# Evolution/Devolution of a frog room



## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

The idea from this came from a post in the Regional Frogs section talking about past GNYADS meetings - and I thought this would be interesting to share. 

I got involved in the hobby in late 2004 with a 10g tank and a couple of D. tinctorius "Azureus" that was actually a Christmas present from my brother with some wonderful guidance by my wife (which I am sure she now regrets).

Over the course of the last 7 years, initially the collection grew rapidly - with lots of small tanks and my goal of having an extremely varied collection. I had a lot of success breeding lots of different frogs. But the frogs were in small tanks - many 10g verts, a few 15g high tanks. 

Although the collection was varied, I found that the smaller species really were what interested me the most. So I focused on those frogs, working on obtaining multiple unrelated breeding pairs of a number Ranitomeya and Oophaga pumilio. However, the tank count was still high, and the tank space for the inhabitants was still low - although I transitioned over from many 10g verts to mostly 15g high verts. 

As my time constraints increased, the amount of time I could spend with my frogs proportionally decreased, and it was no longer fair to the frogs (or really feasible) to maintain such a large collection. So I slowly started decreasing my tank counts, and added a few tanks of the larger "old" frogs that I used to have and really missed.

Currently, I have fewer than half of the tanks that I had at my peak collection level - but the tanks are all significantly larger. I am able to enjoy the frogs much more - and I feel that they benefit from the greater space. While it is very likely that I will have to decrease more in the future, I hope that with the stability of a more permanent career job - I will be able to maintain a stable collection of large tanks in a controlled environment (with a misting system - finally).

Anyway - here is a picture timeline. I am missing pictures of the frog room in our old apartment when it was probably at its largest (2007). I know that I had a couple of GNYADS meetings at that time - so maybe someone else has pictures.

2005









2006









2008

















Early 2011

















Current (Nov 2011)


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Very nice, Oz. I really need to make it out your way.


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Nice! I also like the 'few bigger tanks' vs a room full of 10s. I'm in the process of getting the last of my 10s upgraded to 20s, at least. Fortunately I don't have a lot of frogs. 

What I am hoping to do is to replace the tank stands with furniture. I have my 4 largest tanks sitting on old dressers and a nice sturdy old table (all hand crafted by my grandfather in the 30-40s), another large sturdy table, and a large old speaker with a wooden case. Then I have 6 tanks on bakers racks. I'd like to replace those racks with more cool old furniture, and, make the frog room an interesting place to hang out (other than because there are frogs in it).

Some day, some day


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

Oz, stunning racks. 

I've noticed the same thing, I started out trying to stuff as many 10G's as I could on my racks, and a few months ago began transitioning to 18" cube zoo meds/exo's and 33G cubes. The vivs come out looking better, the frogs seem bolder/more active, more microfauna per frog... the list of benefits goes on and on IMO.


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## nyfrogs (May 1, 2005)

Oz i remember those days in your first place lol. I dug up some photos of what i had


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## chrism (Apr 11, 2007)

Love the evolution pics and idea! Do you have any close ups of the last 3 big vivs?


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

I don't - but I can get some. Though - they aren't really big tanks. They are only 20L tanks.


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## yomamafat (Jun 16, 2010)

Oz, Thanks for sharing! Your frog room is awesome. More pictures or videos please! BTW, the frogs that I got from you are doing awesome. I hope you are doing well.


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## WeeNe858 (Sep 13, 2010)

I thought we weren't allowed to post anything pornographic?


Drooools!


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## stevenhman (Feb 19, 2008)

Very nice Oz! Are those FCA cubes? I just recently got one acrylic tank and love how light it is, scratches be damned!


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## mordoria (Jan 28, 2011)

wow Oz. If the only the human species evolved so elegantly.....

Id love to come check it out. I love how you walk in and POW, dart frog wall.


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## chinoanoah (Mar 9, 2009)

::_chanting_:: video. video. video....


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## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

i love how there arent any gaps between tanks.


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

mordoria said:


> wow Oz. If the only the human species evolved so elegantly.....
> 
> Id love to come check it out. I love how you walk in and POW, dart frog wall.


David - you are more than welcome if you are up this way at any point. I might have a meeting in the Spring - but that depends on the weather and my schedule (I said the same thing about this fall...)




stevenhman said:


> Very nice Oz! Are those FCA cubes? I just recently got one acrylic tank and love how light it is, scratches be damned!


The cubes (and the two 32x16x16 acrylic tanks on the bottom row) are actually Understory Acrylic tanks that I got second hand from Scott.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

nyfrogs said:


> Oz i remember those days in your first place lol. I dug up some photos of what i had


so did you make those conversion kits?
I've never seen those anywhere lol.
Great design


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

they are made by FCA "first class aquatics"
dont bother googling them they are out of business


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Dizzle21 said:


> they are made by FCA "first class aquatics"
> dont bother googling them they are out of business


yeah I found that out lol
That's too bad it looks like a nice vert kit


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