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

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Where to begin ?
#1
Alright I am new on the forum. I have always loved animals and currently have a 400 gallon in wall reef and a pacman from (frogzilla) I will be buying a new house in the next month and I know that a vivarium with frogs is going in my den NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!

alright in all your forum knowledge what are the 5 most asked questions on starting a viv and maintaining frogs that you get???

please lead me down the right path. I am thinking that I would like to do either a bow front or a hex tank anywhere form 34 to 50 gallons if that helps. thanks
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#2
Sounds like you and I are in the same boat.

I'm a fish and reptiles specialist for Petland (fairly large retail chain). I have kept both freshwater and saltwater species for years. I also have a 35G viv for a White's Tree Frog that has been in my care for about half of his six year life.

I purchased one of our old fiberglass reptile display units from work (a wall-mount that measures 24"Lx18"Wx24"H with a locking sliding glass door and provisions for heat lamp and a florescent strip light built in). I would like to turn it into a viv for at least one dart. I have a lot of experience with plants, and would like to know which readily-available greenhouse plants would be best suited for low to medium light from a florescent plant bulb. My White's shares his viv with a few ferns and some moss I collected while hiking and a banzai fig tree I got from a local greenhouse.

The enclosure I plan to use has only about a 3" lip for substratrate, but I could use peagravel to landscape it a bit. Also, there's no drainage holes, but if necessary, I could drill some and put a collection pan beneath the enclosure.

Every dart I've ever seen was absolutely stunning, so I'm not really partial to any particular. I would like to keep one that would do well by itself (at least until I get a feel for keeping it) in the enclosure I described, and would be a larger species that displays well and can share crickets with my White's. I'm willing to cultivate fruit flies if it's absolutely necessary, but since I'm already buying them for Buddah...

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-T. Donn Ballenger
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#3
I've been purchasing the stuff I think I'll need from work over the past few days. Here's what I've got so far:

3 large pieces of bicolor driftwood
50lb bag of aquarium gravel
digital thermometer/hygrometer
large water dish
2 small feeding dishes
ultrasonic fog machine

I would like to cover the landscaped aquarium gravel with some local moss that grows on rocks near water sources (not sure what it's called but it looks awesome). I would also like to set the aquarium up for the plants to be hydroponically grown so that the water trickles over the net pots and down into the aquarium gravel, then drains to a collection pan and gets pumped back out. In my mind, this would be pretty much perfect for the frogs, as I could have a running water source for them and at the same time give my plants the benefit of hydroponic nutrition.

So what do you think? Smile
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#4
ok 5 common questions, although I'm new to this forum, but not to dart frogs.

1. What type of frogs will you keeping? Dart frogs? great! They rock.

2. What do they eat? That's the hardest part of keeping dart frogs. You must have a constant supply of live foods. Usually fruit flies. You must become an expert in cultivating fruit flies.

3. Where should I house them? You should house them in a humid and warm vivarium with lots of foliage and hiding places. Deep water pools are not a good idea because they can drown. I'd say about 7-10 galons per frog is best, depending on the frog species and morph.

4. Where can I get a starter fruit fly culture? You can buy online from places like edsflymeat or a local pet shop that has them.

5. Where can i get frogs? Check herpetologic.net, saurian.net and blackjungle.com.

6. Bonus question: Where can I get plants: blackjungle.com is very good. I have ordered form them several times.

HTH
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