# One of my vivaria



## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Hi,
years ago I shared pics of one of my silverstonei setups here at dendroboard.
I moved home a while ago and gave this original setup to my two brothers who use it to keep a large group of Ranitomeya ventrimaculata in it.

After I moved home I managed to setup two new tanks for the breeding group and one larger for some offspring which I finally got (after yeeeears...).

The seven most beautiful looking froglets are now in this new setup since a while (they are semi-adult now) and I thought I could share a few pictures:

For some reason I just got one single fertilized egg clutch 
The original group produces every other month a 30+ egg clutch but always unfertilized 

I hope somedays I will have more fertilized eggs with the new group in the larger tank.


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## herbivrus (May 28, 2014)

Very nice work, and beautiful frogs! I hope you have better luck in breeding them in future.


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

You have way too many cool frogs. Those silverstonei are stunning, I wish they were better established in the US hobby. The tank is great as well, congrats on having both!

John


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## Otter (Aug 31, 2014)

That viv is so nice love the way it has grown in and man those frogs are amazing. 

John


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## CAPTAIN RON (Mar 29, 2010)

Awesome viv,and awesome frogs that I didn't know were still around.Good luck with future breeding with those guys!


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## Spaff (Jan 8, 2011)

What are the dimensions of the tank?


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Measured in centimetres: 120 by 60 by 60. I know it is a bit small for seven Ameerega, but since I don't had much success in the past keeping the parents pairwise, I'll give this a try until I see someone in there suffers from supression.
Thx for all the nice feedback so far 

Btw these of course are absolutely legal offspring recognized at my vet's database. That's due to what I mentioned in the other thread (people keep frogs since decades and before cites and so on)
Some people around find it cool to tell others there would be something illegal with things they don't own, so I felt it would be better to write that down...


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## MWAInverts (Oct 7, 2014)

Very nice setup! I'm hoping mine will look like this after a few months


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Small correction ... height is 70 cm, not 60.
I thought it would have been 60 because I remembered at one shop I could not get forex composite plates larger than 60 by something... but I remembered I finally ordered it elsewhere for exactly this reason.


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## Spaff (Jan 8, 2011)

Thanks for the information on the tanks. Keep us updated on how they do as a group. Are you doing anything special supplement wise to keep them with that nice red color?


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## JeroenH (Aug 20, 2014)

That's a really nice looking tank. Very naturalistic!


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## thumbnail (Sep 18, 2005)

Beautiful vivarium, and those are some of my wife's favorite frogs. The colors on them is very stunning.


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Spaff said:


> Thanks for the information on the tanks. Keep us updated on how they do as a group. Are you doing anything special supplement wise to keep them with that nice red color?


I feed the *tadpoles* with a lot of gammarus and krill. Well, I feed all my tadpoles with these ingredients (combined with several algae). I think it helps the froglets to get their colours later. 

It is a bit difficult to describe... but when I don't feed the tadpoles with things which are rich in xanthines, the frogs don't develop the right pattern at all and stay brown all over their bodies.

When I feed them with krill, gammarus, etc. they don't leave the water red, but they have white/very light parts on their bodies which then during the time while they grow up becomes more and more red if fed i.e. with Allen Repashys Calcium Plus.

I don't use the superpig. I once ordered it but it doesn't stick very well to the flies. Even when I use Calcium Plus there is always a larger amount of especially the containing red pigments which stays at the bottom of my cup.

I did use a coffee grinder and all, doesn't matter, it simply doesn't stay very good at all kinds of insects I tried.
Nonetheless obviously the frogs get enough of "something" (may be there are parts, i.e. the added asthaxanthin which stays better while some other things like the red petals aren't fine enough or what and these are what I always see on the bottom...

I don't do anything special with UV, I even removed my lucky reptile bright sun (desert) 70 W as I realized the plants grow very well and temperature is okay with just 2 usual T5 HO (I think each is 28 or 34 W, I don't remember right now)

Only "problem" with the tadpoles and the pigments ist that there sometimes are small parts on *individual* frogs which stay light/white and fade out smoothly while the frogs grow up, so people could assume my frogs to have some terrible skin mycosis when they see slightly lighter parts on the black bodies.

Well, I don't care... I'm happy to have red frogs at all and don't worry about ocassionally unusual pigmentation here and there 
And of course the xanthines (as well as the carotenes) help the frogs with a lot of other things as well.

Oh, and sometimes I learn things about these little guys, which I think I would hardly realize without "appropriate" colours. For example I didn't know them to have signal spots.


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## TheCoon (Feb 8, 2011)

Thank you for sharing! That's a lot of good info in the above post. How long did it take your adult group to start breeding?


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

TheCoon said:


> Thank you for sharing! That's a lot of good info in the above post. How long did it take your adult group to start breeding?


Years... and I still have unfertilized clutches every other month...
So I cannot be honest and say I got them to start breeding.
It's more "They made one single fertilized perfectly arranged clutch and then decided to find it cooler to produce large amounts of bullsh**" 

I tried to use fresh water, "aged" water, R/O water, R/O with tap water mixed, R/O with maple leaves, tap water with maple leaves, water from my tadpools and so on. Doesn't help. I think the eggs are unfertilized and so there is no mold to fight against...

For example this one from the day before yesterday:
Edit: even those which seem to be darker won't show any development in a few days, at least if it will be as it has been with all the previous ones. :/


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Wonderful, viv and frogs are gorgeous!


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## JMims (Jul 15, 2013)

Awesome viv and fantastic frogs!


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Horrible pictures and since the frogs are broken you should just give them all to me!  lol j/k they are stunning! Nice viv too


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

proven captive breeding


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Shot of one of the parents. It is hardly possible to take good pictures of them. The tank is lighted by LEDs (usual gu10 china stuff), so they might look a bit magenta (due to too much blue from the LEDs) but in reality they are similar to the offspring.


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

And another pic of one of the offspring.
I hope this one (a male) will breed one day. I like the huge amount of red pattern. Much more than the parents have.


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

whoops... now he thought I would feed him some extra flies...

The offspring is very curious while the parents are extremely shy.


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## JPccusa (Mar 10, 2009)

Very nice frogs and setup. Thanks for sharing your pictures and experience.


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Thx.
It is very difficult for me to keep them producing *fertile* egg clutches.

May be I will have more luck with some of the offspring.
I have another 7 which are almost adult now and I will build a new tank for them in a few weeks.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Very nice indeed...did your group start producing *fertile* egg clutches regularly?


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

No.
But atm there is a lot of chaos with my frogs and my new tanks. Too many frogs sharing temporary enclosures. Let's see what will happen in a while when all are in their intended enclosures.


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## frogpecker (Mar 20, 2013)

Very nice viv and georgeous frogs. I wish you best of luck with your breeding effort. Don't give up.


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