# First mantella tank



## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

Hi guys im new to this forum and just started in this hobbie 2 month ago.
and here are some pic to share 
my initial setup for my tank.
which was taken down and refinished due to not enought water flow bak to the pump.
changed to a true fales bottom tank.









the back drop









Filled it with Silcon and peatmoss









pebble layer for drainiage









Rough layout of the tank, with 3 layer of sub
pebble, Old Ada soil, and peat. all separated with garden lining









Tada~~~~ every thing in , water still cloudy
Thx Super7 for the Brom.









next day, water clear up.









little River syste running off a little pump behind the dropwall.


















Tanks done,,..FROG not in yet .
will put them in ,in the next few day.



I currently have a Pc fan blowing air out of the top of my acrylic tank.
but im debating ..sould i be feeding air Into the tank to circulate or ...sucking it out.


Still need to get some spring tail, fruit flys 


i


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

here are the pic for the refinished tank.








a river shot of my tank









new set up for the tank, took the cork bark out and place with a peice of wood.
change it to a faulse bottom tank.
and on top of the lid is my cheapo fan and a ugly made pc fan speed controller haha









my new fern that i got today









unm....i guess this is the unclear shot of my frog


is it me or did my brom turn less red ?
do they need iron to turn red ?

enjoy


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## ray1taylor (Nov 15, 2008)

Woah I thout it looked great the first time, now it looks amzing!

I love that big peice of wood you put in!

well done


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

First off, looks great! I like your new piece of wood better than the cork bark you had in there before.

Now, yes your brom lost its red. It's actually the lighting that causes it (or lack thereof). Broms need lots of light to keep their reds and unfortunately for you mantellas need cooler temperatures. So if you use more intense lighting the mantellas could suffer from high heat. 

Now 2 suggestions:

1: I would lower your water level a little bit. With the water touching your soil you will have it waterlogged and could cause problems with rotting plants. You ideally shouldn't have the water touching the soil even at the bottom of it as it will wick up anyway (like a sponge).

2: This is just an aesthetic suggestion. I would get some contact paper and cover up the front part where the false bottom is. Something black would be perfect. Whenever I see a nice looking vivarium that has the false bottom showing my eyes tend to drift towards it.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

bakaichi said:


> here are the pic for the refinished tank.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice M. laevigata (ie. climbing mantella)... am I correct? I think I know their profile by now. 

If that is what you have you might want to give them a bit more height and treeholes to encourage breeding. 

Otherwise, tank revision looks good. 

Good luck, 
Ray


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

boogsawaste said:


> First off, looks great! I like your new piece of wood better than the cork bark you had in there before.
> 
> Now, yes your brom lost its red. It's actually the lighting that causes it (or lack thereof). Broms need lots of light to keep their reds and unfortunately for you mantellas need cooler temperatures. So if you use more intense lighting the mantellas could suffer from high heat.


I wouldn't worry about that. Just grab yourself some GE CFs (compact fluorescents, screw in 20-26W) that are 6500-6700K... they throw off almost zero heat and provide the perfect light for broms (which your laevigata won't use, btw). Also, laevigata are not nearly as sensitive to heat stroke as other highland mantellas... just keep them 80 or below, high humidity and lots and lots of leaf litter.


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## Colleen53 (Jan 19, 2009)

Very good suggestions, Jim. I, too have the same situation with my broms losing color due to not enough light. AND I just set up a tank with mantellas!




























With help from people like Jim on this board, you will learn so much and enjoy this hobby as we all do. Welcome aboard!!!


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Colleen53 said:


> Very good suggestions, Jim. I, too have the same situation with my broms losing color due to not enough light. AND I just set up a tank with mantellas!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice Mads! And nice setup. Both of you might be interested in this thread: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/me...ion-thread-who-keeping-them-what-species.html

Also, we have a good group of mantella folks over on www.amphibianforum.com (DB's sister site)

good luck,
Ray


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## Colleen53 (Jan 19, 2009)

Thanks for that info, Ray. Do appreciate


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## M_A_B (May 2, 2008)

Both great tanks! i am currentlly also making a mantella tank im appliying the gs today and hope to get some photos up tonight. great job!


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

stemcellular said:


> I wouldn't worry about that. Just grab yourself some GE CFs (compact fluorescents, screw in 20-26W) that are 6500-6700K... they throw off almost zero heat and provide the perfect light for broms (which your laevigata won't use, btw). Also, laevigata are not nearly as sensitive to heat stroke as other highland mantellas... just keep them 80 or below, high humidity and lots and lots of leaf litter.


I use them pretty extensively but some of my broms don't color up right anyway. Most notably are my fireballs and zoe. Both of them are mere inches under the lights too. On the other hand a NOID brom I have is perfectly red under the same lighting. 

With 2 of those bulbs on top of my 20XH (one 15W and the other 20W), the temp gets raised about 2* (79* max), which isn't much. Before I added a vent screen to the top of it temps would go up about 4* (81* which could still be dangerous to laevigata). So ventilation helps also. Another important piece of information is that the light isn't elevated off that tank at all. If it were or if I incorporated a pc fan on it I probably wouldn't get any raise in temp.

I'm not familiar enough with mantellas to know which are more susceptible to heat, let alone knowledgeable enough to know what type that is from the picture. 

And thanks for the kind words colleen


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

boogsawaste said:


> I use them pretty extensively but some of my broms don't color up right anyway. Most notably are my fireballs and zoe. Both of them are mere inches under the lights too. On the other hand a NOID brom I have is perfectly red under the same lighting.
> 
> With 2 of those bulbs on top of my 20XH (one 15W and the other 20W), the temp gets raised about 2* (79* max), which isn't much. Before I added a vent screen to the top of it temps would go up about 4* (81* which could still be dangerous to laevigata). So ventilation helps also. Another important piece of information is that the light isn't elevated off that tank at all. If it were or if I incorporated a pc fan on it I probably wouldn't get any raise in temp.
> 
> ...


Might help to add two 26W CFs and elevate them about 4 inches off the top. Pretty much what I did prior to moving to a rack and had very little temp impact on the tanks.


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

stemcellular said:


> Might help to add two 26W CFs and elevate them about 4 inches off the top. Pretty much what I did prior to moving to a rack and had very little temp impact on the tanks.


I was considering that so thanks for the nudge lol. I need to find a place to get just the "legs" for lights so I can lift them. I have some ghetto designs now but they don't look so nice...


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## dart_frog_junkie (Apr 9, 2009)

M_A_B said:


> Both great tanks! great job!


 I agree completely. I also love those Mantellas


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

thx guys for all the advice~
i have lower the water level so to prevent the root rot as adviced.

the froget i have in there are mantella expectata

ill upload a picture when i can get a better shot of them, since they are very shy.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

sweet tanks guys, great work! now get them breeding.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Nice, I can see that now...a bit of blue leg in the pic. Remember that they like drier and warmer conditions than most mantellas.


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

thex i will cut down on the misting a bit 

ahaha as for breeding .. i will just leave it to the frogs 

or is there like seasonal change that stimulate breeding ?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Exactly. You will need to cycle them.


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

stemcellular said:


> Exactly. You will need to cycle them.


what do u mean by cycle them ?

to cycle the water ?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

you will have to provide a winter dry period... cool and dry for at least a few months. i'd recommend doing a lot more research on Mantella and their successful husbandry. the following links should provide a good start... g'luck.


Marc Staniszewski's Mantella FAQ

Mantella Frogs


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

stemcellular said:


> you will have to provide a winter dry period... cool and dry for at least a few months. i'd recommend doing a lot more research on Mantella and their successful husbandry. the following links should provide a good start... g'luck.
> 
> 
> Marc Staniszewski's Mantella FAQ
> ...


thx for all the infor, 
ya i try to look for infor on them before, but there are only a handfull on there online.


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