Dart Den

Full Version: Frog and Plant Pictures, and an Introduction.
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This is a great feature to have on a forum. It's nice to be able to say hello before wading into a forum.

I'll start with an image to keep your interest...

A shot from our terribilis tank. These, and bicolors are my favorite dendrobatids bar none. I think it is because their eyes are a distinct color from their bodies. It makes them look very intelligent and inquisitive.
[Image: 574569_517505338276711_330630180_n.jpg]

I am a veteran of the herp hobby. I started out breeding cornsnakes and kingsnakes 15 plus years ago. I have also worked extensively with chameleons, geckos, and hognosed snakes. Around 2001, a friend of mine gave me 3 Dwarf Cobalt tinc froglets, and I began my dart frog addiction.

I have kept small numbers of frogs, and high numbers of plants over the years and have thoroughly enjoyed the hobby. I am a big plant nerd (though not nearly to the extent of some) and I enjoy growing, propagating and manicuring the plants almost as much as I love the frogs.

I recently became part owner of a small company called Emerald Exotics. We build custom glass terraria for dart frogs, reptiles and other amphibians, propagate terrarium plants, breed and sell dart froglets, breed and sell tokay geckos, and breed and sell western hognosed snakes.

I spend a great deal of my time caring for our large collection of animals and plants, and it is the best job ever. Smile

Ok, if I'm losing you... here are some frogs and plants from some of our vivs...

Cobalt Froglet Tree Walking:
[Image: 185047_517505388276706_2032928372_n.jpg]

Leucs in their grow out tank. There are ten of them in this ten gallon tank, and I managed to get five in one shot. (fruit flies assisted in this endeavor)
[Image: 304936_517505548276690_1451166183_n.jpg]

azureus "frogpole" getting close.
[Image: 545969_517505828276662_2114398097_n.jpg]

We have had amazing luck breeding our tiger legged monkey frogs. This is just a portion of our current tad load:
[Image: 564645_517505904943321_1421114178_n.jpg]

In addition to Emerald Exotics, I'm also a producer and talent for Herp Nation Media. We produce Herp Nation Magazine (the world's finest herp magazine) various online radio programs, and the news style online show, Herp Nation live.

Here is a link to the Herp Nation Live official youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/HerpNationOfficial
Here is a link to the Herp Nation Radio Network: http://www.herpnation.com/category/audio/
and here is a Herp Nation Live that you all might enjoy watching: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-XDlKmkjO8[/youtube]

All around, I have a great time in this hobby, and I've met some amazing people. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you too.

I'll end with some pics from our terraria:
Brazilian Yellow Heads:
[Image: 560989_517521841608394_1793448998_n.jpg]

Some of our leucs which have reached market size:
[Image: 376773_517506361609942_1274343104_n.jpg]

Some broms in one of our display vivs:
[Image: 582791_510753958951849_1417528369_n.jpg]

Philodendron "nurse noodles"
[Image: 255573_510754132285165_1454551658_n.jpg]

Pellionia pulchra or watermelon vine:
[Image: 542344_510754198951825_1549410583_n.jpg]

Ludisia discolor (jewel orchid)
[Image: 551712_510754275618484_1901291920_n.jpg]

Baby matecho being illusive...
[Image: 558302_510754342285144_891359920_n.jpg]

Pepperomia:
[Image: 539440_510754425618469_15658066_n.jpg]

Philodendron scandens:
[Image: 526127_510753645618547_763277874_n.jpg]

Nice neoregelia:
[Image: 582635_510753885618523_1867299459_n.jpg]

Thanks for looking!

Dan
Hi Dan and welcome to Dart Den !

I Love field herp forum and that magazine - big fan.

We are just as against 'hybrids' , selective breeding and mixing here...but this is a fair forum with lots of different voices.

We try our best to advance the hobby and improve dart frog husbandry. Great pics, thanks for posting and please enjoy yourself here and post often.

~ Phil
I made one thread on Dendroboard trying to discuss the topic of hybrids hypothetically, and I've been insulted, libeled and made to feel very unwelcome there. That led me to search out another forum where froggers gather. I found your site. I made an intro post, and YOU brought up hybrids? Come on! My introduction post, which has pictures of frogs plants and vivs, has zero responses after yours. Zero people said," hey welcome to the forum." I am not a reactionary. Ask anyone who knows me. I'm calm, I don't get insulted easily, and I generally try to go for the win win, but I gotta say that you intentionally labeling me as a hybridizer in my first post on this forum is completely unacceptable.

