John]

yea im thinking of the arts hehe i saw a green one and blue one at the pet store housed together. i just wrote the wrong one lol

[Totoro]

Hi! Welcome to the board, I am new to this hobby too! I just noticed that you mentioned you saw some frogs at a pet store, and I wanted to warn you that I just went through a huge ordeal with getting 3 green and black auratus from a local pet store. Two of them ended up back at the pet store the third one died yesterday I'm getting my new frogs from a hobby breeder nearby who I happened to meet here on this board. You might make sure that you do a lot of research before getting your frogs from a pet store...I would just hate to have someone else go through the same experience I did with brand new frogs. There are lots of hobby breeders, I bet you could find someone on this board to help you out with finding a great place to get healthy frogs!

:lol:
Betsy

Agreeed when it comes to expensive frogs you want to get them from a breeder or someone who keeps them for the hobby.
Its very frowned upon to mix species because of interbreeding, but more importantly to me because one species can stress out the other one.
So... I would also get the 20 gallon. This is a 20 Long right? Or you could get the standard 29 which is about the same price, at least it was 10 years ago :? ops: ops: ops:

Thats much taller and just as wide if not wider.
If you go with the 20 Long, I would be a bit unhappy that the auratus have no head room. But im not sure what stresses them out in terms of space, and what makes them happy.
Welcome to the board!!!!

[slaytonp]

I would go with the 20 long for either leucomelas or auratus. While both do climb a bit, they hunt mostly on the ground level. You could do a background of cork, or one of the other methods, and peg in some bromeliads such as the Neoregelias, some small creeping vines such as Ficus pumila varieties, Pellionia, (watermelon vine), Pilea, Peperomia, or Fittonia verschaffelii varieties that will further cover the cork. This will give them some added vertical space that they'll be comfortable in.

I agree, that it is a sound idea to get darts directly from a breeder, even if you have to pay extra for overnight shipping if you can't find one near you. This way, you can be sure that the frogs have been cared for properly, are captive bred, and haven't been further stressed by inappropriate conditions in a pet store. It's not that all pet stores give poor care, but in the long run, the employees responsible for the care and display seldom have the correct information about them, or even know their origin. In my view, a personal contact with the breeder/seller is very important.

[Jungle_John]

thanks for all the comment guys and gals. ive gone ahead and went with the 20gal long tank... ok i lie i went with two lol. i figure why buy 1 tank when i could get two for half the price. im going to share my old 40inch light top between the 2 of them and i also bought some GS to make foam walls and hiding places. im going to work on that tommarow and then silicone dirt to is.
ive also ran by a 3 gal pump for a fish tank and figure out a way to make a running water fall.
im happy for i can get both now im going to post pictues and keep yall updated as i proceed in all stuff.

I also bought two, I couldn't help myself. And made them into my first vertical tanks! Lots of fun!