Dart Den

frogfreak Wrote:That valley is incredible! It looks far more tropical then temperate. Is that where you get all your mosses from guys?

Nice frog pics too!

its a mad place to be sure Glen,actually its one of those take photos leave footprints mate,its too special to mess with,for us anyway,i have mates that can get me wood ferns etc as previous jobs have been with trees and growing ferns,its such an unusual place Glen,a real one off,we have never found anything like it here anywhere not even down south where its much wetter and we both grew up,ive actually planted woodlands down there,Glen, never seen something like this place before.Strange that upward pic of the branch with ferns on is weird,the branch looks tropical and yet if you look all the leaves are off the trees so very temperate,ha it messes with me mate
Stu

Philsuma Wrote:Excellent pics Stu ! I'm interested in "odd" geography myself, and that vale does seem worthy of study. Who knows what creatures reside therein ? You're a little "southeast" for Leprechauns, and a little due south for large black dogs / cats and wolves but hey...who knows. Don't ever forget your camera.

Hmm i've been yards from the so called beast of exmoor Phil crossed the road infront of me,Shaz says its the only time she saw me go ashen and we have a big cat of somesort right here abouts,nailed a sheep litterally 2 fields away. I'm not BS ing ya mate totally straight,and there is atotal logical explanation.Back in 1981 our gov brought out some wildlife act,stuff had to be registered ie dangerous animals so folks went out abit and dumped them.I saw this cat n holiday,we stayed at a guys place whom had worked at whipsnade zoo,there were pics of him with tiger cubs and all that,he said what i had seen was european lynx.
to put this into perspective though, and now i'm going to break your heart mate, i'm afraid the leprechauns aren't real, well not over here anyway, or in ireland,but i'm pretty sure a few live on dendroboard,i would be lying if i said i had seen any,but if you unplug your speakers and listen real hard between the lines
oh i'll just see myself out
Stu


ps before someone comes over all mysterious on me I'm joking

I ache with jealousy.
Another amazing post Stu n Shaz . You guys are amazing!!! Cant wait to visit!

mordoria Wrote:I ache with jealousy.
Another amazing post Stu n Shaz . You guys are amazing!!! Cant wait to visit!

ha you'll ache more once you see them for real,David.For some reason of which i'm not sure the word shyness does not figure in their vocabulary at all,i'm sure if i stuck my whole head in their tank they would still carry on about their day,without noticing.
So far we have tinc.luec auratus breeding...all tinc tribe these guys are so different to them i stuggle to tell the other tads apart,but these are utterly different,i'm starting to see that they eat less as tads too they are possibly quicker as real infant tads too the tinc clade all seem slow for acouple of days,mysties swim like hell if they want to from the off,all little observations that might well change with time.but interesting to have noted now.
Thanks for the amazing,but not really just little guys learning hard,ha and getting a good deal of help
cool huh?
Stu

Stu&Shaz Wrote:

Philsuma Wrote:Excellent pics Stu ! I'm interested in "odd" geography myself, and that vale does seem worthy of study. Who knows what creatures reside therein ? You're a little "southeast" for Leprechauns, and a little due south for large black dogs / cats and wolves but hey...who knows. Don't ever forget your camera.

Hmm i've been yards from the so called beast of exmoor Phil crossed the road infront of me,Shaz says its the only time she saw me go ashen and we have a big cat of somesort right here abouts,nailed a sheep litterally 2 fields away. I'm not BS ing ya mate totally straight,and there is atotal logical explanation.Back in 1981 our gov brought out some wildlife act,stuff had to be registered ie dangerous animals so folks went out abit and dumped them.I saw this cat n holiday,we stayed at a guys place whom had worked at whipsnade zoo,there were pics of him with tiger cubs and all that,he said what i had seen was european lynx.
to put this into perspective though, and now i'm going to break your heart mate, i'm afraid the leprechauns aren't real, well not over here anyway, or in ireland,but i'm pretty sure a few live on dendroboard,i would be lying if i said i had seen any,but if you unplug your speakers and listen real hard between the lines
oh i'll just see myself out
Stu

ps before someone comes over all mysterious on me I'm joking

Oh my yes...there are Leprechauns on DB. I saw one. Please start another thread sometime with pics of that Vale / forest and we can discuss Cryptofauna....yet another hobby of mine.

