Stu & Shaz's Dart Frog Room

[Convertible]

Yes, I can see already, this is the best place I can find in regards to dart frogs. Big props to Phil and co.

Stu, are you boiling and cooking the leaves and oak stumps, twigs you are using before you place them in your tanks?

Also, one more question if I may: the foam you are using, is that any good to create rock or wall imitating structures as well?

[Stu&Shaz]

Yes, I can see already, this is the best place I can find in regards to dart frogs. Big props to Phil and co.

Stu, are you boiling and cooking the leaves and oak stumps, twigs you are using before you place them in your tanks?

Also, one more question if I may: the foam you are using, is that any good to create rock or wall imitating structures as well?

Ahh mate always remember i am a beginner!!
No i don't treat our wood in any way,but i am VERY choosey about where i get it from,i avoid anywhere that has been sprayed or might have been and where our native amphibians might live is also avoided. most wood sits here up in the air for months before being added to a viv,so the wind and rain cleans it to a cirtain level. Leaves are collected with similar care dried and also left for long periods before use.They are then washed by hand,in tap water,and soaked in our filtered rainwater,before going in a viv. I am trying to avoid nasty contaminants but not totally destroy microfauna,i guess there are risks with this approach though so the choice must be yours.So far i have had no problems and had none as a child observing similar policies,but be very careful!! I do boil the oak leaves for tad tea. My thoughts are to try to work with nature as much as possible,also using rainwater and wild food,but not many do the same as i, so i would urge you to speak to many other more experianced guys before you form your own opinion.
Convertable have a look at the Mystie viv,those rocks are fake but i carve them out of polystrene,with an old broken hacksaw blade,and cover it with rockoflex and epoxy resin(from a german company called ENT),while the resin is wet i push rock dust into it with a frog safe dye to colour(again ENT),the stones in one of the azzie vivs are made the same way!
hope this helps a bit if time allows i will try and get some detail sorted
regards
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

Well a few days ago we found what i thought i should have found a while back,as always worriers that we are i have been concearned slightly that our mystie male was sitting under a brom and had stopped calling,course nothing wrong he was being a sneaky sod and guarding these from a few inches away
,
we pulled them on wednesday,and today the 3 fertile eggs have hatched,they seem lots stronger than the auratus tads on day one.And have quite a turn of speed when disturbed,all 3 hatched within 24 hrs.
As these are mature parents it has kind of settled me a bit to have a good hatch,as up untill now although everyone has told me young frogs do lay clutches of poor eggs there has to be a nagging doubt in every beginners mind that its them at fault,we also have finally a second auratus tad out...YIPPEE,as above our kids get lots of wild grub,guys you know this stuff,is this level of growth normal,3 week old tad against day old


So i still have a job
our citron male is looking happier and feeding better
we have another superblue out
and 3 mysties
not a bad couple of days eh
GET IN
take care all
Stu
Stu

[Convertible]

Thanks for the tips! Unfortunately I live in the capital city of Hungary, so not much of untouched nature here, but I was thinking about doing some tours just somewhere to get some stuff for my first vivarium.

Convertable have a look at the Mystie viv,those rocks are fake but i carve them out of polystrene,with an old broken hacksaw blade,and cover it with rockoflex and epoxy resin(from a german company called ENT),while the resin is wet i push rock dust into it with a frog safe dye to colour(again ENT),the stones in one of the azzie vivs are made the same way!

Stu, I did, and I bow before you. Mad skills you got there!

Oh yeah: the Excidobates mysteriosus' of yours are one of my favorites. Not sure if I'll ever be able to get them, but I'll start with Dendrobates auratus Bronze and then see what comes next.

[Stu&Shaz]

Thanks for the tips! Unfortunately I live in the capital city of Hungary, so not much of untouched nature here, but I was thinking about doing some tours just somewhere to get some stuff for my first vivarium.

Convertable have a look at the Mystie viv,those rocks are fake but i carve them out of polystrene,with an old broken hacksaw blade,and cover it with rockoflex and epoxy resin(from a german company called ENT),while the resin is wet i push rock dust into it with a frog safe dye to colour(again ENT),the stones in one of the azzie vivs are made the same way!

Stu, I did, and I bow before you. Mad skills you got there!

Oh yeah: the Excidobates mysteriosus' of yours are one of my favorites. Not sure if I'll ever be able to get them, but I'll start with Dendrobates auratus Bronze and then see what comes next.