I don't keep hybrids. I don't like the concept of hybrids. I don't sell hybrids. I don't have any plans to do so. I am capable of having an adult disscussion about it, however. I'm very sorry to have received this sort of welcome on your site. Disappointing and embarrassing to say the least.


Dan Krull
Dan,
Welcome to Dart Den. I look forward to reading many of your posts and I hope you contribute to this forum often.
I'm not gonna talk about the hybrid thing because I think you've expressed your feelings on that subject. I do have two questions for you though.
1. Do you breed all your own frogs, or do you sometimes buy other peoples frog/tads and resell them?
2. Do you think that those leucs you have pictured are of "Market Size" when they are the size of a penny?
Thank you sir, I look forward to your responses.
Hi Dan Welcome to Dendro Thunderdome!

Nice pics!!!

Can we get some full shots of your terrariums? I am in the process of building out a viv rack and I am always looking to see what everyone else did.

-Byron
Dan,

Some of us are 8,12, 14 year hobbyists and have a LOT invested here. Not just $$ and animals, but also intangibles, like shepparding the hobby, the animals and new people. We do tend to take things that involve genetics and their 'ireversibility' very seriously. There's no possible way a 'mixing' argument can be conducted in low, hushed hobby tones. Can't happen from either side and never will.

I'm sorry if you took anything I said personally, or felt attacked or abused, but as a responsible forum owner, I elected to forewarn you rather than have a repeat of what happened 'over there'.

Please enjoy yourself here, and feel free to post often !

~P
Ah rusty... so nice of you to join the conversation. What coin should I use as a guide for when my frogs are ready for a new home? They are fat, healthy, eating hydei, and perfect in everyway. When is it ok by your standards for me to sell them? I'm am seriously interested in your opinion.

Yesterday afternoon I spent 2 hours giving a new frog keeper a tour of our frog room. I showed him how to feed, dust flies, mist, transfer tads, eggs, and newly morphed froglets, how to grow enormous amounts of springtails, and how to maintain the plant growth in a terrarium. When we were done, I sold him three of those fat little leucs which you implied are too small to sell. They were his first frogs EVER. I felt 100 percent confidant sending them home with him, and he was as happy as is legally allowed in Missouri to take them. Was the amount of time I spent with that guy worth the small amount of money I got from the sale? OF COURSE NOT. Because I do care about him and the hobby he is getting in to, I took the time to teach him. Are those the actions of a frog flipper? Come on dude. Selling frogs isn't evil. Get some perspective.

Also. As I stated clearly "over there" We have several adult pairs of frogs, and we also buy tadpoles from a friend who produces a surplus. I don't think raising tads until they are big enough to sell makes me a "frog flipper" as you called me multiple times "over there."

The internet is a wonderful tool if used properly, but it is also very possible, as proved here and on Dendroboard, to make a person who has dedicated his whole life to conservation of habitats, hobbiest rights, and providing the highest level of care possible for his animals into some sort of evil, money grubbing bastard.

I don't feel welcome. I feel like I'm defending myself 90 percent of the time.

All I want to do is provide high quality frogs, hand cut terraria, terrarium grown plants and other features for the frog hobby, and participate in online discussion. Since the online discussion has been made impossible, I will post in the classified section. Feel free to judge me by the quality of my products and my frogs, but please don't create some sort of fiction based off your wild imaginations.

Thanks,

Dan
Dan,
Just a bit of advise (take it or leave it)...

You need slightly thicker internet skin. If you review the post above, you received two compliments and a vague blanket statement from Phil to which you instantly bristled. Then you had exactly 1 detractor out of the 39,000+ members of this forum, and you took your ball and went home.

I don't know you, but based on the work you have done I would expect us to be great friends in real life, sincerely. I don't think the online persona you have presented has reflected that. In both of the posts I've participated in you started a topic, then got upset when the topic took a life of it's own and you were no longer directing the conversation, so you post a dramatic reply and bail...at least that's the appearance based on the text. Based on your work I think you will be an asset to the forums, but you can't come on with the attitude "Respect me, I'm an asset to your forum" and have people not take shots at you. Participate in the dialogues, earn peoples respect, leave the soft sell for the classified section, remember you can put people on ignore if you feel you're being unfairly persecuted, and remember we are using one of the most imperfect forms of communication ever created, faceless anonymous texts with very little precise context. Everything reads way more aggressive or pompous than it was ever typed.

Anyways, I know you didn't ask for any advice, so feel free to ignore it. I just hate to see you get off on the wrong foot.
On the size of those Leucs...I've transferred at least 50-75 leucs exactly that size without problem. Now I would try to get them a little bigger for a NEW person, but for 'regular' froggers...that size Tinc, Leuc and auratus is transferable IMO.
Objectively, the leucs when picked up are OK size to sell, in my leuc breeding experience. If a newbie has all the needed info and has the ability to contact an experienced seller/breeder/transfer er they should do just fine. I'd hope part of the 2 hour instruction included in-depth instruction on proper quarantine , especially when selling frogs not produced by the seller. Shipping leucs that size is a totally different matter. Too small to ship , in my opinion.
And I also agree that the OP needs to toughen up his Internet skin a bit. Especially when starting yet another of the hundreds of unneeded , redundant mixing threads that constantly litter our forums today. If the opinions of mixers or mixing advocates, or people who just want to throw out "hypothetical hybrids" can be found in one mixing thread, they can be found in one hundred. It's spam at best.

Welcome Dan. Nice vivs.
Welcome to the Den!
I think its always a plus to get more long term keepers on the forum
to share their experience with others.
Looking forward to more pictures of the vivariums and frogs.
I may be addicted.
-Kevin
Yeah, sorry. I guess I shouldn't tell you how to treat people on your own forum. My apologies for once again offending everyone. It wasn't my intention. It will take me a while to dig out of this hole I'm guessing.

Thanks,

Dan

PS for the record for those who are reading this without context, despite what was implied by the posters above: I do not hybridize, keep or sell hybrids. I do have adults, and produce my own frogs (just got a nice clutch of orange terribilis eggs this evening) I have more than money and animals invested, and I am not new to the hobby. I have no classified ads on this forum to draw anyone's attention to. I'm not self important I'm not the bad guy. I just love frogs and building vivs, and that's it.

Epiphytic fern:
[Image: 74562_160904160598879_1333801_n.jpg]

Mini African Violets:
[Image: 73024_160995320589763_4806519_n.jpg]

Liverwort:
[Image: 67483_160768290612466_5727243_n.jpg]

Ficus pumilio (repens)
[Image: 73423_160768323945796_1745842_n.jpg]

29 gallon vert with waterfall:
[Image: 71652_160768387279123_4812857_n.jpg]
Do you use the mini African Violets in your vivs? I'd been kind of wondering how they might do. I really like that liverwort, too -- do you have any idea what particular species that is?
Love the 29 gallon....



Emerald Exotics- Dan Wrote:Yeah, sorry. I guess I shouldn't tell you how to treat people on your own forum. My apologies for once again offending everyone. It wasn't my intention. It will take me a while to dig out of this hole I'm guessing.

Thanks,

Dan

PS for the record for those who are reading this without context, despite what was implied by the posters above: I do not hybridize, keep or sell hybrids. I do have adults, and produce my own frogs (just got a nice clutch of orange terribilis eggs this evening) I have more than money and animals invested, and I am not new to the hobby. I have no classified ads on this forum to draw anyone's attention to. I'm not self important I'm not the bad guy. I just love frogs and building vivs, and that's it.

Epiphytic fern:
[Image: 74562_160904160598879_1333801_n.jpg]

Mini African Violets:
[Image: 73024_160995320589763_4806519_n.jpg]

Liverwort:
[Image: 67483_160768290612466_5727243_n.jpg]

Ficus pumilio (repens)
[Image: 73423_160768323945796_1745842_n.jpg]

29 gallon vert with waterfall:
[Image: 71652_160768387279123_4812857_n.jpg]
African Violets: I do use them. Placement is key. They love the humidity, but you can over-do it. I try to keep them off the floor of the terrarium, so that they aren't swimming. More elevated positions are best. They are handy, because they "tell" you very clearly how they are feeling. If you have the moisture right, they will grow quickly, if not, they sort of sit around and don't do much. If the light is too high, they lean away from it. If it is too low, they lean toward it. If it is just right, you get that nice, flat look as seen above.

Liverworts: It's cool owning something that was growing on the planet 400 million years ago! I think there are 8,000 some species of liverwort, so I'm not going to pretend to know...and there is very little information available. I found a book that was recently published on them that I've been meaning to buy. I collected the original specimen in a shady spring seepage in Missouri. It thrives in the terrarium. We are working on producing enough of it to make it available to fellow dart froggers. I loves being right on the waterfall of your water feature, and it will grow on rock or wood. I'll keep you posted.


Thanks,

Dan
What's new Dan ? How are your vivs ?