# A river runs through it .Tads morphing !!!!



## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Here's my new 60 gal tank I just finished up for the azureiventris
.........now on to the planting phase . Going to have alot of cork half curls scattered over the ground w/ a layer of leaf litter for ample hiding places .

















The river system was quite a pain , but ALOT easier than any I've done before . First I made a "frame" out of spray foam. Then added some plastic sheeting and cut to fit inside the stream frame , then adheared with Gorilla Glue .Once stream bed was 100% adheared to the frame I re glued the entire stream and flocked so hide all of the plastic ect....
This is also another built entirely out of foam sheets ,spray foam. And I can even pick the whole thing up all by myself ! 

Clayton since you always ask below this is the zaparo tank :lol: 
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Thats very nice. The river idea is cool. I tried to do that with no success. I'll have to give your technique a whirl next time. Let me know if you need any help with broms or plants.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Awesome tank, Darren!


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

di you use an external filter? or a powerhead or pump on the inside?

Is there an access if it is an internal pump?


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Pumps located inside the tank . I have an easy access to the pump if anything should go south . I always use the small Beckett pumps from HD they cost a bit more but I have a few others that I've ran the same way now for over 5 years and still running great and is as quiet a the first day it was placed inside. I have found that some of the others don't quite hold up as well or they make too much noise . 
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## DaSlackMan (Feb 3, 2006)

Talk about cool! I can't wait to see it fiilled with plants and what not.


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

Very cool Darren. 

snip "Once stream bed was 100% adheared to the frame I re glued the entire stream and flocked so hide all of the plastic ect...." end snip. 

Can you explain this bit a little more, especially the "flocked" part? Thanks!

Jordan


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Jordan , basicly I covered the whole thing w/ Grollia glue then cocco fiber to hide all of the plastic . I guess "flocked" is just a fancy term .
Sorry once again I did not take any pictures of the process , cameraman was busy building .lol
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

Ah, that makes sense. I never knew gorilla glue is vivarium safe. Does the stream bed just sit on the substrate? Thanks Darren. 

Jordan


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## Iheartdarts (Mar 3, 2005)

That is going to be a really nice tank!

Is that a piece of agate in the pond?


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## thong_monster (May 6, 2006)

Very nice!

Be sure to update as you add more things to the tank.


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

The book by that title was crap, but the tank is very nice. Can't wait to see it planted.

Are the azureiventris expected not to breed without running water? Can't wait to see some of these on the market...

-Solly


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## Guest (Jun 4, 2006)

Excellent work on the river!! Cant wait to see it with plants overshadowing it. Wish I could go for a strole in your viv at that point, 8) .

Be sure to put the cam inside the tank and take pics from the frog's eye view!! For me, please!!


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Thanks all for the nice comments I'll do some more photos as the planting process takes fold . 
Jordan the stream is just sitting on spagmum moss or a layer of it ,then I molded the strem bed from there..
Solly I have heard word that azureiventris are found amoung rocks and small caves along streams . thought it would add a nice touch to the tank also , though I don't think it will aid in breeding much . Could be wrong :shock: Have other frogs that are supposed to only breed w/ a water feature NEVER breed for me until I turned it off :lol: 
Oh and the piece of rock is petrfied wood from E. Wa Ginko Petrified forest . I was once a bit of a rock hound ,as a kid so I always place lots of crystals ,geods, ect in my display vivs . 
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Iheartdarts (Mar 3, 2005)

Darren Meyer said:


> Thanks all for the nice comments I'll do some more photos as the planting process takes fold .
> Jordan the stream is just sitting on spagmum moss or a layer of it ,then I molded the strem bed from there..
> Solly I have heard word that azureiventris are found amoung rocks and small caves along streams . thought it would add a nice touch to the tank also , though I don't think it will aid in breeding much . Could be wrong :shock: Have other frogs that are supposed to only breed w/ a water feature NEVER breed for me until I turned it off :lol:
> Oh and the piece of rock is petrfied wood from E. Wa Ginko Petrified forest . I was once a bit of a rock hound ,as a kid so I always place lots of crystals ,geods, ect in my display vivs .
> ...