I'll do thet for ya mate,bare with me,oh but you'll have to explain the cryptofauna word on it :lol:
I suspect the big cat story has you going yeah right,but for once no jesting there Phil utterly true,that was along time ago now but still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. I started my bird work as a gamekeeper so very familiar with what lights do to animals eyes at night and very conversant with identification of our native predators at range,let alone silly close,waliking around with a light at night on me lonesome was never something that spooked me,but hell that did
Stu

Stu&Shaz Wrote:some little spotty kids,ahh these are so cool

Someone Forgot to change their Pajamas!!! coolest frog i have seen!!!

Juan

Stu&Shaz Wrote:I'll do thet for ya mate,bare with me,oh but you'll have to explain the cryptofauna word on it :lol:
I suspect the big cat story has you going yeah right,but for once no jesting there Phil utterly true,that was along time ago now but still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. I started my bird work as a gamekeeper so very familiar with what lights do to animals eyes at night and very conversant with identification of our native predators at range,let alone silly close,waliking around with a light at night on me lonesome was never something that spooked me,but hell that did
Stu

Cryptofauna ? The magazine "Fortean Times" is British right ? I love reading that mag in the coffee shops. Seriously.

Juand15 Wrote:

Stu&Shaz Wrote:some little spotty kids,ahh these are so cool

Someone Forgot to change their Pajamas!!! coolest frog i have seen!!!

Juan

Yeah Juan they are something special unfortunately you guys can't keep them,its a crying shame because they do real well in captivity and are in a bad way in the wild,monies donated from the sale of captive frogs might just help secure their wild counterparts future,their habitat is desparately threatened as far as i can tell.Its very important to us that we do well by these guys, be a part in securing their captive future and also maybe make a tiny difference to their wild cousins.They are enthralling frogs to keep those pics give you a glimpse of how adoreable the froglets are,they are also almost unaware of people showing almost no fear whatsoever.Juan have a look for Excidobates captivus its not kept in captivity to my knowlegde but its worth you seeing pictures of, i'll try and get some pics up in a while of there eggs,i post about them in an effort to show you guys what we are learning.
Stu

Philsuma Wrote:

Stu&Shaz Wrote:I'll do thet for ya mate,bare with me,oh but you'll have to explain the cryptofauna word on it :lol:
I suspect the big cat story has you going yeah right,but for once no jesting there Phil utterly true,that was along time ago now but still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. I started my bird work as a gamekeeper so very familiar with what lights do to animals eyes at night and very conversant with identification of our native predators at range,let alone silly close,waliking around with a light at night on me lonesome was never something that spooked me,but hell that did
Stu

Cryptofauna ? The magazine "Fortean Times" is British right ? I love reading that mag in the coffee shops. Seriously.

Ha i don't do coffee shops Phil,i carry a stove almost everywhere,so always head away from the masses for a brew,yeah i think i know the mag,all the weird ufo strange and wonderful stuff?
Stu

Ok our attachibakka are BIG tincs "tank"(well its my affectionate name for her) is huge so i snapped this for you guys the other day as a comparison some mystie eggs,probably a bit older and some of "tank's" eggs.The main reason was to show just how small the mystie eggs really are,maybe slightly over doing it by putting them next to these tincs but what the hell

well on the subject of eggs a bit more egg stuff from the last couple of weeks

panama specials suberblues mysties
oh and some leucs

and those big ol' tincs

these hatched next day again attachi

and our simple "spared no expense" incubators

tadpoles

er more tadpoles


Stu

I've been talking with a good friend here about these,we thought that this might be fun for you guys.So your challenge is tell me what sex these two are please,
Citronella tinc


































oh and they can be told apart ha but you've got to stare....so there is one good test of your powers of observation and hopefully a bit of fun too.
best to all
Stu

Stu&Shaz Wrote:

Nice pics, Stu! They are great looking frogs!

I had Laura take a look too and we both feel the frog on the left is male and the frog on the right is female. Normally you would see a much more pronounced back on her, but lets just say she's very well fed. :lol:

If you look at the males toe pads they are shorter and wider and do have a bit of a split. The females toe is longer and more slender.

Best of luck with them and I'd break out the petri dishes in the spring.

