# Why Did You Get Started?



## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

Just wanted to ask people why they got started in this great hobby. 
I guess ill start with my story. Ive always wanted darts. Since i was a little kid. I got a pair of green and black auratus when i was in third grade. They ended up dying on me. I forget why. Then I began building vivariums at Dales Bearded Dragons and started to want Darts again. I got 3 little azureus.
Buddy

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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

Can a moderator please move this thread to the lounge? Just realized posted this in the wrong section. Thanks
Buddy

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## guylovesreef (May 3, 2012)

Ive been working with and training animals/reptiles/fish etc since high school. I recently started helping a friend out at a rescue they own and run. well she had four vivs of various sizes housing darts. I immediately fell in love with the darts and started my first viv a month or so ago


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## tfox799947 (Jun 4, 2012)

I started out just wanting some plants in the house, but I have cats that will not leave ANYTHING alone, so I decided on terrariums. Then I thought wouldn't it be cool to "put a little frog in there". And so it began....
I now have 3 vivariums with 3 different breeds of dart frogs!
I love the frogs and have enjoyed watching their behaviors.


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## Sticky Fingers (Sep 28, 2011)

I've loved frogs and toads in general since i was about 5 years old. My dad got me into them. We are a very outdoor family. It all started for me when we caught some bull frog tads and we morphed them out. I was hooked.
As i got a little older i figured out there were PDF's...


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## Epikmuffin (May 9, 2012)

I was in the fish hobby for along time and had some tree frog when i was kid. One day I saw a pumilio in one of the animal planet show and been wanting them since then. Then, years later I moved to the US and found out that you can actually own dart frogs here, I was like " heck yeah" that's how i started.

having a frog vivarium is like still having a fish tank but much more cooler than a normal fish tank, so that's a plus!


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## Brand0n (Apr 16, 2011)

I haven't "started" yet, but i've always had reptiles and terrariums, soon i'll have a couple little frogs in my latest terrarium!


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## skanderson (Aug 25, 2011)

i was in the middle of a large reef construction in my basement and started to get interested in pdfs. the reef had to wait a year due to me tearing my right acl and tearing my left knees meniscus. then my wife broke her hip. needing something to keep my occupied i started building my large viv. now i need to get back to work on the reef but am instead wondering where the next viv can go so i have room for all my new plants.


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## mrzoggs (May 27, 2012)

i am currently recovering from a horrible drug habit. it was hard at first to find love in something else other than drugs and running the streets. once i saw my red eye tree frogs online i oredered 2. i love them more than anything and they keep my mind off of the past. it gives me something to do and keeps me very happy. they are one of the few things that changed my whole outlook on life. now im happy to say im going on a year and a half clean


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

I've also wanted them since childhood... looked into them about ten years ago but as soon as I heard that fruit flies are the staple diet (didn't know they're wingless) I decided it wasn't worth it. I randomly looked into it again and discovered the FF's couldn't fly, then dove in headfirst in '09 and haven't stopped since


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

I saw them first in the wild in Costa Rica and was really interested in them. I didn't realize that they were kept as pets at all until I saw some that one of my professors had. From then on, I wanted to learn more and more about them, and having seen them in the wild, I wanted a chunk of the wild in my house to serve as my "fix" of the tropics until I could go next. Been that way for the last 6 years.


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## Perezmoses06 (Jun 14, 2012)

i found a pacific tree frog at my job (produce dept in grocery store) so i took the little guy home and bought everything he needed to live. tank lights dirt everything. then a week later he passed away. i left his heat lamp on too long and he got all dried up. i didnt do much research.
so then being sad and heart broken i wanted another frog. and came across dart frogs online. i fell in love instantly. this time i did my research.


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## dynekevin (May 24, 2011)

I suppose i was attracted to them when i saw videos online of vivariums. It was so cool to see someone with a little piece of jungle in their living rooms. THEN i saw who lived in them... and was blown away. The coolest thing in the world.. dart frogs.. with their amazing colors. Being an animal lover, i did months of research on the frogs themselves before purchasing anything! Now i have my own little piece of the jungle in my basement with 2 beautiful imitators.

