06-10-2010, 05:12 PM
First let me introduce myself, I am a army veteran who lives in dfw area in Texas. After looking into getting a big tank 55+ for saltwater, I felt it was to heavy for me to move and a hassle. With this hobby I felt I could accomplish something I be happy with and be easy to move.
Basically after reading all the info I can find, and still looking for more, I feel I can house a poison dart frog colony. After gathering info from a local small pet store, I spoke to one who owns some, but I felt the info I was getting contradicted from what I read. I always felt when in doubt, hit the forums for solid and brutal advice...
To start I already have some supplies I have from my other hobbies, and with attention to detail and heavy research I think I can get something started within a month.
I am looking for some advice on a couple areas, one is the size of the tank. I do not want to go no more then 40 gallon tank, and I like to hold 2 species in particular if possible Dendrobates azureus and Dendrobates leucomelas. I am being told different things on what I put in there. This lady at my store says I can put green tree frog with the poison dart frogs and mix species... She really never mention any problems with aggression or what not. Not sure if it was the sales men in her.
Basically I would like lots of color I love the bright blue markins of the azureus and Orange and black would compliment that I think.
My next step is to purchase the handi foam, and buy some coco/peat mix and some driftwood and I guess maybe a petri dish? More input on a ideal setup for a homemade backdrop be nice. I will continue to flip through the fourm for tips on this.
AS far as the substrate goes, to my understanding I will be using hydroton rocks which I already have, a wire mesh, and still figuring out the best ideal bedding to provide plants and pdf with a "ideal home"
I am looking at getting a plant light for the tank input on that be great. As I tend to keeep alot of plants in the tank to provide several hiding spots and help simulate natural settings.
Please go easy on me, I know some may feel I am not ready, but I am ready to spend the money to set up the tank, and put the time to get it ready and equalize the tank out before introducing the pdfs to the set up.
I have to say PDF is not like looking for a puppy, where so much info is out there let alone the millions of products for that animal. When I do the search on Google, I can find few sites with information that seems vague in some ways.
I like to note, that I plan on keeping the tank in my living room, so if they are noise sensitive I like to know... I do not want to stress them out.
Basically after reading all the info I can find, and still looking for more, I feel I can house a poison dart frog colony. After gathering info from a local small pet store, I spoke to one who owns some, but I felt the info I was getting contradicted from what I read. I always felt when in doubt, hit the forums for solid and brutal advice...
To start I already have some supplies I have from my other hobbies, and with attention to detail and heavy research I think I can get something started within a month.
I am looking for some advice on a couple areas, one is the size of the tank. I do not want to go no more then 40 gallon tank, and I like to hold 2 species in particular if possible Dendrobates azureus and Dendrobates leucomelas. I am being told different things on what I put in there. This lady at my store says I can put green tree frog with the poison dart frogs and mix species... She really never mention any problems with aggression or what not. Not sure if it was the sales men in her.
Basically I would like lots of color I love the bright blue markins of the azureus and Orange and black would compliment that I think.
My next step is to purchase the handi foam, and buy some coco/peat mix and some driftwood and I guess maybe a petri dish? More input on a ideal setup for a homemade backdrop be nice. I will continue to flip through the fourm for tips on this.
AS far as the substrate goes, to my understanding I will be using hydroton rocks which I already have, a wire mesh, and still figuring out the best ideal bedding to provide plants and pdf with a "ideal home"
I am looking at getting a plant light for the tank input on that be great. As I tend to keeep alot of plants in the tank to provide several hiding spots and help simulate natural settings.
Please go easy on me, I know some may feel I am not ready, but I am ready to spend the money to set up the tank, and put the time to get it ready and equalize the tank out before introducing the pdfs to the set up.
I have to say PDF is not like looking for a puppy, where so much info is out there let alone the millions of products for that animal. When I do the search on Google, I can find few sites with information that seems vague in some ways.
I like to note, that I plan on keeping the tank in my living room, so if they are noise sensitive I like to know... I do not want to stress them out.