Dendrobates azureus courting and Egg Developement - Pics

[DianeCarter]

Congrats, Jim! Looks great!

[frogfreak]

The Tad pics are great! Looking good, Jim!

[Ghostvivs]

A simple 20 long works great. I will snap a pic of mine.

Thanks! I was just searching around for grow-out options. I was thinking small shoebox containers - at the volume of eggs being generated, I think I need a stackable solution. I think I have my research topic for the evening...

[Ghostvivs]

Turface one plant and a lot of magnolia leaf litter


Fat and happy froglets.

[joneill809]

Thanks Casper. How many do you keep at any given time in the same 20L? Right now I'm getting 6 to 10 viable tadpoles per month, so I'm wondering where to house them. I suppose I could stop pulling eggs, but it's too fascinating right now.

I'm experiencing "frog creep" - they are taking over my house.

[joneill809]

The Tad pics are great! Looking good, Jim!

Thanks Glenn! I dusted off an old thread with pictures of your grow out rack Glenn - quite impressive!

[joneill809]

Congrats, Jim! Looks great!

Hey Diane! Yeah it was pretty exciting to see that leg moving around this afternoon. My 2 year old FINALLY said "it's a frog!" I don't know what it is about that third leg, but now it's a frog and not a fish

[Ghostvivs]

I have had about 15 or so in there at the same time. I stopped pulling eggs every week, otherwise i will become overrun quickly...

Thanks Casper. How many do you keep at any given time in the same 20L? Right now I'm getting 6 to 10 viable tadpoles per month, so I'm wondering where to house them. I suppose I could stop pulling eggs, but it's too fascinating right now.

I'm experiencing "frog creep" - they are taking over my house.

[joneill809]

Turface one plant and a lot of magnolia leaf litter

A couple more questions Casper - are you using "Turface All Sport"? The local John Deer stocks several varieties. We think that is the correct one (brown) versus Game Saver (red so we ruled that out) and "Turface clay". For others following - $18.50 retail per 50 lb bag.

How frequently do you have to change/clean out the substrate? I'm assuming fairly infrequently, but do you just tear it down periodically? Any concerns about a drainage layer? Sorry for peppering you with froglet newbie questions but this seems like a cool approach and I want to get it as close to right the first time as I can.

Thanks! Jim

[Ghostvivs]

Yes, all sport. The john deer place told me it was a little cheaper because it has more edges so it's a lower grade. But for me that means more places for springtails to hide...

This grow out was my 1st viv i used turface with. I wanted to see if i needed to even use a false bottom so i just put the turface in. What i learned is that turface wicks water, so i would recommend a false bottom of some sorts. I doubt that i will clean it at all, just add more leaf litter as it decays. For drainage all you need is a small pvc pipe with a cap.

And no worries about the questions! If in doubt, ask 8)

Turface one plant and a lot of magnolia leaf litter

A couple more questions Casper - are you using "Turface All Sport"? The local John Deer stocks several varieties. We think that is the correct one (brown) versus Game Saver (red so we ruled that out) and "Turface clay". For others following - $18.50 retail per 50 lb bag.

How frequently do you have to change/clean out the substrate? I'm assuming fairly infrequently, but do you just tear it down periodically? Any concerns about a drainage layer? Sorry for peppering you with froglet newbie questions but this seems like a cool approach and I want to get it as close to right the first time as I can.

Thanks! Jim

[Chuck Lawson]

Turface should last virtually forever... At my local dealer (other end of D/FW from Casper), the main stuff they stock is the brown MVP, but they've brought in red All Sport for me on request before, and the price runs $15 - $16 for 50 lb bags. Both seem to work well for substrates, but the All Sport is a bit finer-grained than the MVP. Both are also quite dusty; you'll probably want to sift or rinse well before using (one advantage of rinsing is that it also takes care of the initial wetting, which can be difficult once it's in the viv).

[joneill809]

Both are also quite dusty; you'll probably want to sift or rinse well before using (one advantage of rinsing is that it also takes care of the initial wetting, which can be difficult once it's in the viv).

Thanks Chuck. Good point. I'll give it a good rinse - can't be as bad as the play sand in the bottom of my shelly tanks - that took an hour of rinsing per tank

[joneill809]

Fourth leg is out!
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[DianeCarter]

Exciting!! What did you decide on for your grow out tank? Send pix, please!