Thats my story.. =)


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## XxExoticPsychExX (Mar 12, 2012)

I just thought they were so cute and cool (I fall for cuteness all the time, please keep me away from pet stores)!  I already mentioned this in another thread, but ever since I saw them on shows found on Discovery channel, National Geographic and the History channel, (the cuteness, the bright colors, the poison, ooooo the danger!) I fell in love. <3

However, it's only been about 2 years since I've learned that you could legally keep them as pets when I saw them at a local pet shop (which I would never buy from after I did my research. . .). I've been on it ever since and have the cutest varadero named, Tequila Sunrise. I'm planning on naming his future wife Tila Tequila


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## repking26 (Mar 12, 2012)

I was always into reptiles and amphibians my whole life. By the time I was 10 years old I had already amassed a collection of creatures (Thank you mom for thinking herps are cool and for helping fund my hobby) and with the help of my neighbor, I learned how to reproduce the different geckos, corn snakes and California king snakes I already had and it all snow balled from there. Fast forward three years to 1998 and I was now solely keeping and breeding chameleons and I started noticing how awesome PDF's were and started my research. It wasn't all but one year and I now had my first dart frog, an azureus I got in Ohio at a reptile show. I slowly learned the rights and the wrongs of frog husbandry and my fondness for these little guys grew everyday. By the time highschool ended I had sold off most of my collection which still makes me feel sad  However I have now gotten back into the hobby again and am almost done with my first viv in a long time!! Can't wait to get frogs!!!


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## rgwheels (Feb 19, 2008)

Like many young kids, one of my favorite past times was lifting up rocks and finding herps of all shapes and sizes. Frogs were always my favorite. I recall coming home from college and seeing PDF's in a pet store for the first time. I was floored!

Weeks later, I was reading everything I could find about them and purchased a pair. I bought many frogs and then I moved and had to sell them all. 

Now, I'm rebuilding and loving it! Definitely one of my favorite things in the world!!!


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## The Dude1 (Jul 5, 2012)

I got into fish a couple years ago when I was newly single and wanted planted aquariums for my place. I ended up with 5 and a ton of Pinoy Angelfish, shrimp, and black Neon Tetras. Now I'm bored with the tanks and wanted Terrariums and stumbled on some PDF videos on YouTube a month ago. My wife loved the idea of orchids and plants in the house and is amazed by the colors of The frogs. I've since converted my 20g and 46g. I'm finishing them up this week and hope to have some PDF's in a couple weeks. It's also much cheaper than modifying my Corvette or adding to my gun collection....


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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

Great stories everyone. Thanks for sharing  
Buddy

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## zach77 (Feb 8, 2012)

My wife and I got into the addiction a little backwards. She was always loved orchids and was frustrated that we had poor success with keeping them alive and/or reblooming. We got the idea to try terrariums from David Bird of Birds Botanicals in Kansas City. Needless to say, after spending 100's of $$$ on orchids and other tropicals we've spent more than a few $$$ on frogs and setups.


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## morg (Jul 28, 2012)

started from gardening with my Mom...she showed me how to place roofing shingles in the garden, water them, and watch the woodhouse toads just appear. She would build little huts/hides for them in the yard. That was 35 years ago. Now, my frog collection reminds me daily of my Mother, who passed last year.


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## Spaff (Jan 8, 2011)

zach77 said:


> My wife and I got into the addiction a little backwards. She was always loved orchids and was frustrated that we had poor success with keeping them alive and/or reblooming. We got the idea to try terrariums from David Bird of Birds Botanicals in Kansas City. Needless to say, after spending 100's of $$$ on orchids and other tropicals we've spent more than a few $$$ on frogs and setups.


Same here! I stumbled upon Dendroboard while researching terrariums for Pleurothallids. I'd always been fascinated by the frogs but never realized people kept them. After reading a few posts and seeing some pictures, I was hooked and now here I am with way to many orchids and frogs.