Awesome pics of some beautiful frogs Stu! Also...nice iso population

Glen and Laura thank you both,i'm actually quite happy with then just doing the growing stuff for now ,i must be the only guy saying to his frogs "now no more babies for a while :roll: " hope you both are well.
Field.... howareya dude? Thanks mate,i'm not one for saying i can do much well,but dwarf white isos are squarely nailed down.With bits of help from here and there we have a stunning method of culture and massive stocks,its a great position to be in.I can seed new vivs with huge numbers and am getting a few other folks running with them......all good
take care mate
Stu

Stu&Shaz Wrote:dwarf white isos are squarely nailed down.With bits of help from here and there we have a stunning method of culture and massive stocks,its a great position to be in.
Stu

Your welcome, Stu!

Care to share your method of culturing Ios's?

frogfreak Wrote:

Stu&Shaz Wrote:dwarf white isos are squarely nailed down.With bits of help from here and there we have a stunning method of culture and massive stocks,its a great position to be in.
Stu

Your welcome, Stu!

Care to share your method of culturing Ios's?

Yeah i think i already have a couple of times here, Glen.Its essentially the same as the wild method pretty sure there are pics here too,but hell knows where.
Container 3L tupperweare vented one end,with a 1" holesaw then cheep blue Kitchen cloth taped on as the vent,lable goes other end date plus" water this end" (Stuproof :lol culture therefore always has a humidity gradient dry at vented end wet at other
Subs a mix of part rotted oak and beech leaflitter crape of the top leaves collect whats underneath and rotted fruit wood,we use plum, microwave this mix throughly,to kill unwanted beasties. 2/3rds fill container top off with whole microwaved often boiled oak leaves add a good bit of corrugated cardboard.i sometimes through insome bits of charcoal if i'm setting up springs at the same time,me being me using the little tiny bits waste not want not,might keep the culture a bit sweeter but not a biggy
Feed: veggy scraps curbit family are my favourites turnip/ sweed also good but take longer to be eaten as harder,bits of organic eggshell long term Ca supply a pile of readybreak topped off with a pinch of fish flake.
KEEP THIS CULTURE WARM !!!!!!!!!
ok here's how it works for a complete beginner,Glen you'll have most of this sussed already but others might not... your card is edible and also your humidity barometer all the substrates are edible in varying degrees of decompostion,one end wet one end dry so they can move to exactly where it is best for them,the culture does not want to be too wet. Your staple feed is the readybreak/ fish flake pile when there is other natural veg available then that gets used. If you get an outbreak of mites one simply stops feeding,mite run out of food and die iso munch leaves and rotton wood and keep going,give it say amonth/6weeks tentatively start feeding again,but the culture doen't seem to check.Feed out by tapping the cardboard,as the subs deminish.if you see compost gnats your subs are too wet.Glen if you look a couple of posts back you'll see iso cultures on top of the racks,the biggy is the warmth they get, i'm convinced,from the lights underneath and the warmest part of the room is up top.The subs need to be watched for drying out with heat underneath them but my reality is this is not much of an issue,once last year i turned them all over as they were getting dry at the bottom,but hell big deal. i mist when needed and carefully,but mainly using the one end method.
I'll add i stock a viv heavily and feed bits of veggy buried in the subs,
try it mate
Stu

Pics Glen see what i can find
Stu proof labling

cutures on top of rack



my seriously ingenious vent...spared no expense :lol:


subs mix


Not a dwarf white but essentially the same setup

Lights are out mate i'll try and get some proper proof up tomorrow of numbers if they'll co operate
best
Stu

Here you go Glen this sort of finishes it off

acouple of close ups of 2 randomly grabbed cultures,taken just before the :lol: ers hid




and a close up of a viv that is just sitting there growing plants and erm.....these

not much mate but a tiny thankyou for all the help and time you have taken for us,
best
Stu

some of our latest children :roll: especially excited today as our very first frogs kids are about to morph,
here's a pic from a few days ago

do ya know what it is yet?
ok now you do :lol:



and whilst we are doing tads this guy will probably come out of the water next year :roll:

but these 2 did come out just last week the slowest darts to morph and definitely one of the cutest froglets you'll ever see





these 2 have amazed me,within only a few days they are nailing mels,yesterday a virus driven sloppy hand,mine messed up and overfed them way more mels than i should have,this morning in that wonderful slowmo style they have systimaticaly hunted down nearly all of them,no food for a day i think and hoping that a slight of hand has done no harm,sorry no pics but damn me they are 2 fat little froglets
Stu