[jkooiman]

They were all piled up on a branch, had to share... JVK

 

[jkooiman]

I haven't tried tinkering with any breeding. They just don't seem to be sexually mature. One is getting noticeably bigger (not girthier, just bigger) so that one may well turn out to be female. If a mature female is supposed to be 4+ inches then "shes" got a long way to go. They do call when a stormfront comes through. I love their call. I keep their tank really pretty dry and ventilated, so they don't call that often. JVK

 

[jkooiman]

Awesome pic, kind of looks like a pic Mike Novy showed me of a stack of Phyllomedusines. How big is your group? How loud is their call? Are you keeping them drier because they are new imports? I have only kept the common members of the genus (dennysi and leucomystax) but would love to branch out someday. Good luck with them, they look really healthy.

Four, I'm pretty sure I have a female though. I'm keeping them drier because last year I had one drop dead overnight in a humid tank. Then the rest developed bacterial infections. I can't really describe the call, I think there's one on Amphibia Web. I keep them well ventilated on paper towels and fake plants. Their tank is really ugly I have a big waterbowl that holds a gallon of water. Once a week I empty it, fill it with a bit of water, pop in the microwave till boiling, wipe it out, and fill it with fresh water. They crawl in there nightly and exchange fluids etc.

I really love these frogs, they're even kinda friendly In the wild they breed in piss-filled buffalo/rhino wallows. The tadpoles have the wood-grain look too. Roman mentioned he thinks they may dwell in tree holes in the wild, thus the casque and the wood grain skin. Makes sense to me, mine have a weird, kinda "humped up" look to them when sleeping, as if they "want" to be crammed in a crevice or something. JVK

edit Oh and one other thing, I do mist them occasionally, but when I had the heat mat on (it's only been warm here for like a week) I would dump a bit of water over the heat mat and close a plastic flap on the lid, sealing up the tank, and fogging it up. ( the lid is partially glass) I would do this a couple times a week.I did this at night before I went to bed.

 

[jkooiman]

In 18 months of keeping them I have yet to see them feed since mine are completely nocturnal. Have never tried worms but the crikets and roaches seem to disapear quickly enough. I wouldn't recommend keepig them in a sterile tank at all. Mine are housed in a 16"by16" by 30" screen cage heavily planted with a large water dish(which they do utilize judging by the poops) several bushy plants that are planted in the substrate of the cage and several pieces of corkbark.

I'm not a big fan of fake tanks either, a few years ago I would have balked at keeping anything so sterile, as I'm a big follower of the european method of doing things.

However, I've lost a lot of frogs in the past to diseases etc. that were sudden and baffling to me. Only about this past year (when I bought my first computer) did I really grasp the rudimentry basics of treatments, prevention etc. that seem to be popular common knowledge it seems. The Hygiene factor makes my life a little easier.

I was kind of "inspired"(that sounds stupid) by Andrew Grays' Manchester blog (tanks for high canopy dwellers etc simple and clean). It works for me, though this holiday weekend I have big plans to build my atelopus tank, and may spice up the otilophus enclosure with a layer of magnolia leaves over the paper towels in the process. Actually, the tank looks pretty decent when I have all the silk plants arranged how I want, but they have a tendency to get knocked over. About the feeding, now that you mention it, I've seen my specimens eat maybe a handful of times, they are strictly nocturnal.JVK