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## dendrothusiast (Sep 16, 2010)

I got started with poison dart frogs when I bought my first all red pumilio back in high school 2006. The little guy was really skinny and in a bare ten gallon tank full of azureus at a local pet shop - I felt really bad for the dude so I paid the 40$ and brought him home. At the time I was working as a petsmart employee and luckily I was given a few items by some of the management to help me keep him alive. I was the pet care specialist for fish and reptiles back then so they trusted me to have the items - he later became an attraction frog for customers after he recovered. Children loved that frog and the older folks loved the idea of mini frogs in a small nicely planted terrarium.


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## Steve88W (Jan 21, 2011)

I just wanted a plant for my office...
It morphed into a small terrarium since I suck at keeping plants alive.

I figured if I was setting up a nice terrarium, why not have a little critter in there too....

Now I have 20 frogs....
(sounds like a Frogs Anonymous intro....)


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## diggenem (Sep 2, 2011)

I started off watching National Geographic when I was younger. It grew to keeping grasshoppers and ants in glass jars, to my first fish tank with a betta. I then got an 15gallon that had green anoles, a toad, a tree frog, and a blue tail skink. Surprisingly they all were healthy and was later released back into the wild when I left for the military at age 18. 
When I left active duty I decided to get back into fish keeping and That's when I found out about planted tanks and then later vivariums. I had no ideal that ppl were actually keeping darts until 2 years ago, but I was somewhat hesitant on getting any because of the price of keeping them, but now I have to have some and hopefully will be purchasing my first darts in a couple of months.

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## Krenshaw22 (Apr 21, 2011)

My 8th grade history techer influenced me into it. He had over 40 vivs in his classroom and taught about them and used them with his teachings. He had various other exotics he used with his teachin also. It was one of my favorite middle/high school memories. He is a member on here also.

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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

I love all these stories. 
Buddy

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## Nath514 (Jul 8, 2012)

When I was very young there was a stream behind my house that I would spend hours in trucking through the mud and catching bull frogs by the dozen. When I was 8 I got my first tree frog, a whites tree frog that I named jumper. I would build jumper houses out of blocks and legos and let carry him all around the house. I would even take him outside so he could climb on real trees. As I grew older I had several other frogs but none as cool as jumper. People have continued to give me frog themed items throughout my life to the point where you can no longer look anywhere in my room without seeing something frog related. I am also very interested in plants and have always wanted to create a vivarium where I could combine my interests. At 21 I finally had the money to build my first vivarium so I read hundreds of posts and watched hundreds of videos and went at it and no there is no looking back , I am hooked!


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## cyck22 (Sep 8, 2011)

> When I was very young there was a stream behind my house that I would spend hours in trucking through the mud and catching bull frogs by the dozen.


Me too! We would go for crayfish and turtles as well, but tadpoles and bullfrogs were the prize. I can remember a few overly excited "grabs" that resulted in me high-fiving the bottom of the creek. Nothing put a smile on our faces more than getting to laugh at the guy who had to walk home covered in Virginia's finest clay and dirtiest water.


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## Nath514 (Jul 8, 2012)

There was always one massive frog that I could never catch. It would sit at the edge of the pipe leading to the drainage system. I never saw the frog only the splashes it made when it jumped. I never even got close to it but it would make these crazy noise when it would jump in so I named it eeeekiee!


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## andry (Jun 15, 2010)

I have never been in to frogs at all really....until one day while out scavenging for cool looking rocks on my dad's farm, my kids saw a tiny frog jumping about. My daughter went right to trying to catch it and she did. They decided to keep it. I agreed. That's where it started, but if you read on, there is more to the story....

But when we went to the pet store to see what we were supposed to feed this frog and the guy told us we had a bullfrog, I freaked. I said, no way I'm keeping a bullfrog in my house. lol My kids were all crying and I ended up buying something that would stay small which were fire belly toads. What every pet store has. 

My kids did not take care of these toads but my husband and I loved watching them fight and even just sit there, lol. So then I found out while doing research on the frogs that people actually kept Red Eye Tree Frogs as pets! I was thrilled!! I've always loved them in pictures and figurines. I got some for mother's day that year. I slowly got my husband involved and he mostly was interested when I told him I wanted to try breeding them. Sooner than later I had several different types of Tree Frogs. But then the crickets were out of hand and a LOT of work and our house became infested with spiders because of them. At this point, I had already introduced myself to my first trio of Leucs, with the plan of learning to keep darts in order to get thumbnails next. When we learned how easy it was to keep fruit flies we decided to go all darts and sell my tree frogs. 

