Dendroboard - Blogs - markbudde

My philosophy on "the hobby"

markbudde — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:13:34 GMT

Why I love this hobby.

I love fiddling. Tweaking multiple parameters and honing them to allow a stubborn system to flourish. I love watching a long which process which changes and grows into something better than it began. The process of going from an egg, to a tadpole to a frog is such a process. Isn�t it marvelous how nature has designed such an elaborate, mesmerizing system? And to top it off, these frogs are active during the day, climb all around their enclosure and are beautiful beyond belief.

I�m a sucker for the tropics, having grown up inundated with propaganda from my school about how we need to save the rainforest. I think that the rainforest that I grew to love from the videos I saw as a child is only a fantasy, more lush and full of color than could possibly exist in nature. There is something both comforting and exciting about the mix of vibrant green and striking bold colors; something enticing about so many creatures coexisting as part of this great, beautiful, complex machine. While such a rainforest may not exist in nature, some vivaria come pretty close, superficially at least.

When I was a kid, I loved to germinate seeds and watch them grow. I would watch as infant bean plants stretched toward the window and eventually toppled from their own weight. I also loved watching the plants in out garden, noticing when a new stalk was forming or if a fruit was forming. There is such anticipation, such a slow process can be so exhilarating. Any orchid grower knows the joy of that. One of the most rewarding parts of this hobby, for me, is to start with a sparsely planted terrarium and then watch as it slowly gets colonized over time, with minimal input from me.

Another joy of this hobby is the process of experimenting. If I have an idea about a new way to do something, I can try it, and if it works I can share it with everyone else. If it doesn�t work, then I can share what a bad idea it was. I think this hobby has VERY few absolutes, even if some dogmatists would like us to think otherwise. The inability to think outside the box of what�s acceptable is potentially more detrimental in the long run. Sure, there are certainly some very knowledgeable, experienced people among us. But if we never questioned dogma in our society, we would be much worse off overall. The same is true for this hobby. So please, if you are feeling adventurous, don�t let the dogmaists talk you out of your idea, but also realize that you cannot complain if you get burned.

As a final note, I would like to say that I believe that our focus as conservationists should be on preventing the smuggling/export of frogs and maintaining their habit in the wild. It�s noble to think that we may be able to sustain a wild population equivalent in the hobby, but I�m not sure that we should attempt this by exporting more animals.

Just some ideas. Hopefully this didn�t offend anyone.
-Mark

And for fun, here is my indoor garden.

video

markbudde — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:56:08 GMT

Here's a recent video of some aggressive behavior between my male intermedus and his 1.5 month old kid. The male has a tadpole in the brom he starts on, and then jumps to a spot right above the juvi, chirping the whole time. They washing machine was running, so there is no audio. They are in a 55 gallon tank and I don't want to separate them. I guess I'll wait and see what happens.

Father and Son

markbudde — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:47:01 GMT

Here's a comic of how my intermedius were acting today.

Panel 1

Panel 2

Panel 3

First Froglet

markbudde — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:41:47 GMT

My first froglet is out of the water and hopping around. After his front legs popped I moved him into the parents viv in a plastic container, so he could come out whenever he wanted.

After his tail shrank down to the length of his forearms, he crawled out of the water.

After that, he his under the leaf litter for a few days, and then yesterday I caught him exploring his new ability to jump around the plants in the viv.

And here's a pic I caught of his parents the other day. This was taken as she was laying the eggs (I actually saw it come out). An hour later and this clutch had fallen out of the canister onto the leaf litter.

The female is in the back laying the eggs and the male is about a cm in front of her, cheering her on.

Tadpole might have sls

markbudde — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:29:02 GMT

Update on my only tadpole. I think he might be showing sls. Specifically, one of his upper arms looks too small. Hopefully it will get bigger before he morphs. Sorry for the crappy pics, but this is the best i can do. Top pics are from today, bottom pics from 1 week ago.

I also set up an indoor garden. It has mostly houseplants in semi-hydroponics. I've added soem more since I took this pic.

Since I quit using sluggo I've notice many more snails and a few slugs. I pulled the orchid out of my tank which was getting the worst damage from them and replaced it with a standard philodendron. This weekend I pulled about 20 snails. Another egg was layed on saturday, but I'm getting disillusioned because so many have gone bad. I ordered some dendrocare, which I hope help the situation. I've also quit using the UV bulb.
-mark

pulled tad

markbudde — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:50:53 GMT

I pulled the tad out of my viv last week. It was difficult. First I tried to suck it out with a syringe, but the syringe was too big. Then I tried to force him to the top by dropping little pieces of LECA into the brom. But he got trapped under the LECA, so I had to pull an emergency evac and pull out the brom. He made it though. I brought him into work, where the temps are more stable, and now I can observe him through the clear tube I have him in. I'm feeding mostly tad bites with a little sera micro thrown in.

They have since thrown 2 more clucthes, first 2 eggs, then 1. I've also started supplementing them again, as they finally cleared all of the flies over-running their tank. I've found that the best way for me to get them vitamins is to put about 10 flies+vits into a film canister, and put the canister right in front of them.

The first clutch started developing, but then they knocked it off of the glass onto the ground and i think i killed it trying to get it off of the substrate. They laid the second clutch last night in a film canister and I haven't gotten a good look yet. I guess I'll find out if its good in a few days.

I've also recently ordered some Dendrocare to supplement them, because I just learned that Dendros are bad at turning b-carotene into vitamin A. That is surprising, because hertivite has no vitamin A, only b-carotene, suggesting that my frogs have gotten no vitamin A for over 7 months (and the breeder I got them from uses hertivite), and they don't seem to be suffering from a vitamin A deficiency.

Back from China

markbudde — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:51:07 GMT

OK, first update since I have gotten back from China, which was AWESOME! I figure if I don't post soon then I won't start again, and I dont want that!

Before I left, I put a culture of flies into the viv, so that my frogs wouldn't starve. I came home to a viv overrun with fruit flies, and pupa all over a nine-inch radius from the bottle. Also, some media had oozed from the vial into the leaf litter and was crawling with flies, larvae and springtails.

I had placed the fly vial near the bottom of the wood with the brom+tadpole, and there were flies all over the brom and I think they were irritating the mom. So I immediately took the fly vial out and sealed it, but there were still hundreds of flies in the viv. Flies usually die after about 4-5 days in the viv, so they should be gone soon enough, but all the pupa will keep emerging for up to a week. Plus there are still maggots crawling around in the media that spilled onto the leaf litter. And springtails EVERYWHERE.

I figure I can refrain from feeding for the foreseeable future, but I would like to get vitamins to the frogs. So that's a problem. I added some vitamins and calclium to the tad, but i think i may have added to much. I hope it's OK. I think I can see little legs on it, but the water is too murky to tell.

When I came back, there were 2 eggs about 7 mm above the water line of the tad, so i figured mom left them for the tad but didn't put them low enough for it. The next day they were gone... Did mom push them down in the water? I'm going to pull the next few fertile eggs so I can watch them in greater detail.
------------------------
My orchid finally opened when I was gone, and has started another spike and 2 new buds, which may be spikes or leaves, I can't tell yet.
Zlm. Teipel's Goldbar

Also, my dendrobium looks like it is about to put out upwards of ten flowers, so that's something to look forward to.

I found some snails in the leaf litter when I got back, and applied more sluggo, but it seems to have plateaued out in efficacy. I might quit adding it, because I don't like the chemicals in my viv. The springs clearly gorge on the stuff, and the frogs eat the springs... Now I just wish I could get my hands on some nemaslug.

I might end up gassing the whole viv to get rid of the snails and slug, but...
A) I'm not sure I could kill them all off with CO2.
B) I want to get an amphipod culture going before I do so, but they are hard to culture.

off to china!

markbudde — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 08:18:15 GMT

OK, im going to china tomorrow, so I'll make one last post before i take off. My last egg was indeed fertile, with a developing tadpole, but when the parents discovered the tadpole in the brom, they quit tending to the egg and it molded over. The tadpole is in a brom which is too small for it and I'm afraid that the water will foul over before it morphs out. I'm surprised the parents started egg feeding after they found the tad, but today I saw a few eggs in the brom with it. We'll see if he is still alive when I get back.

I also put a fly culture in the viv (no filler, just media). I dont think they need it because the viv is teeming with springs, woodlice and amps, but its better safe than sorry.

-mark

Egg feeding?

markbudde — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:41:25 GMT

I fed my male some vitamin dusted flies today, which he seemed pretty happy to eat. I put them right in front of him so he'd get them while they're fresh. I also added a fresh batch of sluggo after finding a slug on my orchid. I haven't found any baby slugs since I started the sluggo, and i think it's more effective at killing small slugs, so I hope they are about dead.

My new mist king timer is really great, it gives way more flexibility in misting cycles than I previously had, and is really easy to program.

Today when I got home I glanced in my viv and noticed both frogs sitting in the brom with the tadpole. You may recall that I put the tad in the brom without asking mom and dad, and until today I don't think they knew where it was. They have never transported a tad before, but their postures and movements indicate that they knew it was there. The were doing that crawl they do when they are mating, where they don't hop but take a bunch of steps, like a cat getting comfortable on a blanket. Anyway, I didn't check to see if she laid a food egg, but I hope so. I am about to go to China for 2 weeks and it would be great if they would take care of him for me. There are two eggs in a canister, which look like they might be fertile, so I hope they keep taking care of those as well.

more eggs

markbudde — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:11:00 GMT

A found another clutch (2 eggs) on Thursday night in the film canister. All of the eggs laid on the glass have gone bad. This morning I fed them some calcium dusted flies, putting some directly in front of mamma. I couldn't find dad and he wasn't calling this morning (which is unusual) so I hope he is getting enough vitamins.