We adore auratus,we also have panama special as well as the super blues,and doubtless will have more a second viv is under way for another group of five,i have a good friend in holland whom keeps many,although some are shy those metallic blues and greens are wonderfull,may you have all the luck in the world with them, have a shot at those rocks mate,ha you made me smile,look real hard.....real hard...then look again,then saw away and make a horrible mess...have a vacume handy :lol: the secret is in the looking at rocks first,i worked off a picture of a rock face for the mysties,where they live...Hmmm they seem to like it,
thanks buddy
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

just another mystie pic 3 tads,they are almost transparent just before,we split them,very strong i er think,now for the long ol wait,mates say 10 to 12 months to morph,have uvb over the top of them lets hope in a years or so they don't have the dreaded sls,that will be real hard if these novices can get them that far

be lucky guys
Stu

[nrf]

Ah Stu, such a pleasure catching up on your thread. While you seem to consider yourself a novice, it seems quite clear you have done- and continue to do- your homework. You also are a talented craftsman- those tanks and racks show this without question. Just felt the need to post up another Thank You for taking time to allow us into your ever expanding frog room for a peek. All the very best to you and Shaz and--Good luck with those tads!
We look forward to the next update.
Cheers Stu!

--Richie

[Stu&Shaz]

Ah Stu, such a pleasure catching up on your thread. While you seem to consider yourself a novice, it seems quite clear you have done- and continue to do- your homework. You also are a talented craftsman- those tanks and racks show this without question. Just felt the need to post up another Thank You for taking time to allow us into your ever expanding frog room for a peek. All the very best to you and Shaz and--Good luck with those tads!
We look forward to the next update.
Cheers Stu!

--Richie

Cheers Richie kind words,absolutly novice,its that old saying of the more you learn the more you realise you don't know,gotta keep bashing away at it,got another auratus viv ready for water test and another 50x50x40 underway,latest clutch of 7 auratus tads seem to be the strongest yet,vigorous movers when disturbed plus no bad eggs,gonna be scarey when they come good.
Really appreciate the kindness Rich fascinating hobby....erm lifestyle :lol:
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

Ha as everyone told us gradually the clutches will get stronger latest super blue hatch is out 3 out of seven so stoked

getting there slowly but surely and i'm not really sur how good tis will be but here's another mystie tad shot,gonna be a long old wait for these

and i don't often get most of the parents together so what the hell the gang


and the 4th playing camera shy

although we picked up the last clutch of eggs strewn all over the viv and i had to cut off moss to get them out unbelievably,4 are actually fertile,i just don't know whether or not they will hatch though,2 more vivs up for water testing now slow but sure thats us
take care all
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

ha vivs through water test.
Guys we have had all old enough frogs calling today, our largest clutch of superblue eggs, 9, laid also.Whilst watching the mysties we observed the male calling and actually jumping at the females,at first i thought it was agressive behaviour directed towards our said to be little male(although i have my doubts about this we both have a sneaking suspission he might be female) but the our older male did this to both the other frogs at least one is know female as above.so has anyone seen this kind of courtship display,in other darts,or even if you are not in the usa and have mysties i would be very interested to hear about this,fascinating!!
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

Thanks for the thoughts Phil,we finally, have plucked up enough self belief to get some of the little people,these i have popped straight in their viv,this tank has been set waiting now for nearly a year,and has a rediculously large population of dwarfwhite isos,so much that we actually removed a coule of handfulls as i was concearned about them stressing the frogs out.They new guys have set about trying to rectify this situation by trying to fit as many as possible into their tiny mouths.I was concearned that they might be shy from reports of this species but ours so far are the exact opposite,as you'll see from the pics they have come from another breeder are about ayear and a half old,he has herd the male call once and apparently she has laid ,so said to be a confirmed pr.Our only hope is that we can do well for them and give them a good life.They were feeding within minutes of being here so hopefully the stress of being moved wont be too great
our pr of R Summersi(from nr Halluga via understory...etc...etc...etc)






and a few shots of their tank

[Stu&Shaz]

Also have been very busy building a tad rearing setup...after much thought and always wishing to find the best method possible to us we have come up with this design to try and rear our prescious tads in,some of the guys i respect greatly over here use similar designs. I have kinda gone the long way round here as i wanted to be able to have the compartements individual.Both to facilitate cleaning between use and also so i could put individual cups in our green house in our filtered rainwater and grow algae on them prior to useage.We are going to use an eheim external filter to cleanse the water,might be overkill,i won't know untill its all running,i might have to make some modifications here!! Ha you gotta laugh o i said make your boxes individual....DOH yep 25 boxes equals 100 peices of glass,plus all the sanding of every edge plus the mesh floors,hey ho its little frogs they gotta have the best we can do...my hands are falling off but have 24 boxes cut and glued and am wadeing through the rest





bring it on LMAO
Stu

[frogfreak]

You guys are rockin along aren't you!

