Making Fake Rocks

[fred]

Hi OH23,

Thanks, it was a bit of a hurry-work; I build the terrarium in about two days (took me a week to get all the materials), some things I would have done a little different when there was more time and better materials to work with..
There's two water-flows going from the top down, but this is not good to see on the pictures. (I didn't make any pictures, just got them from people around when I was working on it).

Hi Marcus,

You see that right; there's 'Redhead', 'Anchikaya' histrionica and 'Yellow' lehmanni in the vivarium.
On the second picture with frogs, you can see all three of them.

These are all c.b. frogs, offspring from confiscated parents who where about to get smuggled some years ago.

[Mworks]

Excellent.

It would be very interesting if you could share your experiences in breeding these species, in the frogs and vivs part of the forum so as not to hijack this thread.

Regards
Marcus

[fred]

Hi Marcus,

Offcourse I can share my experiences in breeding these frogs, only -like you say- this thread is about making fake rocks.
Other point is that these frogs are (not yet) legal in the hobby....so I would be helping people who buy illegal frogs, and maybe give others more motivation to do that too..
What I can say, is that there is absolutely no need to let the tads be raised by pumilio's..like you can read in other threads..

I see that i've missed a question from Brotherly Monkey, sorry for that; the epoxy mixed with the peat will not act as a sponge, if you don't put to much peat in the epoxy.
I mostly put one thin layer pure epoxy to close everything if it must be absolutely waterproof, then later the other layers mixed with the soil.

grts,
Fred.

[OH23]

Heya Fred,
what kind of epoxy do you use ( brand name also please )?

p.s. for 2 days of work and get this stuning results, i'm --->

[fred]

Hi OH23,

I don't know the brand of the epoxy I use here, it's the only one I can find here, probably imported from Korea or China like allmost everything here, and horrible stuff..
I'm sure you have much better epoxy overthere.

I have to use more then I do when I use the epoxy from Holland, but also there it's 3 times more expensive too.

It's best you use the things that people here on this thread allready recommend; they have experience with the materials over there.

With the same method you can also make nice tree-roots (that don't rot) for the terrarium, and lately I created a coral-reef for the Zoo here..(that was really a lot of work, and I'm no coral-expert)..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, and this is important; I read somewhere on this thread (or another one) someone who gave advice about using a gas burner to melt the styrofoam; let everybody please be very carfeull with this, and never use an open flame: in Holland some people got injured and burned because of an explosion.
The materials containing gases which cause the heave explosions with open fire..be carefull with it!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[OH23]

Thanks Fred,
For the heads up on the gas burner !
you know, pictures are always wanted ( you said coral reef ).

[Brotherly Monkey]

OH23, though I never used it with any animals, least of all dart frogs, I have used "West Systems" marine epoxy in some small plant enclosures, and a friend has used it to build numerous reptile enclosures for lace monitors

[OH23]

Brotherly Monkey, i heard about "West Systems" marine epoxy and know that some of the members here use it, with success, but i'd like to know if any other, more common brands of epoxy would be okay to use.

[VivariumWorks]

I use a slow curing epoxy made by a company in Corpus Christi. They are called Dewey Supply. You'll have to call them up to order as they don't have a website. I use their Epo-Bond brand. It has a strong sweet smell but works really well for painting applications as long as you use a thin coat. A thiker coat will show the slightly amber color. I'm going to be carrying this product on my online store when its up as I use it with great results. It doesn't yellow or fade due to UV like polyester resin will.

But as for a local place that you can go to pickup clear epoxy, I've yet to find one.

[OH23]

VivariumWorks, thanks for the input. this is very good information that will save me time on finding the right product.
thanks