Frogs, at last!

1974 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by inka4040, Dec 12, 2011

inka4040

Discussion Starter · Dec 10, 2011

So I picked up three juvenile D. tinctorius 'patricia' at the White Plains Reptile Show a couple weeks ago. Many thanks to Jeremy and Richard for patiently answering my questions, it was nice to meet them and chat for a bit. Currently they're all being housed in the same enclosure, an 18x24 zoo med terrarium. I've read that this arrangement can be problematic, even with juveniles, but given the number of distinct hiding spots, my efforts to block sight lines, and dumping ff in a few spots throughout the tank, there have been no noticeable issues so far. In fact, all three are often out and foraging for food together. Needless to say, they will be closely watched, and if any of them seem to be struggling or eating less, they will be removed to other quarters.

Sorry for not embedding the photos, but imgur is more convenient than uploading all the photos individually. Let me know what you folks think. I'd love to get your feedback on this setup.

D. tinctorius 'patricia' viv

Reactions: 3

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frogface

· #2 · Dec 10, 2011

Grats! Beautiful froglets and love the tank!

Boondoggle

· #3 · Dec 10, 2011

Nice job on the tank. When people say they just got into frogs and show their first tank this is not what I expect to see. Beautiful plants and I like the effort at terracing. You might want to consider adding some low features to the foreground to break up the open space a bit and make it blend into the background, but seriously nice.

inka4040

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 10, 2011

Thanks a lot, you two!

Boondoggle, what do you suggest I do with the front? It does seem like the two sections kind of collide really abruptly. Hopefully as the plants grow in the line will soften a bit, but what are some other options for breaking up that area?

DragonSpirit1185

· #5 · Dec 11, 2011

wow that looks really

Hopefully I will have more to spend on my next tank and make it look that good.
I think it looks perfect the way it is.

Like you I am letting stuff grow in and whatnot before I get my frogs.

I like the moss on the hut.
What was your method and what mosses did you use?
I'm trying yo come up with something for my viv.
I have a thread started and if you can help me out I would greatly appreciate it

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/plants/76145-moss-mix-background.html

That's one of the best first frog tanks I have seen...especially that established already.
How long did it take to get established to it's current condition?
I saw in another thread is said 5 moths if I'm not mistaken.

I think I need to build me a clay viv. everything seems to grow so much better on clay.

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inka4040

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 11, 2011

Thanks a lot, man! I'd love to help you out on the moss thread, but I'm still learning through trial and error. Not sure I'm really qualified to be saying what will and won't work, seeing as how I haven't figured it out for myself.

DragonSpirit1185 said:
I like the moss on the hut.
What was your method and what mosses did you use?

The hut has been used in various aquarium settings for a couple of years. Over that time, it's gotten pretty well crusted with a variety of different mosses/riccardia. I just pulled it out of one of my old apisto tanks, and plopped it in. There was a lot of dieback at first, but it's grown back in pretty well, I think. The mosses in the background are either out of my own aquarium, or from Manuran here on the forum.

DragonSpirit1185 said:
How long did it take to get established to it's current condition?
I saw in another thread is said 5 moths if I'm not mistaken.

It's been planted up since late May. Over that time, I've added and taken out a lot of things.

DragonSpirit1185 said:
I think I need to build me a clay viv. everything seems to grow so much better on clay.

I'm not so sure that my experience supports this. Everything you see growing on the background is mounted onto cork. I had a really difficult time getting things to take directly to the clay, possibly due to my futzing of the ratios at first. If you notice the pics that show the very top of the viv, you can see that all the moss planted directly on the clay is pretty well dead and brown.

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Reactions: 1

eos

· #7 · Dec 11, 2011

Excellent job on the tank. Beautifully put together.

CALBerkGuy

· #8 · Dec 11, 2011

great froglets!

inka4040

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 12, 2011

Thanks so much, guys! I actually added another piece of wood coming out into the foreground today. My lepanthes telipogoniflora was getting light burned higher up in the tank, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, and mount it a lot lower. I'll try and get an updated shot when the frogs come back out of hiding.

hydrophyte

· #10 · Dec 12, 2011 (Edited)

Wow that tank is really nice. You selected some pretty cool plants to put in there. Nice job growing the mosses too. The whole deal doesn't have a lot of relief and looks sort of 2-dimensional, but it's cool that way. It looks like one of those living walls.

frogfreak

· #11 · Dec 12, 2011

Your viv is outstanding and you picked up some beautiful Tincs!

inka4040

Discussion Starter · #12 · Dec 12, 2011

Thanks a lot, FF, Hydrophyte!

Hydro, I know what you mean about it looking two dimensional. The background is basically flat, but the woodwork sticks out in all directions. The sense of depth just really doesn't come across in photos, everything just seems so flattened out.

DragonSpirit1185

· #13 · Dec 12, 2011

Pics with the new wood added please?

hydrophyte

· #14 · Dec 12, 2011

Right, what I meant to say was that the 2-dimensional appearance actually looks really cool. It suggests all of that natural greenery superimposed onto a flat man-made wall. Does that make sense? I can imagine it having more depth though in person because it has those limbs and all of the plants sticking out.

inka4040

Discussion Starter · #15 · Dec 12, 2011

Thanks, man! I didn't take it as an insult, it's just that Mellowvision and I have been talking about how flat it looks in photos since my first attempts at taking pics.

In any case, here's a shot of the new branch I added, before the telipogoniflora was mounted. It doesn't stand out terribly well in the FTS, but I'll take another once the frogs have eaten enough flies for me to get in there and wipe the glass.

http://imgur.com/0Xeij

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