[BonnieLorraine]

I decided to take over my friends store for a few hours, and rip up the old dart frog displays. I added hydroton and screen, and some quasi ABG mix, along with lots of plant cuttings and leaf litter. I have the other section left to do tomorrow.

Before:

After:

 

[WeeNe858]

lol. I remember seeing those old tanks.

Great job on the renovations!

Have you considered adding a kitty litter or GS background to that smaller rear panel? It will definitively round out the tanks and possibly help sell the frogs better. Just a thought.

 

[froggies3]

More leaf litter and maybe a coco hut for the dendrobates

 

[Shohin]

Just curious, why do you have water bowls in all the dart frog tanks? Is this to only raise humidity?

-Troy

 

[BonnieLorraine]

Thanks WeeNe! I didn't do a background because the level the tanks are at, and how deep they are, you'd only see the back wall of the tank if you were sitting on the floor, plus I like leaving the tanks so I can strip them down and sanitize them if needed. As for the coco huts, unfortunately we only have the coco huts with holes in the top at the store, not very good for darts, which is why I put in the half cork tubes in the back. I'll be adding more leaf litter once all the cuttings are established, I couldn't put in more without either covering the cuttings up or not giving them access to root in the soil. The water bowls are because we don't have the tanks on a mist system, and if an employee forgets to spray down the tanks or we just get swamped with customers, its a back up for the frogs to stay damp, haven't lost a dart frog yet!

They seem pretty happy with the new tanks, I went in this afternoon and they were all sitting up front, waiting for me to feed them. They seem a lot more bold now, especially the azureus.

 

[B-NICE]

More leaf litter and maybe a coco hut for the dendrobates

I dont think adding leaf litter is good in the pet stores, because you want to be able to see the Darts. If they are Thumbs, you will never find them. Petstore vivs should'nt have too much cover IMO.

 

[Shinosuke]

Petstore vivs should'nt have too much cover IMO.

I understand your opinion but I respectfully disagree. I've worked in my share of pet stores and know that they have MUCH more traffic / noise than your typical frog room, not too mention about a billion times more tiny hands smacking the tanks. If anything a petstore should have more cover than your home viv so the animals are in some semblance of physical / mental healthy when they're taken home. That's just my $.02, though.
Nice work on the tanks, Bonnie! They look nice, easy to clean, and Pothos was a good plant choice. It should grow in well and will be basically impossible to kill by even the most uninformed pet-store employee!

 

[davidadelp]

I understand your opinion but I respectfully disagree. I've worked in my share of pet stores and know that they have MUCH more traffic / noise than your typical frog room, not too mention about a billion times more tiny hands smacking the tanks. If anything a petstore should have more cover than your home viv so the animals are in some semblance of physical / mental healthy when they're taken home. That's just my $.02, though.
Nice work on the tanks, Bonnie! They look nice, easy to clean, and Pothos was a good plant choice. It should grow in well and will be basically impossible to kill by even the most uninformed pet-store employee!

Agreed! All the loud little kids or stupid teenagers who think its funny to smack the tank to scare whatever is inside just makes me mad. Id say the more cover the better if they want to see whats inside bad enough ask a employee to show u

 

[BonnieLorraine]

I think I can actually see them more now with the additional cover. I snapped those pics right after I put them back in the tanks and they were still hiding, but the next day every single one of them was out in the middle of the tank. I uh, may have gotten rid of all the pothos lol >.< My friend teases me that I'm allergic to it. I put in Peperomia serpens, Peperomia trifolia, Pilea glauca, Pellonia repens, Hydrocotyle verticillata, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, Hydrocotyle leucophylla, Philodendron 'Brazil', Philodendron 'Micans', Fittonia verschafeltii, Callisia repens, Tradescantia zebrina, Scindapsis pictus, and Ficus pumila minima (trying to remember all of it, pretty much just ran through the greenhouse carrying scissors lol). I'm going to start seeding everything tomorrow with springtails.

 

[srrrio]

Pretty lucky frogs. Definitely an upgrade, especially compared to most other pet store dart displays.

Sally

 

[BonnieLorraine]

Thanks Sally!

 

[rain dart]

Stopped by today, they look great and the frogs were very active. Now you wanna come by my class and help out my tanks lol