In talking with people who have traveled to areas of Central America and visited populations of D. auratus and O. pumilio, one of the things I noticed is there comments about how they would often find frogs in trash piles and among human debris (some of the highest population densities I've heard people recount were in piles of garbage). These species seem pretty adaptive to disturbed areas and things like bottles, cans, bedpans--pretty much any vessel that can hold water--become excellent tadpole deposition sites.
In an attempt to make aspects of my pumilio and auratus enclosures as biotopically correct as possible, over the last year I've been experimenting with adding various bits of garbage and refuse. I started with some old beer bottles, but the water in those would turn rank as they didn't get washed out frequently enough and would fill up with dead fly carcasses. Old pieces of metal debris, however, rusty and aged with moss and lichen, have worked out really well and add an interesting element to the enclosures. The vast majority of it is just for looks, but in some tanks the only suitable deposition sites are cans, tins, etc. with collected water in them.
I recently set up some new vert tanks and had my camera, so I thought I would share a few images. Things will obviously look better when things start growing in and start looking nice and grungy:
Sometimes, turning over cans and pieces of metal, you find one of these:
This is a peek inside a 30 gal tank that has been going for a while. You can see some fairly recently added cans and debris, but there are other pieces that have become completely covered with moss and epiphytes:
In an attempt to make aspects of my pumilio and auratus enclosures as biotopically correct as possible, over the last year I've been experimenting with adding various bits of garbage and refuse. I started with some old beer bottles, but the water in those would turn rank as they didn't get washed out frequently enough and would fill up with dead fly carcasses. Old pieces of metal debris, however, rusty and aged with moss and lichen, have worked out really well and add an interesting element to the enclosures. The vast majority of it is just for looks, but in some tanks the only suitable deposition sites are cans, tins, etc. with collected water in them.
I recently set up some new vert tanks and had my camera, so I thought I would share a few images. Things will obviously look better when things start growing in and start looking nice and grungy:
Sometimes, turning over cans and pieces of metal, you find one of these:
This is a peek inside a 30 gal tank that has been going for a while. You can see some fairly recently added cans and debris, but there are other pieces that have become completely covered with moss and epiphytes: