# P. vittatus and vivarium plans



## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

The vivarium itself is still only panes of glass at my friends place. We will put it together next week or the week after that. The dimensions are: 50x50x50 cm (50 cm = 19.69 inches) and it is 125 liters, 33 gallons. The occupants will be 5 _P. vittatus_. 

The water level will be 5 cm (2 inches) and the false bottom will be about 10 cm (4 inches) at the back of the vivarium and it will slope down towards the front where it merges to the bottom before the front glass. There will be a waterfall and also a mist maker. And on top of the tank 2 fans and 70W metal halide.

The plants will be some bromeliads, creeping button fern (_Pyrrosia nummularifolia_), _Bulbophyllum comberi_, _Bulbophyllum sp._, creeping fig (_Ficus pumila_), prayer plant (_Maranta leuconeura_ 'Kerchoveana' ), mind-your-own-business (_Soleirolia soleirolii_), "mini moss" (_Vesicularia sp._), _Hemianthus callitrichoides_, _Pogostemon helferi_, _Marsilea hirsuta_ and propably some other ones too (the plants just keep coming, I can't stop them ).

I will start building the background tomorrow and I'll take some pictures when I am making it.

I haven't decided what material I'll use on top of the egg crate. I could get spaghnum moss (the dried one that expands nicely when wet), fir bark and coco humus, but I am still trying to read more about the subject (I'll be ordering the stuff from aquaristic.net, if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them).


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## JoshKaptur (Feb 17, 2004)

That's a beautiful vittatus in your avitar.


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2006)

i like the sounds of your tank. im in the process of building 2 plywood tanks, 22x22x22, with ~21" inside demensions. i really like the size of the tank. im setting up one now and will be setting up the other later. im interested to see how yours turns out, as not mnay people do tanks with these proportions.

as far as soil goes, heres a pretty interesting recent thread to get you started.

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16612


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

JoshKaptur: Thanks, I am deeply in love with these pretty babies. 

2mnytnx: Oh, we are both building twins. Plywood sounds like a nice material , I assume it's way cheaper than glass too. But well, the glass for my tank cost 45 euros, so it isn't that bad. But maybe I could build a plywood vivarium just for plants...

There's something about the cube form that makes it look really amazing. I really hope mine will turn out OK. After I've finished this one, I'll be making a same sized aquarium to stand next to this one and then a second vivarium of the same shape and keep the aquarium in the middle (or build the second vivarium after this and the aquarium last). But well, first this one. 

And thanks for the link. The whole substrate thing is really confusing, not because there isn't enough information, but because there's so many different options and almost too much information. It's hard to decide what to get (luckily there isn't that many things available for me, basically only the ingredients aquaristic.net sells). And I really don't want to be making a wrong choice, I don't want to tear down the setup because of wrong type of substrate mix.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Just a short update. I've been actually too busy to do anything with the background, and the viv isn't here yet (I'll be getting that here around my birthday). But I got some beautiful broms from Frogtofall (thank you, you are the best!) last week and now I am rather happy. 

I ordered some orchids and ferns (Bulbophyllum and Pyrrosia) from an online store in Germany, but looks like I will never get them and I don't believe that I'll get a refund. The evil mail eating monster must have intercepted the package and is happily munching my expensive plants. 

The frogs are growing and eating well:










And the temporary tank has changed a bit too. The broms on the left are tied to a piece of wood, one of the Brazilian Peppers managed to detach itself and is just resting itself against a Red Bird in this pictures, need to tie it again to another piece of wood and place it somewhere in the tank. And well, since this is just a temporary setup, I'll just concentrate on keeping the plants alive and frogs happy.










Oh, and I decided to get an E.N.T Terrarientechnik sprinkler system for this vivarium with two extra nozzles so I can use the same system for two vivariums.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Get those broms out of the soggy looking soil asap! :shock: 

You're asking for a rot fest keeping them planted in that. You can mount them to something and place them in there though. Good luck.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

I suppose it really looks like they are planted in the substrate. But they are actually tied to a pretty piece of wood and they don't even touch the substrate. Don't worry, I'm not a total airhead, just part one.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

rain- said:


> I suppose it really looks like they are planted in the substrate. But they are actually tied to a pretty piece of wood and they don't even touch the substrate. Don't worry, I'm not a total airhead, just part one.


Sweeeeeet!


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## Guest (Sep 4, 2006)

your frogs look great Satu! i should be getting some of those this week. hope they come in looking as good as yours. from the pics ive seen of them and their siblings they should be pretty close. ill be posting some pics when they do come in.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Thanks Landon. Looks like you got some pretty beautiful vittatus too. 

I can't wait to get their vivarium ready. I finally got the Bulbophyllums and other plants from Germany, took 15 days, but they aren't totally dead which is surprising since they were rather banged up during their trip. And the misting system, some mosses, substrate and some decoration will be soon here. 

I tied some more broms to another piece of wood, but I don't think I'll manage to fit it to this temporary tank, so I'll put it in a plants only tank for now to wait for the larger one.

Oh, a fruit fly on a Neoregelia 'Brazilian Pepper' leaf trying to avoid the frogs and cleaning the vitamin dust off:


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## dustin_grey (Mar 8, 2006)

Killer picture!!! That rocks .


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## Guest (Sep 7, 2006)

Satu you get some of the most amazing shots. what type of camera do you use and did you get that shot through glass? i really like photography and macro is my fave. ive just got a pocket size digi, so i dont get the pics like yours. ive seen a few others of yours that just blew my mind.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Thank you both for the kind words. 

