Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Which would be easier to keep???? Also are Arrows nocturnal as well? Do arrows swim better than RETF??? Thanks for your input

Red-Eye Tree frog sorry

Arrow frogs are diurnal, so you are more likely to enjoy seeing them during regular hours. PDF's don't swim well, so a typical setup shouldn't have a water feature deeper than 1/2" deep or so.

I'd suggest that you check out www.doylesdartden.com, www.qualitycaptives.com, www.saurian.net to get some good background knowledge on dart frogs and their husbandry. Check in here on a daily basis and check the archives to get some background flavor. Ask questions, and just generally ignore any short-fused, crotchedy answers (we have our fair share of snippy answering folks [that's me sometimes], so just take that for what its worth). Study up and make up your mind on which to get, then set up a terrarium for it and monitor the humidity and temps for a month, and have some fruit fly cultures going for about 2 months to make sure you have that critical element of frogdom down. Then, dive in!

I think everyone here would rather you over-prepare and have a successful first venture into dart frogs. Then, you're hooked and have a room full of happy frogs. It's a great sickness, but a sickness it is!
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

I was thinking of setting up the terranium first and have it grow for about 3-4 months maybe even six before introducing any animals. I never grown plants in a terranium before so this itself will be a chalenge. I am a gardener and I have hundreds of plants but never tried a terranium setting. I wa thinking of having Himidifier in there the kind that produces fog. I hope I am succesfull at this I started looking at this forum yesterday and havenot started building the terranium and wont for a while (need to come up with the money my money was vaccumed out of me by the college) so I still have a lot of time to learn. Another thing my house is an old victorian house (beautifull house) but it has no insulation and does get pretty chilly how can I heat my vivarium???

Great idea setting it up and waiting for it to grow. You can also check out my links site below for a lot of links to good info.
-----
Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators
0.0.2 D. ventrimaculatus

The easiest and most reliable way to heat your terrarium is to place a submersible aquarium heater under the false bottom where it will be constantly submerged. If you set the heat to around 72-76, your tank shouldn't drop below 68-70 . . . but you'll have to experiment. Of course, a waterfall using the false bottom reservoir water with this setup would make the heat transfer more effective, and waterfalls add to the humidity of the terrarium.

With that said, I live in a house built in the 1850's, and I have an aquarium heater in the bottom of my first terrarium, but almost never use it. Buy yourself a digital thermometer/hygrometer(humidity reader) at Wal-Mart for $15 (accu-rite brand), or buy one of the fancy ones with two probes from big apple herp for about $40. That way, you can monitor your high/low temps and humidity levels to ensure that you have ideal conditions before putting your frogs in there. That's what I do wit my setups.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

I was thinking of a waterfall as well I have to do some drawings to see how everything will work. I was thinking of adding a filter the kind that vaccums water out filters it by charcoal and dumps it back in. My problem is on what can my water fall to make sure it drops in the right direccion in to the "pool" of water. That way I won't have plants with wet feet. I have a 29 gallon tank I have to do some drawings to see how everything will work out. On avarage How much money do you guys spend on a 29gal. setup? This not includeing the actual tank?

I am building a 29 right now...after lights, plants, substrate, water pump, heater, misc supplies, and shipping charges, I will be well over 200 bucks. Be prepared to spend at least 150 if you want a planted background and a water feeture. It can be as simple or as complex as you want.
-----
Matt

Where do you ussually buy your stuff??? I ahvethe plants already they never been Fertilized I am just buy the background supplies. Has anyone used caladiums in their vivariums??

Okay, I'm the master of cheap, so here's what I think you can probably get away with, if you want to go as cheap as possible) . . . .

1) Drainage Substrate: you can use a bag of pea gravel from Lowe's for about $6 (wash it before you use it).

2) Pump: Buy a $17 fountain pump (70 gph Little Giant Pump) at Lowe's.

3) Heater: You should be able to buy a submersible aquarium heater for under $20 (put it at the bottom of the tank before adding gravel).

4) Orchid mix and long fiber sphag (optional): $15-$30 for making a substrate area where more finnicky plants can be added.

5) Lights: $50-80 for either 24" fluorescent fixtures and 4 bulbs or 2 of those fixtures like matt has on his 15 gallon tall. Trust me, two of those bad boys would be more than enough for a 29, and would probably be ideal. You could probably even squeak under this price by using fluorescent tube fixtures, just be sure to buy some bulbs that are at least 3500K.

6) Plants: Check out the Angel plants at Lowes for $3 each. Here they have selaginella, maidenhair ferns, lemon button ferns (sometimes), ficus pumila, philodendrons, pothos, cryptanthus (earth stars). All of those would do well in a setup like discussed above.

Of course, you could buy some egg crate (plastic grating used in fluorescent light fixtures) and some fiberglass screen to make a false bottom instead of using the gravel for drainage. That might add $10 to the cost.

All total here: $108-$150. Of course, that's without a background. You can buy coco fiber bacground material at HD or Lowe's sometimes for about $3-5 and silicone it up. That's about as cheap as it gets.

Of course, your main expense is going to be your lights. You can cut down on cost there, but be sure you get what you need for what you want to grow.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

GREAT I can get all the lights I want fo FREE my dad is the warehouse manager of lightolier and a friend of the owner of the company so that's covered. I have the plants that I am going to use including Bromeliads orchids and such. I would like to use a false bottom so I am guessing that the only things that I am going to need will be:
The things for the background, A Ultrasonic Humidifier, A PC fan, I have a fountain I can take the pump from it and I even have the pea gravel so what am I missing??? How much would it be for the materials of the background and bedding???

Ok how much would be for a really cool background, ghostwood, tha false bottom an ultasonic humidifier, the heater and a digital termomether that checks temperature and humidity???? I'll try and get some prices to add them up I AM REALLY EXITED ABOUT THIS PROJECT ~:0)

You won't need pea gravel if you are using a false bottom setup. I really think the false bottom setup is the best anyway (but I'm biased).

So, what you will need is:

1) Ultrasonic humidifier (Walgreens or Sunbeam brand)--$25.

2) Digital timer (for the humidifier): $20-$25

3) Orchid mix, activated charcoal, and long fiber sphag--$20 (of course, everyone has their own favorite mix. I use a mix of coconut husk chips from www.rolanka.com and activated charcoal.

4) Plumbing parts for the humidifier: probably less than $10

5) egg crate and fiberglass screen for false bottom (if you need it): under $15.

So, you can see that you might be able to pull this off for around $60.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

Great I have one moe question is a digital timer the same as those little clocks which have a green piece of plastic at the time where it turns on and another red piece of plastic for when it turns off????

No, most of those can only be set to have an on/off cylce of 30 minutes. A digital timer has a digital clock (a digital number readout) and can be set for multiple on/off cylces that can be as small as 1 minute. I use the digital timer on my misting system and the other type on my lights.
-----
Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

Ok got it