 I still miss the tree frogs soooo badly, but I just can't do the cricket thing again. My home office because the frog room and I have a whole lot of tanks and a whole lot of dart frogs. AND guess what, my husband does 95% of the up-keeping. hehehe, so I get to sit back and enjoy most of the time.

This all happened in a span of just 2 years. WoW! When I take a hobby on, I take it all the way! lol

P.S. - I have to add that I have always loved Turtles since I was very little and even kept a few small ones but they always died so I basically just kept collections of figurines and such. I've always been known by everyone to love turtles. My offices have always been full of collectables. So, it was a bit odd to people when I switched. What's funny is over the years some people couldn't get it straight...some would accidentally give me a frog figurine and I'd be like, ah, thank you, and then they'd realize, oh no, you don't like frogs do you....it's turtles and I'd have to say admit they were wrong. Now they can give me either and it doesn't matter, I love both.


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## PumilioTurkey (Feb 25, 2010)

I was at the office with now work to do 4 years ago. While surfing the internet I came across a website about poison dart frogs. That's how it started


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## Gamble (Aug 1, 2010)

I got started bc a buddy of mine had tree frogs, but i wanted something that didnt keep me up at night. I did some research on the internet and came across dart frogs, went to a reptile show that weekend, and that was that.

Now, i think what keeps me going is the feeling of belonging & comradery. Making friends with people that i wouldve never met otherwise, & The feeling of being a part of something thats bigger than yourself.


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## JBuckway (Mar 15, 2012)

My wife actually is the one that got me started with dart frogs. She bought me some red eye tree frogs for Christmas and made me a viv. She told me that you could get Poison dart frogs too. At the time i knew nothing about keeping tree frogs or darts and i thought it was illegal to have darts shows ya what i know. 3 years later i have 4 breeding pairs 16 adults and tons of tads.


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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

I can't believe how many great stories there are. I love them
Buddy

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## mnemenoi (Jun 26, 2012)

We have a Fish keepers group and a few of the folks are Dart Froggers. We ended up at their place and started talking to them about a tank. We had a text three days later for 3 free frogs if we wanted them and thus began out foray into frogging. It has been a delight and beyond the FF cultures they are surprisingly easy compared to my aquariums. I can say that I am glad to have the planted tank background when it came to lighting and water parameters.


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

i was originally looking into getting green anoles and i was just browsing through petco's website. then i saw a bromeliad for dart frogs and i was like hm.... maybe i should get dart frogs. after a quick search for dart frogs for sale, i was hooked.


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## pdfDMD (May 9, 2009)

As a child, I grew up on a farm in eastern Oregon and I was always intrigued by nature. Amphibians, for some reason, always fascinated me. In early summer the toads would breed and there were always large groups of tadpoles in my grandparent's ditches, usually where the water was shallow and rapidly evaporating. We'd set up rearing tanks (grandma's old pans or the kiddy pool), rescue as many tadpoles as we could, raise them on fish food, and then when they'd morph out we'd release them further out in the country. I suppose that started a lifelong love with the four legged little creatures. 

Fast forward about 15 years and I read an article in the early 90's about poison dart frogs; I distinctly remember the photos of the azureus and leucomelas and they really made an impression. At the time, the hobby was in it's infancy and the frogs were out of reach for most of us mortals. About eight years ago I was at the Philadelphia Zoo and they had a small exhibit of poison dart frogs. It was the first time I had actually seen them in person and up close. I was hooked. I think I lingered around the exhibit for close to two hours and I'm sure many a person thought I was some nut up to no good; I just couldn't take my eyes away. From there I researched them for about four years, and when the time was right, I purchased my four lecus and I haven't looked back! I honestly prefer to spend my time in the frog room rather than in the living room with the tv...I like to remind my family from time to time that there are worse habits out there than frogs!


