Dart Den
Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...
Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Vivarium questions...
#1
hi, first off i am new to everything that has to do with live vivariums and dart frogs in generall. So my first question is about leaving my live vivarium/dart frogs alone. I have a job that requires me to not come home for 1 full day and then later the same week 2 full days, i have noone to look after my vivarium for those days. i have no idea how to install any kind of misting system or fogger nor do i have the budget, but i do want some kind of waterfall/pond inside of the vivarium. but will the plants be able to live without misting or watering for a couple of days? will they be able to live off of humidity alone? And then what about the frogs, if i have a waterfall/pond in it + high humidity i think they would be okay but what about food? i have read about some ways of leaving FF cultures inside the tank for a few days and it would be okay but wouldn't that promote overfedding?


my next questions are about the vivarium itself. in order to plant plants in the background of the vivarium i realize that you need to GS foam some pots into the background itself, but what about drainage? should i drill a hole in the bottom of the pot and lead a tube down into the drainage layer? or will the plants be fine without a drainage layer? And about the substrate, if i wanted to make moss as a carpet, what is a good substrate to lay it on? i was thinking cocofiber, but i see alot of people use cocofiber as a kind of under layer of substrate and then put jungle bedding ontop of that. but the jungle bedding that i have seen aroung here looks like pure woood chips.. is that okay to lay moss on?


my next question is about the actuall frogs... i have read alot about having to many dart frogs in the same viv. and the rule of thumb is 1 frog per 10 gallons. but exo terras are measured differently, i was planning on getting an 18x18x24 how many gallons is that or would it be okay to house 2 D. tinctorius in it? i am truly sorry about all of these questions as i am sure you get them alot, but any answers or help at all would be greatly appreciated! thank you all
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#2
The viv should be fine without daily misting. I only mist mine every couple days and it is fine. I do have a water feature though so that help. My substrate stays moist between waterings so as far as that is concerned you should be fine.

As far as feeding, I think that many PDF keepers don't feed daily so one day here and a couple days there should not be a big deal. Maybe you could dump a bunch of flies in a small deli container with a couple holes in the lid big enough for the flies to get out and place that in there on the days when you'll be gone for two days.

Two frogs in an 18x18x24 enclosure would be fine. That comes out to around 33 gallons in case your are wondering.
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#3
Exo-Terra makes a small, medium and large self contained water feature that would be great in the 18x18 dimensions.

What I’ve seen with my tinc’s, and it was something I had to rectify quickly, they don’t like to share feeding grounds with each-other…they get stressed competing for food. I had to divide the land section of my viv with a piece of (cool looking) drift-wood and an air plant. This created two separate micro-territories and now they no longer have to compete for food...or if you’d like to think of it this way, they stay out of each others way now which puts them under way less stress. There are othere breeds that group better then Tinc's...just something to keep in mind.
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#4
thank you both for the reply, that helps out a great deal and i will take both of your responses into consideration, does anyone else have any answers for my other questions?
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#5
What we've done with ours (since the tops to our tanks are mesh) is to take double-sided tape and tape clingwrap (the clear uber obnoxious to use food wrap stuff) to the outside of the mesh top. This works really well for keeping the humidity/moisture in. Because of this we really only have to mist the tanks down every few days Smile.
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#6
As far as the substrate, there are a lot of different things used. I used a mix of coco fiber and peat moss, with spagnum (sp?) moss on top of that and then live tropical moss on that. Many just use leaves on top instead of moss. If you do a search, you will come up with a lot of different options.
Fran
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#7
are water snails good to keep in vivs? to eat the algae
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'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'
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ohh! and my name is aaron!
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#8
^ No, snails can carry parasites that can be passed to the darts. Many species of bugs are great to keep with the darts.

Rich
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#9
thanks......any alteritive to snails?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'
---------------------------------------------------------------------

ohh! and my name is aaron!
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#10
Yes,
http://dartden.com/viewtopic.php?t=2789

Rich
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#11
i will try a few but surely springtails!.....cant wait to get it done!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'
---------------------------------------------------------------------

ohh! and my name is aaron!
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