[R1ch13]

Hey all,

Figured I'd share a couple of snaps as I haven't contributed for a while.

Ive had this pair since around March-April time, they are wonderful frogs and are full of character.

My one problem with them is just how prolific they are. I raised the first few clutches myself and then decided to leave them to it as I was often gifted with multiple clutches of 2-3 every 2nd day more or less.

They are brilliant parents and their 5th viv raised froglet in the past few months has just ventured out of his FC.

Daddio, doing his business.

1-2month OOW viv raised froglet from a couple months back.

And one of my artificially raised froglets, notice the intensity of the colours on this one.

I have no doubt, that the NLS Amphibian Formula pellets I feed them contribute to their significantly brighter colouration in comparison to the viv raised froglets.

Enjoy,
Richie

 

[stu&shaz]

Hey mate,lovely to chat all to breifly at frogday,congrats on the Chazuta,Richie tell me more about the tad pellets,are you sourcing them here? Damn those colours are vibrant!! very interesting that you attribute this to the pellets,i've not heard about this before(well not that i can remember anyway)
Stunning pics mate
best
Stu

 

[R1ch13]

Hey mate,lovely to chat all to breifly at frogday,congrats on the Chazuta,Richie tell me more about the tad pellets,are you sourcing them here? Damn those colours are vibrant!! very interesting that you attribute this to the pellets,i've not heard about this before(well not that i can remember anyway)
Stunning pics mate
best
Stu

Hiya Stu.

Was a pleasure mate, its always good to put another face to a name.

On regards to the food, I sourced it direct from the company before it was "more" available in the UK.

I say "more" because even now I think there is still only a handful of internet stockists that offer the Amphibian Forumla.

For you convenience here is a link to the product New Life Spectrum Amphibian Formula | Fish Food | 123 Aquatics

New Life Spectrum are a fairly new company in comparison to the likes of Sera, Aquarian etc. When they first released there initial range of foods a few years ago, Practical Fishkeeping magazine had a limited amount of there Community Fish pellet product to give away. I was lucky enough to be 1 of the first 50 to send in my voucher and recieved my tub. I used to breed various freshwater tropicals Ancistrus, Corydoras etc and all of my fish devoured the stuff with gusto and never looked better.

I know of hobbyists in the US using NLS Thera with great success, which is another of the pellets from their very diverse range. So you are certainly not limited to using the Amphibian Forumla, I just figured it suited.

The pellets are packed with a whole host of quality ingredients and it really shows, all my thumbs raised on them morph out insanely huge and take Mels easily off the bat.

The product has loads of Carotenoid rich ingredients such as Spirulina and countless fruits, I strongly believe this has contributed to the colouration on all of my artificially raised Chazuta. The difference between viv raised and artificial froglets is so great and simply cant contribute it to any factor other than nutrition.

Best regards,
Richie

 

[sports_doc]

Amazon.com: New Life Spectrum Amphibian Formula - 150 g: Pet Supplies

 

[R1ch13]

Amazon.com: New Life Spectrum Amphibian Formula - 150 g: Pet Supplies

Only at the beginning of the year when I was looking for it there was nowhere.

I messaged the company manager asking where I could purchase some, he replied back and so kindly offered me a couple of tubs for free as he was very interested in what I was using them for which was very good of him.

At that point in time he could only tell me of 1 stockist in the UK who offered their full range of products but he hadn't added the Amphibian Formula to his website as it was one of their later developments along with the Crustacean Formula.

A brilliant company to say the least, heres a link to their full range for anyone interested.

New Life Spectrum Premium Fish Food for Colour and Vitality

Regards,
Richie

 

[stu&shaz]

Hey Rich,i'll look into this,that colour differance is amazing,i'm doing ok with all this tad malarky but my live stuff may well be in short supply in the cold months so i've been thinking about what else i can utilise,looks like me mate has sorted this out for me cheers.Also interesting the size they are comming out at Rich so a couple more questions relating to that: what is your water temp ,and how long are these in the water for,finally is there an expected time for most ranitomeyer relative to what one would expect for the larger darts?
Shawn do you also use this tad food?
Rich thanks dude!!
Stu

 

[R1ch13]

Hiya Stu mate, sorry for the late reply I didn't realise you'd posted.

The NLS is a wonderful food mate, as I say I used to solely and have had no problems at all. I send 1 of the 2 tubs I got free of charge to Gaz to try so you could fire him a PM and see how he's finding them.

My entire flat is sits at around 20-21 degrees without heating on (benefit of being 4 floors up, steal everyone elses)

I have the thermostat set to crank on at 20 now a days to keep night time temps from dropping too low, and during the day the T5's boost the viv heat up to 24-25 which is the result of loads of tweaking and fine-tuning.

When I raise tads artificially (having a break just now) I kept the room at a minimum of 21 at all times and never had any issues with SLS etc.

Morph time for me at this temperature, from memory was around 2 1/2-3 months I believe for both R. Imitator and R. Flavovitatta. I attribute their significantly larger morph out size to the slightly cooler temps I raised them at, no need to speed it up by upping the temps as I feel it can only be detrimental to the frog in the long run.

On regards to the overall morph times of Ranitomeya species the average I see describved with many species tends to be anywhere from 2 to 3months. With some taking notoriously longer like R. Amazonia (formerly Ventrimaculata)

Best regards,
Richie