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## Tinctoc (Sep 15, 2012)

I've had a fascination for frogs for as long as I can remember. In elementary school, I would go to the library and check out reptile and amphibian books and become mesmerized with images of redeyes, darts, treefrogs, salamanders...etc. I would also sit in class and daydream about building vivariums to keep different amphibians. Little did I know back in those days, I would be doing it today.


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## herplover (Sep 21, 2012)

I got started in this because i love customize herps and I love frogs so I put them together and found a wonderful addiction.


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## SwampFox (Mar 4, 2011)

I remember doing a research project on Dart frogs when I was a kid, as I loved their colors and they were just too cool with the whole "poison dart" story. 

About a year ago I started looking in to keeping them but held off, not wanting "flies in my house". About two weeks ago I realized the fruit flies were flightless, so for our anniversary my fiancee bought me a pair of Azureus as the reptile show in Charleston, SC.

And I love them. First animal I've owned that I can just sit there and watch them for hours (and I own a nice reef tank as well!).


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## melbel (Oct 5, 2010)

I have loved frogs since I can remember. I remember seeing a plastic D. auratus replica at a toy store when I was little. That is when I fell in love with PDFs. That was over 20 years ago and I still can't get enough of these beautiful little frogs.


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## brad0608 (Jun 5, 2012)

i got in to the dart frogs because i wanted to make natural enviroments for my day geckos. once I found out that the enviroments I liked best killed most days and were most suited to darts. 
Ounce darted then addicted.


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## Steverd (Sep 4, 2011)

I had fish for about forty years. Done everything, freshwater, saltwater, reef, seahorses, discus, co2 tank, fresh water shrimps, etc....

I started getting burned out everytime I had to clean 20 tanks. I saw some PDFs on a web page from a seller while look for some Nice crystal red shrimps and started reading about them. Now a few years later, I have more frog terrariums than fish tanks.. Much happier!!

Steve


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## jeeperrs (Jan 14, 2010)

I was amazed by the colors and the patterns of the frogs. That is all it took.


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## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

I always had an interest for reptiles, but i walked in a exotic pet store seen Darts and Vivariums. I was asking about the up keep of a nice viv they had there and a employee said I couldn't ave one in my house. I also needed to get over a girl....


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## Samuraisid (Apr 24, 2012)

I started with Inverts a few years ago. As my interest in bugs grew, I became interested in display vivs and tropical plants. Those interests led me here, to Dendroboard. As you Froggers are best with display vivs. They are so beautiful and filled with life, that I really want some frogs in the future, but Ive got a long way to go.

Much research on a couple centipedes Im getting, as well as three dif. species of scorpion. I also need a better knowledge base of tropical plants. Then, Im gonna figure out lighting and fans for a tropical planted viv. And then I will buy some frogs Oh, of course I will be doing tons and tons of research on frogs first.


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## frogmanroth (May 23, 2006)

Trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, made realize they could be kept in captivity. I had seen them in National Geographic and books growing up on beef farm and was always fascinated with them. And nine years later.


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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

Anyone have more stories? I love hearing these. Keep them coming  
Buddy

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## notEZbeingGREEN (Sep 17, 2012)

Steverd said:


> I had fish for about forty years. Done everything, freshwater, saltwater, reef, seahorses, discus, co2 tank, fresh water shrimps, etc....
> 
> I started getting burned out everytime I had to clean 20 tanks. I saw some PDFs on a web page from a seller while look for some Nice crystal red shrimps and started reading about them. Now a few years later, I have more frog terrariums than fish tanks.. Much happier!!
> 
> Steve


/\ /\ /\This is pretty much my story...lol
Though,I did have a pair of azureus years ago...
I'm just now making a major switch from fish to frogs.
And I'm much happier already!


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## picoreefer (Oct 17, 2012)

i watched jgrimmier's videos on youtube and was blown away


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## oneshot (Mar 5, 2010)

I own a gymnastics school, and was talking to one of the kids and she said RETF's were her favorite animal and it got me thinking, "Can you OWN a RETF?"
A little research, and ended up buying a Whites Tree Frog. Just looking around for frog stuff, stumbled upon DB, realized you didn't need crickets and that they were diurnal, and that Black Jungle was pretty close to me.

Now I've decided on the 14 or so species I really want to keep, built a frog room in the basement and am filling it up slowly. The final piece of the frog room will be a huge viv, 7 ft tall, 5 feet wide and 2 ft deep.

Also, I put a 65 gallon tank in the waiting area of the gym for the kids to look at.


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## Fiddlesticks (Oct 18, 2012)

My boyfriend had told me about pdf's and wanting to get them when we got together a couple years ago. Once we got our own place, we ended up taking in our sister in law's leopard gecko, then buying a crested gecko, and then two more leos. My boyfriend had been looking to get these frogs once we got our place, but couldn't find anywhere that would sell them for a reasonable price. The pet stores could get them in but they wanted like 300 a frog. (totally ridiculous) anyways, back in august, we were in the store that our buddy works at and they had some dendrobates auratus and some dendrobates tinctorius, well we ended up getting 2 auratus, and then about a month ago I bought another one, and shortly after one of our original 2 died, thinking to be stress related. It was very unfortunate but we switched the tank they were in to a much bigger tank, they seem much happier now, and last Sunday, we went out and bought another to replace the one that bit the dust. We want to breed them and it looks as though they have started the breeding behavior. Our son is almost 20 months old and he loves the frogs, he goes over to the tank and pokes his head around looking for the frogs and when he finds one he shouts "I SEE A FROGGY"


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## InHoc1855 (Apr 28, 2011)

Always loved reptiles and amphibians. As a kid i would catch anything and everything in the hills behind my house. Had a snake in highschool, but as i was an amateur, it escaped and i never found it. About 4 years later while i was in college i wanted to get another one. Heard about an outstanding breeder just outside of Chico, Ca (Rons Reptiles). Did some research on some of the reptiles he had, and chose a Brazilian Rianbow boa. Ive always liked the idea of making the enclosure look as realistic as possible (i hate the way most snake keepers have their cages, papertowels, a hide, and a bowl....pathetic) so in my spare time i would look up naturalistic terrariums and the like.

Which brought me to Black Jungles website, which had how toos. I knew those setups would get trampled by my snake and be hard to clean out so i saved up and got 2 gargoyle geckos and an 18" exo cube and tried my first great stuff background, planted foreground, and waterfall water feature. But it still wasnt up to snuff for what i was aspiring to create.

Eventually i found Dendroboard and i looked up post after post after post. I probably spent 6months or more researching before buying the supplies to start the tank. probably took me 3 months to get around to planting it and about a month after that i ordered my first pair of Intermedius. 

The only reason i dont have many many more frogs and tanks is because im planning to save money and travel the world for a year and it would be a waste. I will soon need to start looking for homes for my 5 pets (1 female BRB, 2 Female Gargoyles, and a 1.1 Intermedius pair).

Anyway, thats my long winded response as to how im now absolutely hooked on this hobby.


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## InHoc1855 (Apr 28, 2011)

Annnndd through all that i have learned that it isnt worth it to me to own a nocturnal pet. So darts fit that perfectly!!


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## shadopadla (Sep 11, 2012)

We've had bullfrogs/ leopard frogs in a fish pond outside since I brought some tads back from a bike trip when I was in my early teens.

I've always thought darts were beautiful, but didn't realize they weren't poisonous/ could be kept as pets until I searched for frog pictures to paint a bean bag board for a "Feed the Frog" children's charity event over the summer.

Started reading dendroboard and online information/ some books and took the plunge into dartdom.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

Made the transition from reef tanks. Instead of a slice of ocean its a slice a rainforest at my place. Cheaper, easier, more forgiving, and easier to move if I have to.


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## JayMillz (Jun 27, 2012)

My military enlistment was up in February and I knew I was accepted into the University of Minnesota's animal science program and was going to be moving back up north. I've always had the problem in school with the mentality of "Why do I need to know this?" I knew my friend Eric lived close to where I was moving my family, and he's been a frogger for about 5 years. I have other friends who breed snakes and bearded dragons and I've always had random pets my whole life. I really liked Eric's frog room and it was inspiring of how in depth the knowledge can get with this hobby. I knew picking this up would help me stay motivated during the frustrating times of school...and my 9 year old step-son thinks I'm the man since he's got a 55 gallon viv with 4 terribs in his bedroom


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## Buddysfrogs (Mar 29, 2012)

Any other stories?
Buddy


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## JoshsDragonz (Jun 30, 2012)

Growing up I was introduced to the world of exotic pets at a young age. My dad was big into nature and of course I followed right in his foot steps. My house growing up was full of all kinds of fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects. I have no idea how my mom put up with us. I was a regular at the local pet shop spending many afternoons there. I kept multiple species of herps until I was old enough to drive lol... Then I was never home. I didn't get back into keeping anything until tragically losing both of my parents in my earily 20's. I went to clean out my dads house and had to break down the few aquariums he had still running. That's what really sparked me getting back into the hobby. 

I started off by getting into ball pythons for a few years until that whole world went into the craze it is now. While parting off my collection I had a few geckos that I loved and that collection grew quite a bit. I had my first experiences with vivs there. I had a few different species of geckos and learned about PDF's being legal to keep while looking up vivs on the net. That's how I stumbled on to DB. This was around 2007. I wanted to get into PDF's then but never bit the bullet. I ended up selling off most my collection of geckos to a friend that was a big breeder a couple years ago and bought my first bearded dragon. I fell in love with these guys and this is my other passion (besides vivs lol). If you haven't had a bearded dragon before, I believe they are the closest thing to a dog in the reptile world. They are fairly intelligent and all have personalities. If you couldn't tell by my screen name I breed and raise bearded dragons. Well about a year and a half ago I was fortunate enough to buy a bigger and nicer house. This allowed me to expand my hobbies and opened up room for finally a frog room!  So last year I started on my 180 build and my other small tanks and got hooked big time. I love the PDF world... There are so many cool and knowledgeable people here. So now I have a room to fill lol... So look out for future builds coming soon


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## scoy (Jan 22, 2013)

I went to the baltimore aquarium in 3rd grade and saw the pdf exhibit I thought they were so cool I made my mom buy me a little platic figuren of a azures and a leuc. Since the 3rd grade all ive had were the little plastic pdfs until just recently I saw a ad in the local newspaper classified for pdfs. I was so excited I imidiatley started to research the little guys then I went out got my supplies and called the lady with the frogs. Since than ive been hooked. I'm very thankful for my fiancee being so supportive and not minding takeing a backseat to frog, sometimes. I just hope my son shares the same love for animals that his father has. I think were off to agood start, his favorite book is frogs and reptiles given to him by the first lady I got frogs from.


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## Hansen2012 (Jan 14, 2013)

I remember when I got my Chinese Water Dragon that I was looking up everything they can eat. I then stumbled on a YouTube video of Leucomelas eating FF's and I was amazed at the colors and beauty of them. That was about a year and a half ago and I finally got 5 Leucomelas after months and months of research and building. Now I want a collection. I love these things.

-Peyton


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## Los3r (Feb 20, 2013)

Went to lll reptile down in oceanside a few years ago. Saw a bright blue something for about $40 and wanted it, but wanted to do research first. Friend and I completely forgot what it was we saw. That was 4 years ago. Went down to visit her a month ago and saw the auratus they had for sale and started doing research when I realized this is what I saw. Now I can't wait to be able to get leucs x)


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## topart (Oct 17, 2012)

I've raised fish for 50 years (salt water for 10), birds for 48 and chameleons of various types. After retiring from the Army after 38 years decided to try something different. While looking for grandchildren's presents found a bag with about a dozen different colors/styles of dart frogs. I was intrigued and decided to give them a try. I got a couple of azureus to start then got a bunch of thumbs. I got a lot of information and help and nice frogs from Shawn Harrington, the sports_doc, Scott MacDonald, Jon Werner, Phil Tan and Wendy S Hall. This site is a great resource!


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