I had an idea to make my waterfall with geodes too....I think it came out really nice










-DT


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## garysumpter (May 26, 2006)

Hardly natural, but pretty damn smart


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2006)

Darren,

How is it going with the river? Any leaks? Wet spots? 
Also, does that brook babble? Any soothing sounds from the running water?

I consider you to be the resident expert on streams since you were the one to give me advice on how to build one over a year and half ago. And here you are improving on the technique for all to see. I hope to try this some time. That tank is gonna look amazing. Any plants added yet?


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

The rivers woking great no leaks, no wet spots , though no babbling that I can hear as I've lived the clubbing /bartender life for too long and am hard of hearing :lol: 
Planting started yesterday ,most all of the "river " is now hidden though w/ pieces of cork overlapping ,but at the same time offering ALOT of cover . I'll post some more pictures soon . 
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Here's a few new photos .................frogs and plants have been added. Lots and lots of calling 2 males so far sure hope I've got a few girls  
No problems with the river , still flowing and the frogs seem to enjoy it so far . 
BTW Azureiventrius have the most lovely call I have heard to date ! Kind of like a mix between tricolors and Terribilis . Some of the calling lasts for over 1 min. Was kinda shocked as I thought that they would take atleast 6 more months until they were calling (guess I was wrong :shock and with the 6 in this tank I've observed no aggessive behavior . Keep you all posted when they start to lay . 








Male in his honeycomb hidout








Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## xfrogx (Jul 5, 2006)

Man this is one awesome viv!


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## Guest (Jul 12, 2006)

the only thing better than that viv are the frogs that are in it, amazing all around tank


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## Guest (Jul 12, 2006)

That viv looks soo much better, and I didnt think it could look better it looked so good already!


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Very nice viv Darren....thanks for the info on group dynamics....I have my 4 set up as 2 and 2 but would prefer to combine them.

Yeah the call is pretty amazing...my one male had just been peeping in practice but last night opened up with a full throated call that surprised me....pretty loud for such a small frog and to your point, quite melodious.

Good luck with breeding them...I'm crossing my fingers as well that I have a female.

Bill


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

I FOUND EGGS !!!! Though they don't look good , now I know atleast I've got a girl in there !!! Eggs were laid in a film container embedded in the background . I'll try and post some pictures if I can manage to get a good enough shot .
Happy frogging ,
Darren Meyer


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

WAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!! Way to go Darren!!!!


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2006)

Darren,

congrats in glad the river is working out. i like to see people putting them into vivs and having success.

when you imbed the canisters in the background, do you sleeve them? i dont the word for what im talking about, but do you have one installed and slide another into it for easy removal, or are you able to take them out of the foam? do you remove them at all?

thanks


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## Frank H (Nov 3, 2005)

Very nice river, and congratulations on the eggs!

I like the 60 gallon, I just got done with one, Ill post a thread soon enough. You will see my idea of an easy stream!

Do you have any pics of the building process?

Frank


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Just got home from NWFF and the eggs are all developing !!! What luck! And it's their first . My camera hasen't been working right for some reason when I try to get a shot of the eggs :? Possibly someone will get a good shot while I'm having the BBQ here and post it for me ? 

Anyhow the filmcontainers are not sleeved , I lust wait until the foam has cured and stick my fingers inside and twist it out , they break free on the foam and can easily be removed and replaced right back in the hole . No sleeves required . 
Sorry Frank I diden't get much in the way of photos of the whole process , it's hard to stop building once I get going and get into somthing else .
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Shockfrog (Apr 14, 2004)

It may sound a bit strange to some of you but.....

Now I we only had some of those beauties in europe  Only a few are still around from many years ago and all are males. 

I really hope to get some from the Inibico imports but it's still not going to happen here. It sucks!

Cheers,
Remco


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Azureventris eggs! (Bad pic, sorry)


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Just catching up on reading this part of the board. Way to go Darren!!! Darn let's hope these frogs finally get firmly established in the hobby.

Bill


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Here's a better picture I was able to get last week .








All the tads are about to erupt from their eggs and be transported in the comming days . Dad has been watching over them since they were laid , leaving to only feed on ff's for short periods . He calls constantly .
Will post pictures of the transport if I'm able to .
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Here we go !!! I'm sooo thrilled . Dad was elusive all day yesterday , guess he diden't want me seeing him babysitting  
These shots were just taken so the lights are out at the moment, so wasen't so skittish . I'll try to post again once he drops them off . I have a few cups of water in there along with the stream and pond area .
Looks to be 10-12 tads . 
















Happy frogging ,
Darren Meyer


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Congrats. Definitely a big step for the hobby, and this species.


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## Lukeomelas (Mar 15, 2005)

That's awesome Darren! I can't wait to see a bunch of little froglets!


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2006)

Congrats on the eggs/tads. Awesome setup, and even better now! Good luck with rearing the little guys.

Adam


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## biocmp (Mar 7, 2006)

That's really awesome! I'm going to ask both you and bill, do your azivents climb much? Or do they mostly stay to the ground? i've done some searching on the net, and all i have seen is ground dwelling make sure to have plenty of leaf litter etc.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Wooo hooo what a great sight!! Are you planning on raising the tads communally or separately?

Bill


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Well I tend to see my Azuris all over the tank . They do seem to climb alot ,spending time in the upper area's and down below . Interesting though that all of the clutches have been found in the higher filmcontainers while leaving the lower filmcontainers alone .
Tads are being raised seperatly for the time being , as they get older than 4 weeks though they will all go into a shoebox until morphing .
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## maxmlax (Aug 13, 2006)

I just recently joined this forum and I absolutely LOVED reading this story, and getting to see the progress, HOW EXCITING!


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Here are the tads as of today .
















To my total suprise they are bright white :shock: They diden't look like that a few days ago . When dad dropped them off in the water feature they were rather dark and easy to spot to suck out of the water . These frogs are really spuring my interest in PDF'S that's for sure . Clutches are bizzar also ... what we would typically toss out because of a milky apearance and the eggs are hard like salmon eggs are infact good eggs !! 
All the tads have doubled in size also in the last few days on a simple diet of algae :wink: 
Happy frogging ,
Darren Meyer


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

And these differences are pretty solid support on why they got their own genus, Cryptophyllobates  FYI - geneus evidently has a second species now! I know nothing about the other Crypt. tho lol. 

I'll just wait patiently for my chance at Azuri froglets from you and Bill


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

Well, according to the big paper that just came out, azureventris is now smack dab in the middle of the new (much smaller) Colostethus genus, right next to C. nexipus.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

lol, and allobates are attached to another Colostethus species group.... slowly genetics is gonna break up Colostethus into actual genera of related species rather than the catch all little brown frog genus its been used as 

Looking at pics of C. nexipus... doesn't suprise me that much that they are closely related to azuris... much more likely than members of the genera they formerly resided in lol.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

If you would read the paper, they did completely break up Colostethus, divided the entire Dendrobatid family into two families under the super family Dendrobatoidea, multiple subfamilies, etc... (and former Colostethus species are spread across the whole works).


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I'm reading I'm reading... I guess its about time the master paper was presented, tho I thought it would be a couple more years...


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

They have started to morph out ..... clearly wanting to leave the water as soon as the front leggs poped out. 
















They reminded me of Epips and A. Zaparo , I'd often find that they had jumped right out of the water (luckly into water) and into the neighboring tads container !  
Also the color or lines just appeared in the last few days , before that they were all white or clear .........sure was interesting watching these guys grow ! That's a quarter under the container for size ref . Nice and huge !!!
Happy frogging , 
Darren Meyer


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Wooo hooo your tads are beating mine by a nose (or is it two legs?):wink: Mine have colored up with the orangish lines but no front legs yet. Congrats and I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Bill


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Awesome! They almost look like young P. bicolor or P. terribilis. Neat.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2006)

Such neato beauties!! I love'em! Congrats and good growing!


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

Wow, very cool Darren!


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