[joneill809]

Exciting!! What did you decide on for your grow out tank? Send pix, please!

Yeah funny how exciting such a little creature can be! I pulled 4 more eggs yesterday and started a new daily photo journal of them.

I like Casper's community 20L concept. I'm still sourcing components - I'll build out this weekend. It should be more accessible to the kids to observe the froglets. One of the major points of this entire project was to show the kids an unusual lifecycle, so I'd want them to see the end result. I'm moving everything into our guest room TV armoire as a more permanent grow out for tads and froglets. I'll snap some pictures this weekend after it's setup...

[DianeCarter]

Cool! I also like Casper's community tad concept--that's what I will go with once my leuc's, azureus, and auratus start cooperating with me! We are lucky in that we have a fish room in the basement, and tanks, lights, etc all over the place. So once these guys start cooperating, I have a place and the equipment to provide them with a great place to grow up! All my vivs, on the other hand, are upstairs on the main level--I don't want a frog room, I like seeing/hearing them all the time, in the living room!
I look forward to your pix this weekend. Have fun building!
Diane
(I live in the boondocks! If you don't like frogs/dogs in the living room, go home!)

[joneill809]

I noticed my kid had "adjusted" the mode on the SLR and fixed the ISO high so my images were a bit dark. Here are a few more views of the tad, now about 65 days since hatch, 80 days since deposit.
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Here's a closer image of the developing coloration:
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Here's an attempt at a profile - it's a bit distorted from the round cup wall:
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Big weekend of preparations for froglets ahead!

[joneill809]

Well it was a pretty busy weekend! I got the froglet viv setup and I will admit I went a bit overboard...starting with an idea to do a sterlite setup then being swayed by Casper's awesome 20L I figured I'd go for a tank and let us enjoy watching the froglets grow. Well, I ended up trimming the parent's viv so I used those clippings and ended up with a decent full-on viv. Here's the sequence. Sorry - crummy iPod images...

First up I like black shelf paper. I papered the back and sides (slight angle) for a clean look. I think it makes the critters feel a bit more secure, but that's more of a hope than anything else. The tads are on the shelf above the viv. I used a spare Marineland LED fixture from one of my aquariums that I had replaced with a DIY fixture (worked out well - good tension mount across the cabinet):
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I liked Casper's idea of Turface and his advice to use a false bottom, so I went ahead and built one and left a small pond area to the right. I thought I may be able to either angle cups in this area, or possibly place a tad that was about ready directly in the pond:
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I like the clean look of a pebble base surrounding the false bottom, so I left a gap around the front and sides of the FB so I could hide it:
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Since this was sitting in a Target special cabinet I had to place the tank on foam so it would settle and not stress the bottom of the tank. I doubt it would have cracked since it was not filled with water, but I figured better safe than sorry:
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Here's a close up of the pond area / drainage access:
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I'm a big fan of Mexican Beach Pebbles. I love the way they look, and they end up in every fish tank and vivarium that I have. Here are the ones I placed around the pond area:
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And a closer view:
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Here's the vivarium with the Turface surface and some cuttings from my other viv. I also had a spare Monkey Bowl that I never used. I found that the springtails in my main viv love the three Jungle Pods I have in there, so I figured this would be a good source of mold for the springtails that I seeded in today (3 cultures worth!):
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I'm also a sucker for moss, so I added two patches, one patch of Frog Moss just outside the Monkey Bowl, then another Sheet Moss closer to the pond:
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I'll post close-ups of the current state in the next post...

[joneill809]

Here's a close up of the left side of the viv:
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Here's the right. That's some extra narrow leaf Java Fern and Java Moss that I pulled from one of my aquariums. I figured I would see how it does near the water area:
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I did build a vent that I can place in the front or the back. Not sure if I am going to use it or button up the top completely. The Turface still has a unique odor, so I figured I should have some ventilation.
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And here is the FTS!
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Leaf litter is on order-should be here early this week. Can't wait! We have a second tad that has four legs, and a third that should pop it's fronts any day! I'll keep seeding with springtails...I've got 6 fairly good sized cultures going so there's a good food supply built up!

[Ghostvivs]

Looking good. You're going to have some happy froglets in that decked out grow out.