How big did you make the glass boxes? The tad system looks great.

[Stu&Shaz]

You guys are rockin along aren't you!

How big did you make the glass boxes? The tad system looks great.

Hey Glen,we graft at it i guess mate...put in alot of hours,ha cirtainly put some in to this tad thingy :lol: ,i never seem to use the easy routes,but so far all seems good i guess.anyway the boxes are roughly,4"x3" 3" deep to the mesh..maybe 1 1/2" under the mesh...actually i have vaired the depth to mesh,as it might be better for younger tads or species whose tads are not so strong,but of course i don't yet know about all these parameters, so am trying to cover all bases. As ya know mate i'm a novice tring to learn all this stuff,it might be a disaster ,but then the whole room could have been like that racks,rubbish glass for vivs bla bla.Trying to educate us,we'll for sure make mistakes,but we adore our frogs so its not really a task its the opposite.So we'll keep bashing away and slowly but surely learn,how to do this well.We are still reeling as to how fast the frogs are settling in and starting to breed.Hell of alot of work yet to be done mate,but were slowly nibbling away at it
Thanks for the kind words Glen
regards
Stu

[Philsuma]

LIKE the tad system. Very interesting. Superb pics, as always. You guys are way ahead of the game for just a short time in the hobby.

[Azurel]

That tad system looks great, and the tad boxes is ingenious.....May have to steal the idea at some point. Continue the great work bro.

[Convertible]

I agree with Philsuma. Stu, you and your wife (if I'm not mistaken) are doing an absolutely awesome job! Those mysties are still my favorites of all time, I wish I could buy some of those one day.

Keep up the good work, I love to browse your topics!

[Stu&Shaz]

LIKE the tad system. Very interesting. Superb pics, as always. You guys are way ahead of the game for just a short time in the hobby.

Thanks Phil,very much appreciated,will it work though mate ?,at preasant my biggest worry is the actual black tray,as its made of plastic i am warey of plastic,i have the tray soaking in water and will change this water several times before use.I am doing ok with the glasses/cups Phil,one slip up which i have beat myself up over is i left 3 tads together,and missed a change,maybe one died not sure but we lost 2 of the 3 ,apart from that which i have castigated the hell out of myself and take total blame for, for being so stupid we have not lost any tads,"Ickle mate" our very first tad,is showing the bumps of the front legs,now my /our dread is the SLS.We have done all we can i think,uvb light over the top best diet i can think of with all you guys help,so its just the waiting game now.Ha and then dealing with the little froglet,its awsome to see Shaz seeing this for the first time,she has worked just as hard as me on this project,and for a lady thats very sick being doped up to control her pain its unreal what these frogs have brought to her.
I hate these water changes Phil,i know it works ...there is no doubting that,but it doesn't sit right with me yet.Funny isn't it i did my homework had it all planned out,this year was to start keeping a few frogs build as many vivs to go in the racks as possible get the plants and feeders established,and then, if we are really lucky, maybe just maybe, become dart breeders next year,2 more clutches of eggs again last 2 days,now trying to sort a rearing system,tis ruddy mad here!!
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

That tad system looks great, and the tad boxes is ingenious.....May have to steal the idea at some point. Continue the great work bro.

Thanks mate,as above we'll all find out together if its a doer,alot of time though making ,but being a unit thing i will be able to swap and change,get algal growth etc
cheers
Stu

[Stu&Shaz]

I agree with Philsuma. Stu, you and your wife (if I'm not mistaken) are doing an absolutely awesome job! Those mysties are still my favorites of all time, I wish I could buy some of those one day.

Keep up the good work, I love to browse your topics!

Erm no she's not my wife :oops: we haven't had time to get married...we've only been together 28 yrs since we were kids :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: she's my other half,my love
ha anyway whats your name mate we talk to often for me to not know it.
Hmm mysties ..... :roll: well lets just say they are wonderful,massive character,funny,bold and they like it here,more eggs again yesterday.
I fear i have upset some folks by showing these here,which was not really my intention or what we're about,but i won't go anyfurthur here as there is a separate thread for that,this is about a couple of guys trying to get to grips with keeping dartfrogs,maybe falling down...maybe comming up with a result,but something that we can all learn together on,and hopefully a couple of pics too.
very greatful for your kind words again kiddo
regards
Stu