Actually I use a pocket sized digi too. I've taken most of the pictures I've shown with my Canon Powershot A80 which is an old Point & Shoot camera. It does have a nice macro mode and with 3x optical zoom and a closeup lens (cheap third party one, cost only 30 euros) I can get really up close and personal with tiny creatures.  

The camera was inside the terrarium when I took that picture, the lens was about 4 centimetres away from the fly.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Speaking of soggy soil...

That soil looks too soggy.  
That can lead to real problems with darts, especially the more terrestrial ones.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

This is just a temporary setup for these youngsters and they will get a vivarium with false bottom and such. But I've tried to make this as cosy as possible.

I think the picture makes it look worse than what it is. There's 1/4 inch of water and the substrate is 3 1/2 inches thick at the back of the tank, so only the front is soggy. I think that should be OK for the frogs? Or should I lower the water level a bit?


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

rain- said:


> I think the picture makes it look worse than what it is. There's 1/4 inch of water and the substrate is 3 1/2 inches thick at the back of the tank, so only the front is soggy. I think that should be OK for the frogs? Or should I lower the water level a bit?


That should be fine.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Well, looks like I will finally get the vivarium here during this week. I hope it doesn't break during transit. 

The frogs are doing fine and they have grown a lot, they are now 2 - 2,5 centimetres. They are still a bit shy and hide if I move around too much, but they are getting a bit bolder. I think I heard someone call from their tank, since it sounded a bit different than my E. tricolor calls and came from different direction. 

I took this picture tonight, sorry about the bad quality:


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

The call, according to the mistking website recording, sounds quite a lot like a cell phone going off.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Oh, I really should watch my threads more closely, I didn't realise there was a new message. 

I was just feeding my frogs (the temporary tanks for vittatus and tricolors are now next to each other) and watching them. And I heard couple of short calls from the vittatus tank. It was quite different to the tricolor call. Something like comparing a crow to a house sparrow, well, the difference isn't as big, but something in their calls make me think about crows and house sparrows. Vittatus call was lower and more guttural sounding. I just wish I'd have something I could use to record their calls. I do have an mp3 player with recording option and my P&S camera can also record video with sound, but I'd love to have something that could be started remotely and would have better quality.

Thank you Dendrobait for mentioning the mistking website. The vittatus warning call sounded close to the calls I just heard.


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

It's almost been a year since I got these pretty froggies and now they are finally thinking about babies. There's a nice clutch and all of them are developing. The frogs still live in their temporary tank, but they seem to be liking it there and I can actually see them nowadays. 

Here's the temporary tank. Yes, I have managed to make the Brazilian Peppers green. Not enough light and "I will be able to build the actual viv soon, no need to hurry with the lights now" -excuse. 










Bad photo of the possible dad close to eggs:










And the 17 eggs:










Sorry about the bad photos, I'll try to get better ones in daytime (now it's 01:35 AM).

I'm not sure if I get to build the actual vivs this summer, it would be good if I could since I have almost everything ready, but... there always seems to be something in the way or something else to do.


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

Great job! Maybe I'll see the same sometime soon.


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## arielelf (May 23, 2007)

Nice tank! I love all of the plants. I like really highly planted tanks, looks very natural that way.
Nice job.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Excellent pics!


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

I finally managed to snap a photo of a male carrying eggs. Unfortunately the camera focused on the back leg and not on the head and the frog was way too fast for me to take another photo.


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## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

:shock: 


Great picture!!


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## a hill (Aug 4, 2007)

Great pictures Satu.

How are the shrimp doing?

-Andrew


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Thanks. 

I actually don't have that many shrimp now. I'm moving in few months, so I've been trying to keep everything as minimized as possible (not that easy thanks to my frogs breeding all the time), but the ones I have are doing great. I'm also going to get some higher grade ones after I've moved.


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## a hill (Aug 4, 2007)

rain- said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I actually don't have that many shrimp now. I'm moving in few months, so I've been trying to keep everything as minimized as possible (not that easy thanks to my frogs breeding all the time), but the ones I have are doing great. I'm also going to get some higher grade ones after I've moved.


Its good to know you still have some :wink: 

I finally have a good sized group of A-S black diamonds, two-three are berried at the moment and am ready for new baby shrimp any day now.

Your food finally ran out  

-Andrew

PS. If you haven't guessed its Fish Newb


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

:shock: man that pic of the vittatus with the tadpoles is amazing. and i love the colors on the santa isabel


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## Mikee (Oct 23, 2007)

Are we talking about crystal red shrimp?


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Yup. 

I wish I'd be able to get some Black Diamonds, they look cool too. 

Btw, it's rather fascinating to watch these vittatus tadpoles catching live melanogasters that are floating on the pond surface. The tads are still small (the male deposited them 2nd of January), but they seem to be able to eat a full melanogaster if they just concentrate. They like to eat springtails from the surface (but aren't really hunting them) and they get excited when they get regular food (tadpole bites), but when they see/feel melanogasters struggling on the surface, they get really frantic. 

Usually I've removed the tads from the pond immediately after the male has done it's job, but this time I left the tads in there for a while. Looks like it was a good decision since I get to watch this kind of behavior which wouldn't be possible in an open aquarium (I've fed tads dead fruitflies before, but they usually eat dead FF:s only after they have sunken to the bottom).


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Here's a tad munching a FF it caught from the surface and then drowned it (or well, maybe the FF didn't have time to drown and it died of being severed in half...).


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## MJ (Jun 16, 2005)

That has to be one of the coolest pictures I've seen in a long time!


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## rain- (Jul 28, 2006)

Thanks.  

It's a wee bit difficult to take photos of those tads in their shallow pond, the glass is scratched and they keep stirring up all that stuff on the bottom, so I'm really glad I managed to get this shot.


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