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

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

Newb mistakes - FESS UP, we ALL made them...
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Newb mistakes - FESS UP, we ALL made them...
#1
Admissions / confessions....come clean.

Me personally......I.....

1. Impulse bought my first frogs at a reptile show.
2. Took a few weeks before I knew about dusting FF
3. Housed a couple R. vents in a tiny 'nano' enclosure

There.

That's a few, anyway.

I feel better already.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#2
My biggest mistake so far is overloading my racks with multiple tanks of the same species and running out of room for one's that are high on my wish list.

My second mistake is obtaining frogs through trades or getting them for free even though they were not on my desired list of frogs... Leading to problem number 1.

-Christian
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#3
A couple of my mistakes:

1- First viv had a 100% coco fiber substrate
2- What I consider to be my biggest mistake...KITTY LITTER backgrounds :evil:
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#4
1) Starting with freshly-imported Panamanian auratus, then adding c.b. froglets...horrible decision that made me leave the hobby for a couple of years.
2) Not getting experience culturing fruit flies BEFORE getting frogs...and getting hydei as my first ff's (that sucked).
3) Impulsively buying frogs...then realizing a few days later that I really didn't like them.
4) Staring this addictive hobby, thus wanting more and more frogs...I jest, I jest.

BUT: sometimes the best way to learn is to make mistakes like these. Sure you can read what someone else has posted about the aforementioned mistakes, but until they happen to you, you can't truly understand them. Making mistakes shows you what NOT to do and I think learning from past mistakes leads one to become a more responsible keeper (or to give up...separating the wheat from the chaff and all...).
-Field Smith
Some frogs...
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#5
Still a newb, but so far:
  • Submersible pump under the substrate powering a small stream...looked awesome for a month before it slowed to a trickle and eventually clogged. Tore it out.
  • Tried to time my fly culturing to precisely follow my consumption - 10 day cycle. Screwed that up pretty fast, so now it's every Sunday.
  • Aquarium gravel false bottom. Rookie aquarium-guy-in-a-hurry mistake.
  • Plexiglass door. Bought a Zoomed, retired plexi. Much happier.

And then there's what not to do when the kids are involved:
  • Letting my kid hold the fly cup outside the viv...now they can "tap" the cup when it's inside.
  • Setting down the hand mister (in stream mode) when your 2 year old is lurking. "My turn!" Glad it wasn't fully pressurized.
  • The blue LED and the dials on a Monsoon are like the console to a space ship. When the kids get quiet and you hear a variable length hum of a pump, something is up...

And that's only after 6 months... :oops: ...but hey, the frogs are still alive.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#6
I had frogs in a vivarium set up that I purchased from a friend for about a year prior to attempting my first build. At the time, I didn't know the forums existed (not much of an internet guy) and knew nothing about building a viv other than what he had told me and what I had observed in his vivs. On my own, I came up with what I eventually learned was the "flevopol" method. I mixed my coco fibre etc... together, and, used elmers glue as a binding agent :oops: . I didnt know either about great stuff, so in spots, it was up to 2" thick. It worked great in my hot, dry leopard gecko tank, not so good in the humidity of a dart viv. To make matters worse, I have a "go big or go home" attitude, so it was a 36" exo. In the humidity, the glue softened right up and the entire back ground turned to mush. No frogs in the tank at that point, but they had been paid for and the delivery had been scheduled. In a panic, I looked online, and found the forums, and have learned much since then.
Derek
1.5 kids and a bunch of frogs
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#7
I'm still a newb, so mine are still in progress, I'm afraid. So far my biggest ones have been -

1) Not pulling on both doors of an exo after latching to make sure both sides caught (short version -- closed and latched it when the power went off; piece of gravel kept one side from latching, one dry and dusty banded leuc on the floor when the lights came back on hours later; could have been far worse, the other two decided to stay in the viv).

2) Mixing wingless and flightless melanos; was prepping wingless cultures and decided I was a little short, so tapped in some flightless to bump up the total. Two weeks later, fully armed and operational battle-melanos...
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#8
1. My first tank when I was 17 was a mixed species tank. Which lasted 2 days until everyone on DB told me the problems with it.
2. Plexiglass lids on the first 2 tanks, that didn't last long.
3. Using creeping fig and pothos in my tanks. The pothos lifted one of my lids and a green sirensis got out, and the fig is just a pain in the ass to deal with Wink
4. Not testing out my generator after I bought it. F U home depot.
Adam Hess
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#9
randommind Wrote:A couple of my mistakes:

1- First viv had a 100% coco fiber substrate
2- What I consider to be my biggest mistake...KITTY LITTER backgrounds :evil:


1. I will second the 100% coco fiber.

2. Plexiglass tops
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