Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This morning being for me I woke up around 4:30 and turned one of the lights for the tank on. I noticed a group of swimming little white dots in the front of the tank. The water sits in one of the decorations I bought for the land scapping. It is one of two pods that I filled with water. Should I remove the water because it stands stagnent or should I leave it a lone? Thanks!

Are the moving on their own? If so, this suggests that they may be springtails, which are great to have.

Various strange things will pop up as any new tank is establishing itself. Tiny fungus gnats, various wormy little critters that resemble strongyles crawl on the glass, millipedes, fungi, algaes, molds, etc. will come and go. I rarely worry about any of them with the exception of slugs, which are obvious, and I pick off.

I would tend to just watch these little white dots and see what happens.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

Okay that is what I will do. I will keep an eye on them. Where would slugs come from?? How would the springtails have gotten in there? I didn't order them yet. I am going to do that either tonight or tomorrow morning. I was suppose to do it today but I went out all day and it didn't get done but it will. I think I will order the fruit fly cultures too. How many should I get and what do I do with them once I get them?? Also my water has turned brown. Should I siphon it off and replace it or leave it alone for now?? I think it turned brownish yellow from the soil. I also got some stress enzyme for my fish tank and was wondering if I should add it to my frog tank water. It is suppose to build healthy micro oraganizims to keep the water clean. What do you think?? THANKS!

Slugs may come from the plants you introduce, as eggs, I assume. So washing new plant introductions off with soap and warm to rather hot water, then rinsing in clear water is a good idea. When they occur, I just pick them off as I see them. I've been lucky enough never to have a major infestation, but in a couple of tanks where they persevere, there is always a little bit of leaf damage. Other people have reported greater problems and resort to removing the frogs and doing the CO2 treatment by letting dry ice evaporate in the tank. But don't worry about that problem until it occurs.

The water color is probably just from the substrate. Healthy water is usually always a bit tan from tannins and other organic coloring matter picked up from various substrates and background material. I don't think it is absolutely necessary, but I usually do a couple of water changes after a tank is first set up, mostly just to lighten the brown color for looks. Usually when a waterway is first running, you may get a lot of foam as well, which I assume is from minerals and organic material picked up from whatever it is flowing over. I do changes until this stops. Then I do partial water changes every six months or more, or if the water looks cloudy at all. Since you will be adding water occasionally as it evaporates, minerals will build up, which in a natural environment would drain away. At least this is my reasoning. In my own situation, I use my well water for the waterways, which is very hard with a lot of calcium carbonate, so it may be more pertinent to my situation than yours.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

Is it possible for the frogs to eat the slugs?

I don't know about other kinds of frogs, but darts won't eat them--not even those that are small enough. I have however, seen a tiny imitator tadpole rip a small snail out of its shell and devour it. Slugs aren't as yummy as escargot, I guess.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

I forgot your "stress enzyme" question. It's not necessary to add it, and I've never read that it was recommended for dart tanks. I'm not really sure exactly what it does, but I believe it is supposed to enhance the mucous secretions on fish for one thing to prevent adherence of the various bacteria and parasites that may get on their scales. I may be wrong here, and will look it up shortly, but unless you have a waterway paludarium with fish, I wouldn't bother using it. It would not have any advantage for a frog waterway.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

The Stress Zyme, which I looked up, is a solution of nitrifying bacteria, which reduce ammonia and nitrates, more important if you have fish creating ammonia, but go ahead and add a splash of it. I have used it in my paludarium with water falls, etc., and the fish section of this has no other filter except for the two lava falls and mosses the water runs over in the river run section. I assume the tubing and falls are now colonized by the nitrifying bacteria. I added this only twice in the beginning, eight years ago. I have never cleaned the aquarium section, which has a lot of healthy plants and mosses in it, have only done partial water changes, albeit relatively often. I have many of the original fish after eight years--(tetras, a couple of algae eaters and a yo yo loach.) The water is crystal clear, with no algae on the glass after the first couple of years. I just replace the water and do partial water changes occasionally with my well water laced with a smatter of Amazon Black water extract. The only other maintenance is cleaning the hard water deposits off the glass with a paper towel and some vinegar.

I'm not a fish person, although I've tried a few tanks in the past of tropical fish, mostly rather short-lived. This one, which was totally secondary to the frogs, has been the most successful, doesn't even have a mechanical filter or bubbler.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

Thank you. I will add a bit and see what happens. The tank you show in the pictures is awesome!!!!! What do you have in there?? Thank you so much for all of your help. Your the best when it comes to information and speed!!! I really appreciate it a lot!!

The 135 paludarium has 6 orange splash back D. galactonotus frogs in the terrestrial portion, although they also hop around on the aquarium plant leaves hunting and even swim occasionally. The fish are various tetras--schools of rummy nose, X-ray, head and tail light, etc., a yo yo loach (to control snails) and some Chinese algae eaters.

By the way, the orange galacts are incredibly bold and entertaining frogs that actually do better in a group than in pairs. They are very inventive and curious, so are the very center of our living room/kitchen entertainment. The tank is on a divider between the two rooms. They're still fairly expensive however, but if you plan a larger tank, they are certainly worth considering. I think over-all, they are my very favorite frogs. Three of mine are eight year old females, but I bought them three more juveniles last year, which has caused a riot of "dirty old lady" activities. No eggs yet, however.

Here's another view of the paludarium when it was first set up. (The glass barriers between the different levels are all covered with moss now and the plants are quite different, so it's no longer as harsh looking.)

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

Wow that is so darn cool!!! I haven't even gotten frogs yet and I am thinking about my next projects! I have a lot of things to fix in the house too. But I can't wait until I can start on the next one lol! The house will get fixed too of course lol!!!

Here's one more of the glacts hunting on the rapids in the paludarium.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

I went to this guy's house and he had galacts, but they really looked like terribilis. Am I just retarded?

The galacts have a lot of different color forms and patterns varying from bright red (with is a distinct morph)through orange, yellow with different line patterns and shades. Mine were called "pumpkin orange splash-backs" by Patrick when I purchased the first ones 8 years ago or so. Your friend may just have a different color or pattern line. (I'm not sure these are all actually distinct morphs from different areas.)

Anyway, to babble off on a tangent: These ladies faded out a great deal with age, in spite of paprika on the flies. Last year, I bought three more juveniles of the same line to amuse them. The contrast was striking, as the juvies were so brilliantly orange. I then cheated and began adding Naturose powder to my vitamin dusting mix. Now, it's hard to tell the difference between the old girls and the young adults. So it's either the Naturose or the stimulation of the added frogs, or both, but it also seems to be coloring up my faded-out pumilio Bastimentos, which started out as a very red-orange.

Naturose is a fish product made from Haematococcus algae with a lot of carotenoids including astaxanthin, which enhances the reds in particular, when it's stored in the chromophores. I believe the Betta carotene in paprika is stored as a more yellow color than orange or red.

I don't think most dart colors fade in nature, so perhaps our food items simply don't contain the same kinds of carotenoids and such as their wild diets. At least, that's my excuse for "cheating," if one can actually call it that.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris