# A meager frog room



## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Now that I've gotten a rack of vivs, it's considered a frog room, right? I've got three vivs right now (soon to be 4 thanks to DB member Kaity), and absolutely no frogs. So maybe I can't really call it a frog room yet. I guess I should call it a hobby room. 

I've got a 29 gallon GS/silicone planted viv that has been going for about 2 years, but only recently did I put more plants in it. It isn't on the rack because it has a nice custom wooden stand that my dad made back when he was in college. He kept angelfish in the tank, and I pulled it out of the attic to make it into a vivarium after I saw what people had done on this forum. I also modded together an external airflow system out of a computer fan and some pvc. It's really nice, and I think the plants really like the extra humid air flow too.











I've got a 10 gallon vertical viv that I slapped together myself, no kits required. Not the best, but it was really cheap and easy. I spent maybe $10 on it. It's got a clay kitty litter background and coco-fiber substrate. Meh, not the best again, but it works so far. All the plants so far are from the grocery store and Home Depot 











The third and final viv is a 16 gallon bowfront that I bought originally for a single male Lwanda Peacock african cichlid as a temp tank. However, during my move from Spokane to Vancouver recently, he died.  So now I'm using it as a viv! Yay! I've got a background of clay kitty litter, cork bark with sphagnum moss in the cracks, and some other fiber. I got it at a garden store, and it is used for hanging baskets with plants that need extra drainage. I think it is just long fibered coco. Whatever it is, it should be a great climbing medium for my mini aroid from Black Jungle (it came in the mail today!). I've got ABG as substrate in this one too. I finally ordered "real" terrarium plants for this viv, as I wanted something a little more unique than my other vivs.











This is my baker's rack! Woohoo! I've got so much room for more vivs now. It will be great to get some serious frogging going. I figure I've got enough room for 5 or 6 more vivs on this thing if I really cram them in there. Maybe. You can see my FF cultures on the bottom rack, I just started them in anticipation of getting frogs within the next week or two. Supermix grows flies fast! Don't know what they'll be yet, but hopefully cool ones! I'm planning on hitting up the Unique Animal Expo in Hillsboro this weekend. Even if I don't find anything neat there, I'll be getting some orange lamasi the first weekend in March from another DB member.









and the other side of the room...











I don't know if this is breaking the rules but I've also got a reef tank in my frog room. This thing probably uses 90% of the electricity in the room, no joke. But I bet it also plays a huge part in keeping the room a constant 75 degrees during the day and about 70 at night (and always high humidity). I can also finance my froggy additions by fragging coral too. Pretty much a win win situation. This is also where my computer is, so I can waste... er.... spend a lot of time in here. It's ok though, my wife has her craft room right next door to my frog/reef room.









I will be updating this thread as I get some frogs, so stay tuned if you are interested!


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## Arpeggio (Jan 15, 2011)

Wow those looks really nice. I especially like the 29 gallon! Its great! Is the small water hole on purpose or did it just form?

I have a 29 gallon that I'm wanting to turn into a viv, so don't be suprised if yours is the sole inspiration for it


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Gorgeous tanks! Thanks for sharing


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## Roots (Mar 7, 2008)

Tanks are looking good - nice work.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments. I'll like these vivs even better once they get some frogs in them.

Arpeggio- I'm glad you like the 29! That one has really grown in nicely. I did do the water feature on purpose, kind of. The egg crate for the false bottom had to be cut into a bunch of pieces because of all the wood in there, and right in front the pieces I cut didn't meet up. So instead of cutting out a small piece to fit in there, I put a couple of smooth stones that cover the edges of the window screen and egg crate. Instant water feature! I can also use that part to siphon out water under the false bottom, when I want to dry it out for a bit. The java moss has grown into the cracks and made it look completely natural now.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

I wanted to add a little bit of quick info on plants. The 16 bow has ficus pumilio (creeping fig), an un-named miniature aroid vine, a begonia x richardsiana cross, selaginella uncinata, azolla caroliniana, oncidium "sparkle" orchid, an thin-leafed brom from Home Depot, a lemon button fern and some purple orchid from Home Depot. I got the purple orchid because I liked the leaves, but I don't suppose the flowers will stay much longer. The plants that aren't from Home Depot are from Black Jungle. And before I forget, I've got a small sprig of bacopa australis in the water too. It loves the water. And some tropical moss that came with the oncidium! I keep remembering more plants...

I will post plant lists for the other vivs tomorrow!


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## Arpeggio (Jan 15, 2011)

Oh my god! I have a 16 gallon too! hahah

Very interested in the plant list. Suscribed.


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## Darts/Mantellas.by.P3RRY (Feb 1, 2011)

Reef tanks is awsome I to used to keep African cichlids as well, and breed Frontosa Burndi from lake tanganyika. Anyways nice frog tanks as well look foward to seeing there inhabitants.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

Nice vivs and great start to your frog room. Keep us updated on how your frog room changes and evolves.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Alright, I've got some more plants for you. The 10 gallon vert has got the following plants:
Home Depot broms
Bacopa australis
Riccia fluitans
Rabbit foot fern
Baby tears
Creeping fig
a Gesneriad of some sort
Joseph's coat, the one with bright pink variegation on the leaves​
The 29 gallon viv has the following:
TONS of Java moss growing on everything!
Home Depot brom, currently sending out it's 3rd pup
Philodendron cordatum "Brazil"
Oncidium "sparkle" orchid, smells like vanilla when in bloom
Azolla caroliniana
Aeschynanthus longicaulis, which has been dealing with an aphid problem (hopefully not after I get some darts in there)
Baby tears
Creeping fig
some fern from the park 
Spider plant​
Does anybody happen to know what type of Gesneriad I have? Here is a close up of a flower it put out a few days before I moved to Vancouver...


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## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

Looks like Ruellia to me, but I could be wrong


Todd


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Yep, you are right about it being a Ruellia, I think. I think it's a Ruellia makoyana. Monkey plant!


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## Ed Holder (Sep 26, 2008)

Vivs look great, You may want to use 32oz containers or anything taller then what you currently are using for fly cutures. I think you will have a hard time feeding out or making new cultures without having flies all over your house LOL.

Ed


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

I've been wondering about my FF containers. They're kind of short.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Got a trio of standard leucomelas today at the show in Hillsboro! They're young, but they also have really nice deep coloration. They are almost an orange-ish color.



















There was only one vendor that had leucs and auratus (the two that I was most considering beforehand), so I'm glad I got them when I did. Right as I was leaving a ton of people came over to the herp area.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

I guess my frogs are local! That's cool. Just wanted to show a pic of one of them out gobbling up the springtails. I can't believe how many springtails there are. As the leuc was walking around, the springtails were jumping away like grasshoppers in a summer field. Yeah, THAT many. Literally crawling in a thick layer over almost everything. I guess that means fat frogs in the near future.


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## Ed Holder (Sep 26, 2008)

Keep feeding those springs, With 3 little leuc piggies they will disapear in no time.
Congrats on the first frogs, Leucs were my first as well.

Ed


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Added another viv to the collection today. It is custom made, and I have to say it is pretty nice. 11x20x24, I think it will be a good size for a fairly large plant or two. I think I might have the perfect epiphytic anthurium already.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

I ended up ordering some more plants for the new viv. I went with Black Jungle again, they have a great selection that I couldn't pass up.

Polyscias fruticosa 'California'
Syngonium rayii
Ficus sp. 'Lance Leaf'
Peperomia sp - Panama 8
Cissus amazonica
also a 10 x 10 carpet of their live tropical moss​
I might be tempted to add a tree fern or brom later on, but I decided to hold off and see how much space these plants will take up. I just have to find someplace with lots of driftwood, since I plan on creating a sort of tree stump in the back of the viv.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Got a couple of orange lamasi on friday! These little guys are very beautiful little frogs. I bought 2 of them, and Phil gave me 3! It was very generous of him to do so, I was really surprised. They are eating banana/leaf-fed springtails like crazy, and I think I've seen them eat a few melanogaster. Whatever they are eating, it is enough. They are chubby little guys. I'm hoping that this group will turn out a breeding pair.


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## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

Those look alot like standards to me.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

fleshfrombone said:


> Those look alot like standards to me.


According to Phil Tan, they are orange lamasi, Czech line. That is who I got them from.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Just thought I'd share another pic of the leucomelas trio. They love hanging out together, and seem to compete for flies. Food always looks better when it is someone else's...










I finally got some plants for the new viv too. I kind of scaped it to look like there is a stump in the back, so I can have lots of vines growing up it, and lots of leaf litter in front of it. It is hard to get a picture of it, since it keeps ending up looking very two dimensional.


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## Spotty (Oct 23, 2008)

You're quite an artist with plant choice and placement. Great looking vivs!


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

So... I of course had to take some more pics of the lamasi when they are out and about. I was able to snap a few pics before it jumped away into the undergrowth. 





























Also, and update on the 23 gal front opening viv. I got a brom pack from Reptiles Etc, and stuck them in here. They arrived smaller than I thought they would be, and with lots of dead leaves. BUT... they were really cheap and I still feel like I got a good deal. Hopefully they all survive.









Search for my 3D thread, and you can see how much better this viv looks (if you know how to view stereoscopic images) in 3D.


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## DJboston (Oct 25, 2008)

Very nice! I've been putting together dart frog tanks since 1998 and I rarely like my designs lol. I guess I'm more into the frogs than the plants but I wish I could commission someone to do up one of my remaining empty tanks on my rack so I can appreciate someone else's artistic work on tank design. Anyone wanna take the job? lol Have a nice 20 gallon tall vert conversion I'm doing up soon but with the baby coming it might take a while lol


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

DJBoston, if you were closer I'd help you scape your viv for free. I actually really like scaping a viv. I really like to scan this section of the forum to look for inspirations. I think that each successive viv that I make gets a slight bit better, or at least more like what I would call my own idealized look. I always seem to have about 1000 ways that I want to change my "next" viv.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Just picked up a free 20 gallon from somebody who had used it as a reef tank! Cleaned it up, and I ordered some stuff for it. Stay tuned for some build pictures.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Ok it is time for a major update. I now have another rack of vivs! Lots of empty vivs now, but within the next week or so I'll be filling them up with plenty of plants and things. As we all know, pictures are worth a 1000 words. So I'll zip it.

The leucs, all by their lonesome selves.









The "old" rack. It will be for my verts. The only thing with frogs is the 10 gallon in the upper right, holding some orange lamasi.









The new rack! Lots of space, lots of light. Who knows what it will end up holding?


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Lookin good.... That 29 g is awesome with that fern growth. Nice new rack too!


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Bought a crapton of plants and supplies today for the new tanks. One of the 20 verts will house a crested gecko that my brother hatched, so they won't all be darts...
Plants for the crested gecko:
Ficus benjamina
Hoya carnosa "chelsea"
Dracaena "janet craig"
pillow moss

New plants for the rest of the dart vivs:
Gynura aurantiaca (purple waffle)
5 cryptanthes for $6!
wandering jew
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Microsorum pteropus
Hygrophila corymbosa
Microsorum diversifolium
Selaginella erythropus "sanguinea"
lots more moss

I also picked up about 30 pounds of african root wood/malaysian live wood for about $50. Stay tuned for some more major updates!

I will also be getting 4 g&b auratus from another forum member tomorrow at noon. Exciting!


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## erlese (Jun 11, 2008)

Wow.. Very nice!!!! The natural look of them is amazing!!! ****** sigh******


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## CrabsMan (Feb 22, 2011)

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Thanks all. Each terrarium gets a little bit better than the last. I should add that the dracaena "janet craig" for the 20 vert is actually the "compacta" variety, so it should be ok for the viv (I think...)


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Wow, what a busy week. Added 4 green and bronze auratus on Wednesday, and picked up some new frogs today at the Renton show. A sexed (not proven) pair of Epipedobates tricolor "santa isabel" from Darren Meyer and a young Golden Mantella from a recent clutch from Marc's Geckos, based out of Seattle. The female SI is about ready to pop open from all of her eggs, so maybe we'll get something going sooner rather than later...?

Here are some preliminary pics


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

All right, an update. I put together another of the 20 g. I've been wanting to do a waterfall, and I think this one will work fine. The whole setup isn't finished yet, but it is started and partially planted.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

First egg in the lamasi viv! Woohoo! I haven't even heard calling yet, but apparently someone is getting busy... I don't think it is fertile, but its a start. Maybe it had something to do with the recent frenzy of calling from the E tricolor viv? Who knows...


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

I was finally able to get a shot of all 4 of my amazonicus in a single frame. Thought it would never happen! I picked these up in April of this year. No evidence of breeding yet, but one is a calling male.


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Proof the they are breeding!


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## yumyow (Apr 28, 2012)

Nice Rack!


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Here's a nice photo I was able to snap today before the lights went out. This 47 bowfront houses 1.1 InferAlanis.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

Those are nice planted setups that you have!


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## pnwpdf (Nov 9, 2010)

Thanks! Not all my tanks are show-tanks, but I'm headed in that direction.

Here's the New River tank, with a fresh layer of live oak.










I was cleaning some overgrowth in the NR tank, and happened to find 3 different egg deposition sites, totaling 17 eggs. Glad to find that these guys have all of a sudden started laying like crazy. As a matter of fact, several of my frogs have all of a sudden started really laying eggs in earnest. I wonder if the move may have triggered something. Anyway, here are some of those NR eggs;


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

I really liek that inferalanis tank. Looks good. Keep up the good work!


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## The Dude1 (Jul 5, 2012)

You are extremely talented! I saved some of your rack pictures to show my wife. She wants me to fill the current rack with plants, but no more tanks. I only have a 12x12x18 Exo Terra on there. I have a 20g, a 10g, and a 18" Exo Terra cube that I'd like to put on there. I have the 46g as a dispay tank in the living room with a 75g planted Angel tank.


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## kingfisherfleshy (Mar 17, 2012)

I thought the title said meager?

Looks great to me!


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