06-13-2012, 01:20 PM
I'm Jim from Austin TX. I've been in the fish hobby for 25+ years mostly focusing on keeping shell dwellers from Tanganyika (I have 4 species) and I recently added Tang cats (lucipinnis) to the collection. I've been lurking for about 6 months and researching / building / rearranging my vivarium. My daughter got us into the hobby...she said "I want a frog" when she walked past the fire belly toad display in Petsmart. Not one for doing something simple, I Googled "frogs" and pulled up a page of images. She immediately focused on "the blue one" which got me researching.
I now have two azureus ("big spot" who we think is a girl and "little spot" who we think is a boy) purchased from Tobias @ Dendroterra (I wanted to see the frogs and buy local
) that were 3 and 5 months old when originally purchased. They are now about 8 and 10 months old and doing great! I started with melanogaster and in the past 6 weeks I have started parallel hydei cultures. Our springtail population has struggled a bit, but I have recently ordered some isopods as pets (orange and canyons - my son likes bugs) and a potential clean up crew.
Big spot and little spot are housed in an 18x18x24 Zoomed which I prepped following many of the recommendations I found here! It has lots of ledges and caves and it's heavily planted. I was pleasantly surprised at how much climbing the azureus actually do (which also reinforced the single species per viv recommendation). They are bold and out all the time and they have NO fear of my kids when their faces are pressed up against the glass. The enclosure has a custom Lexan top with 5 x 2" screened in vents in front, 1 internal 120 MM circulation fan, 2 x 40 MM variable speed exhaust fans that I alter during the winter and summer months depending on the humidity in the house, 2 x Exoterra fixtures with 4 CFL 6500K lights on a 12 hour day and blue led "night lights" on a 14 hour day. I also have a Monsoon mister going.
I'll be posting some issues I've run into on the forum. I'm looking forward to participating - I lurked for a while to get a feel for the forum. So far, DartDen seems to be the one I come back to most consistently for good advice and great discussions. Thanks for keeping this wonderful source of information going for so long, and hopefully I'll have something to contribute.
I now have two azureus ("big spot" who we think is a girl and "little spot" who we think is a boy) purchased from Tobias @ Dendroterra (I wanted to see the frogs and buy local
) that were 3 and 5 months old when originally purchased. They are now about 8 and 10 months old and doing great! I started with melanogaster and in the past 6 weeks I have started parallel hydei cultures. Our springtail population has struggled a bit, but I have recently ordered some isopods as pets (orange and canyons - my son likes bugs) and a potential clean up crew.Big spot and little spot are housed in an 18x18x24 Zoomed which I prepped following many of the recommendations I found here! It has lots of ledges and caves and it's heavily planted. I was pleasantly surprised at how much climbing the azureus actually do (which also reinforced the single species per viv recommendation). They are bold and out all the time and they have NO fear of my kids when their faces are pressed up against the glass. The enclosure has a custom Lexan top with 5 x 2" screened in vents in front, 1 internal 120 MM circulation fan, 2 x 40 MM variable speed exhaust fans that I alter during the winter and summer months depending on the humidity in the house, 2 x Exoterra fixtures with 4 CFL 6500K lights on a 12 hour day and blue led "night lights" on a 14 hour day. I also have a Monsoon mister going.
I'll be posting some issues I've run into on the forum. I'm looking forward to participating - I lurked for a while to get a feel for the forum. So far, DartDen seems to be the one I come back to most consistently for good advice and great discussions. Thanks for keeping this wonderful source of information going for so long, and hopefully I'll have something to contribute.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
Looking forward to meeting other froggers in the Austin area!