Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi
I have owned and bred reptiles for a while and am now looking to get into Mantella frogs. After doing about three months of reading online and also two books I bought I have decided to get (or make) a living terrarium for my frogs that I am planning to buy. Does anyone sell these online? My friend has told me that they sell them at shows but the next show in my area isn't til July. I don't have a green thumb, anyone who looks at my lawn knows that.

Thanks

John aka Bearded Human

They so delicate and heavy that shipping them makes it near impossible. Your best bet is to find one locally. Where are you located?

Brooklyn New York,
Thanks for the response

You don't need a green thumb for living terrariums. They are self sustaining for the most part, as long as they contain appropriate tropical plants. Nearly all dart and mantella tanks are now "living" terrariums. They won't reflect the state of your lawn, or even how well you grow house plants. So don't be discouraged by a lack of "green thumb" myth.

The principle is simple. There is a drainage layer for draining off excess water, which may or may not need to be sumped out occasionally. There is an organic substrate layer on top of that that sustains living (tropical) plants, preferably the more miniature ones that suit the conditions you are maintaining for the frogs. The tank maintains temperatures between approximately 65 and 80 degrees and a high humidity of 80 to 100%. There must be a light source for the plants, preferably something like an aquarium florescent in the range of around 6700 Kelvin for the most efficient range for land plants. From there, one can get much more fancy, utilizing false bottoms, circulating waterways of various sorts, depending upon how much work and money you want to put into it. Once set up and working correctly, maintenance is minimal and involves mostly cleaning off the glass for visibility, trimming back voracious plants, or perhaps removing those that don't adapt to the conditions. The frogs are misted and fed, of course, but the living tank as such, more or less sustains itself without any big interference such as total take-downs and cleaning, for a matter of years.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

Dendrobates: auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, tinctorius azureus, leucomelas. Phyllobates: vittatus, terribilis, lugubris. Epipedobates: anthonyi tricolor pasaje. Ranitomeya fantastica, imitator, reticulata. Adelphobates castaneoticus, galactonotus. Oophagia pumilio Bastimentos. (updated systematic nomenclature)

Thanks Patty, Your encouragement is helpful. If it is as easy as what you say, what do I use for drainage? Pebbles or those clay balls? How do I separate the pebbles from the soil and the substrate? I have read about people using mesh.

Thanks

John

You can use either washed gravel or the clay balls. I prefer the looks of gravel, but many people seem to like the clay balls. A layer of weed cloth or polyester batting, either one, will do the job of keeping dirt particles from clogging the drainage area. The batting can be found at any crafts store in the quilting supplies section. About 3 inches of drainage works well, but you can get by with less. If and when water accumulates, you can just stick a piece of aquarium airline tubing to the bottom from one corner and siphon off the excess. I have also used rock wool slabs, such as they use in hydroponics as an easy "false bottom," then cut out pools and waterways from this, circulated water over falls or drip walls with a small submersible water pump (Eheim compact 600, Maxi-jet 600 or Rio 600). When using rock wool, you do have to be very careful to cover it well with the cloth or batting, as it is very irritating to the skin and shouldn't ever contact your frogs. You can get this from a hydroponics outlet. They come in 3X6X24" blocks. This is just a lot easier than building a hollow false bottom with egg crate for holding circulating water for water features. Whether or not you have a water feature however, is up to you. In my experience, most of the dart frogs seem to like them. I have never raised mantellas, but imagine it would work with them, as well.

Here's a 55 gallon fish tank set up for some Epipedobates using rock wool. The pool also has an aquarium bubbler under the gravel--not essential, but I sort of like the bubbling effect. It also enhances the humidity and creates a little bit of air circulation. In this photo, the planting isn't complete and stuff hasn't grown yet. The falls are now covered with Ricca moss and there is a lot more foliage. I need to update photos of this tank. (This one has a poster type background sitting behind it to hide the cords that dropped behind the tank, but I've relocated these and removed it since then.

You can also use something like cork bark to create a background, or even drip water over it back to a false bottom. The second photo shows some "spontaneous" plant growth on wet cork bark. It will often sprout ferns and mosses, as well as supporting epiphytic bromeliads. (I don't sterilize it before use.) The corner bow tank has a tree fern slab drip wall on the left and drier cork bark on the right. The tree fern slabs will very often grow ferns from spores lodged in the fiber, and will support Ricca and Java mosses.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

Dendrobates: auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, tinctorius azureus, leucomelas. Phyllobates: vittatus, terribilis, lugubris. Epipedobates: anthonyi tricolor pasaje. Ranitomeya fantastica, imitator, reticulata. Adelphobates castaneoticus, galactonotus. Oophagia pumilio Bastimentos. (updated systematic nomenclature)