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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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EXO 18x18x24 - Frog Choices ?
#1
Picked one up over the weekend, not sure what frogs to go with......Was looking at either vittatus or Yellow Truncatus. Any opinions? Also where are your fav places to get plants in the dallas area or online.
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#2
Most frogs would work good in that size, so your options are almost endless.

As for the plants, Richardson is as far as ya need to go.

http://www.plantsandplanters.net/

zachaustin Wrote:Picked one up over the weekend, not sure what frogs to go with......Was looking at either vittatus or Yellow Truncatus. Any opinions? Also where are your fav places to get plants in the dallas area or online.
What some see as death, others see as beauty.


Casper
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#3
Beth suggested that place.....was also thinking about ordering a substrate "kit" from neherp.
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#4
Neherp is a good choice, they are great people.

Or make your own in bulk or there is always turface.

I am becoming a turface fan. The springtails LOVE it, it lasts forever, great drainage, easy to mix(because you don't have to),don't have to do nothing but put in your viv and get it wet, and did i mention springtails LOVE it... :mrgreen:
What some see as death, others see as beauty.


Casper
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#5
I just dont understand the turface thing, if im going to plant heavily how and where will the plants get nutrients? Plus it just doesnt look natural. NEherp has an option to have it mixed in with either their version of abg or the actual abg mix.
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#6
Wait until Casper's meeting....go to it....become one with the local froggers....acquire much start-up knowledge, then frogs, and supplies.

Winning.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#7
Becoming one with the local froggers he has...grin...

Honestly, they both work, and they both work well! And the plants like them both. The leafs decaying, dead flies and frog poo gives the plants all they need. I like all the extra calcium the turface adds to the viv, calcium rich springtails =fat and happy pum babies.

Philsuma Wrote:Wait until Casper's meeting....go to it....become one with the local froggers....acquire much start-up knowledge, then frogs, and supplies.

Winning.
What some see as death, others see as beauty.


Casper
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#8
zachaustin Wrote:I just dont understand the turface thing, if im going to plant heavily how and where will the plants get nutrients? Plus it just doesnt look natural. NEherp has an option to have it mixed in with either their version of abg or the actual abg mix.

Turface by itself doesn't provide much in the way of nutrients, but it does provide a huge capacity for storing nutrients as they become available, and making them available to plants as they need it. It's main purpose though is to store a ton of water, making it available to the roots, while still preserving a lot of air space, keeping the roots from rotting. Once you've got frogs, leaf litter and microfauna in the viv, you're going to have a nutrient rich environment regardless (frog poop, bug poop, dead bugs, decaying leaf litter, etc.). When I set up a viv with Turface, I mix about five parts Turface to one part ABG (or a reasonable facsimile) really about the only "nutrient" part of ABG is the peat (a source of humic acid) -- the rest (fir bark, shredded sphagnum, charcoal, tree fern) is as much about preventing root rot as anything (fir bark and sphagnum have compounds that arrest decay; the bark, charcoal and tree fern work to keep air spaces open, much like the Turface does). I also usually water in my initial planting with some dilute organic fertilizer, some dilute rooting hormone, and a bit of mycorrhizal inoculant, but none of those probably matter much once the viv is actually up and running.

As far as looks, none the substrate we use probably looks much like the jungle floor, but with leaf litter, etc, you don't see much of it anyway. Regular Turface is kind of a light-to-medium brown, but the dealers can usually get in the red or grey versions if you want.

Anyway, just my $0.02 -- there are about as many theories about proper substrates as there are froggers, and most anything will work for the most part. I use a lot of Turface for my overgrown houseplant menagerie, so I had it handy; it didn't take much encouragement to get me to use it on my vivs, too :-)
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#9
Is there a need to "sanitize" plants? And if so, how in the world do you go about it?
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#10
A 5min flash rinse in water w bleach - One (01) 'cap full' per 5 gallons of water, then I soak in 100% fresh water. You can also use water with dishwasher soap. Its not scientific, but gives me some piece of mind.
Scott - North Dallas
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#11
I bare-root the plants (if necessary), and do an hour or so soak in RO water (longer if the plants just got shipped in), 5 minutes in a 5% bleach solution with a drop or two of dish soap, rinse under the tap, then back to a (fresh) RO bath for a few minutes.

(Use the cheapest unscented chlorine bleach without additives you can find.)
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