The tadpole hasn't gotten a whole lot bigger since the last time I checked, but is getting a little bit of pale pigment between his eyes.

I found a slug right after I posted my last entry, so I am going to apply some sluggo this week.

I'm starting to dislike the moss in my viv, because it is getting really tall and the frogs dont like to jump on it. So at some point I'm going to replace it with either tropical pillow moss, riccia or kyoto moss. I want the moss to grow very low against the wood but the high humidity makes it grow very tall, any suggestions on which kind to use? I also have sphagnum growing everywhere (out of the wood). It's fairly pale and not very attractive, but the frogs seem to like hopping on it.

I increased the amount of time that all of my lights are on from 3hrs to 3.5 hours. Hopefully I wont burn the leaves again.

I've added some film canisters throughout the viv, some right under the misting heads, to give the frogs places to transport tads to if some hatch when I'm in China during the next few weeks.

I'm also not sure I want to continue to fertilize my orchids. It seems to have helped the orchids, but I'm not sure how much of a danger it is to my frogs.
-mark

Fed frogs

markbudde — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:39:51 GMT

I fed my frogs some vitamin dusted flies this morning. As I've become nervous recently about lack of vitamins, I am now feeding smaller amounts directly in front of my female.

I also fed me tadpole a minuscule amount of Sera micron, a tadpole bite, a piece of Indian almond leaf (washing in tap water).

After I started applying a fairly dense layer of sluggo, I haven't seen any new slug damage. My phalaenopsis was doing the worst, first having all its roots eaten and they then continued to get eaten every time they got an inch long. The roots are growing again and it has quit dropping leaves.

i also got my seconds timer from mist king. I'll plug it in tonight. It looks nice but I have one complaint. It is constructed in such a way that it will block every adjacent outlet, so I'll have to plug it into an extension cord.

more eggs

markbudde — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:03:02 GMT

The last clutch went bad (turned out to be a total of 5 eggs) and it seems that they've laid 2 more eggs as of this morning. The clutch on the left is old and the right is new and dad is on the far right. I added another film canister as I really don't like them laying eggs on the glass.

The tadpole is still alive. Hopefully his food gets here soon! Side note: I think this brom is too small for a tadpole. In the future I will use a film canister or conical tube.

nothing exciting

markbudde — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:36:22 GMT

I fed my frogs calcium dusted flies today. I think that they may be malnourished, since most of the flies have lost all of their dust by the time my frogs find them. I noticed some a spasm on the side of my female today. I might have to start feeding smaller amounts directly to them, which isn't something I'm thrilled about.

The tadpole seems fine, he was at the bottom of the brom so i couldn't take a picture, but he cam up to get some fresh air when I shined my light in the cup.

The newest clutch of eggs has gone bad, I think. Maybe if I can get more vitamins to the frogs they will make healthier eggs.

I also misted a couple of times today and last night

-mark

9/19/8

markbudde — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:22:27 GMT

Not much exciting today. 3 small things for my log.

1) New eggs. They don't look great, and are laid in a terrible place. I noticed them last (9/18) night before I went to bed. Since I pulled the tad and its canister, the frogs haven't gone back to the canister, which is sad because its a great place for me to observe them. They laid this clutch under the misting system tubes, and I have been drying the viv out for a couple days. 4 eggs, a new record, but there is less gel than I would like. It was hard to get the shot as I had to hold the camera in the viv and shoot up. You can see the males butt off to the far right.

I'm a little sad that they laid the last two clucthes along the top rim of the viv, so I put the conical tube back in, near where they have been laying. Maybe they'll use it.

2) I fed the tad for the second time today. More tetramin fish food. I know that its not ideal, but the tad bites and sera micron haven't arrived yet. Updated pic.

3) I took more full tank shots and overlayed them with the last shots in photoshop. It's really cool to toggle back and forth between them. The previous shots were from 2 weeks ago and I have since added new lights and burned a bunch of my plants. Its cool to see how obvious the brom growth and orchid root growth is, even though you don't see it day to day. I would post them as a slide show, but I'm not sure how.

Broke orchid, applied sluggo

markbudde — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:57:13 GMT

During today's maintenance, I was trying to tie down my orchid spike which has been growing for almost 2 months and i broke part of it. Bummer. Hopefully some of it still flowers, but I broke the stem with the most developed flowers.

I also reapplied a hefty amount of sluggo. Since I've started the heavy sluggo treatments a few weeks ago I have only seen one slug and no snails, nor have I seen anymore orchid root damage. This morning I saw a (fairly lifeless) slug and I hadn't reapplied any sluggo since I added more leaf litter. I think if I keep this up for about 50 more days, reapplying every 10 or so, I might be able to extinct the mollusks from my viv.

No new eggs, but I'm letting it dry up a bit and will mist heavy on Sunday.