http://repti lisious.com/ Wirrals best exotic pets store! 187 Old Chester Rd Birkenhead CH42 3TB Tel: 0151 645 6235 Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/repti lisious/323008289103?fref=ts Published by The British Amphibian Keepers Society July 2012 http://b-a-k-s.co.uk Our next meeting: http://b-a-k-s.co.uk/index.php/meetings201 3/meetings Copyright The British Amphibian Keepers Society 2012
Setting Up Your First Live Planted Vivarium Published by, and used with the consent of:
Setting Up Your First Planted/Dart Frog Vivarium If there is one thing I have learned since entering the poison dart frog/live planted vivarium hobby, it's to keep things simple to begin with. By this, I mean avoid going overly complex with your choice of vivarium, how you cover the back and possibly the sides, how you plant the vivarium and how you light and heat it. This guide was originally produced as a guide to setting up a vivarium for poison dart frogs. However the information contained is equally useful for ANY live planted, bio-active, vivarium. Choosing a vivarium I strongly believe that the best size of vivarium you can start with is one that measures at least 50cm in width, 40cm in depth (front to back) and 40cm high (tip: vivarium sizes are usually written as Width x depth x hight, so this would be a 50cmx40cmx40cm, most vivaria bought and sold in the UK will show the measurements in centimetres). These dimensions give you an ideal size for either a pair of dendrobates tinctorius (this includes Azureas, also know as the blue poison dart frog), OR a pair of d. leucomelas. It is also a relatively easy size to furnish and decorate. I also believe that the best vivaria for poison dart frogs, and live plants, are those made out of glass. Although these are less effective at keeping in heat, they are waterproof and easier to fly proof than vivaria made of wood, and cheaper and more widely available than vivaria made out of other materials (eg. Plastics). Dart frogs require quite high relative humidity to be maintained, as such been waterproof is of larger importance than been able to keep in heat. They are also attractive to look at, with nice clean lines. So far this all sounds very very simple, however there are different types of glass vivarium (sometimes called a terrarium, but this word actually refers to a plants only enclosure, once animals are involved it becomes a vivarium). These been the well known branded types with a screen mesh top (Exo Terra, Zoomed, Komodo etc) and the lesser known European style vivaria (these are usually made by hobbyists, please contact us for advise regarding this style of vivarium).
How Should I Clean My Viv? If you have followed the advice about seeding it with springtails and woodlice, then the simple answer is, you don't, they do. All that you should need to do is to clean the glass of algae, a bit of poop if your frogs climbed your doors... and any water marks. I tend to just use a non-stick pan scourer and a bit of lemon juice, and then rinse this off with some RO water. Job done, and I only have to do this about twice a year tops. I've Read This Guide, What Next? Go read some more. Read up on the different dart frogs and how to keep them, read some journals written by actual keepers, maybe even buy some books. I spent a good 12 months reading up on darts before I even thought about keeping them. Good preparation makes for less problems once you start keeping. If you require more information or advice, please contact us, we will be happy to help.
Chosing Your First Frogs I am actually going to tell you to slow down at this point, take your time getting used to maintaining your viv for a couple of months first, get your routines down pat. Once you have this, then you can go and buy your frogs. Now, I am going to say something quite contradictory here, as although this is at the end of my little article, you SHOULD have chosen your frogs, through researching them etc, BEFORE you set up your viv. The reason been that you would have set your viv up to suit your chosen frogs, rather than trying to find frogs to suit your viv. Hopefully you have read this through completely at the start. Lol Anyway, there are lots of frogs suggested for beginners to darts. Of them all though, the 2 absolute best groups you can chose from just have to be dendrobates leucomelas (THE single best beginner dart frog) and dendrobates tinctorius (note, some morphs of these are too delicate for the beginner however) the best morph of which for a beginner is probably the good old Azureas. The number one cause of problems with tinctorius and new keepers however is trying to keep too many of them together. To keep more than 1 female for example you need a very large viv, with plenty of hiding places, and décor to break eye line, otherwise they will fight, often to the death. Males are less aggressive, but you still need a larger viv to keep more than 1. This is why most people advice keeping 1 male with 1 female when keeping tinctorius. The other thing newbies always ask is can I keep more than 1 type of frog together, or keep some lizards with them?. The best answer to this is, if you need to ask then the answer is no. You especially should not mix different morphs of tinctorius, or mix tinctorius, leucomelas or auratus with each other, they ALL belong to the tinctorius grouping, and WILL hybridise happily, which is really frowned upon. You will come across people with bad mixes, and they will tell you it's fine, however the majority of hobbyists will tell you that they look down upon these people, and that often it is more luck than judgement that they got away with it. You will also find shops mixing frogs etc, and they will tell you it's fine, their only interest is making money. As I said at the start of this article, for the beginner it really is best to keep it simple.
Screen mesh topped These are a good viv to get started with, been very widely available (we stock a number of brands of screen meshed vivaria at good prices). If keeping animals that need higher humidity, you can easily cover part of the mesh top with something like a piece of acrylic. This style of vivarium is excellent where you would like a "pond" or deeper are of water! European style (aka. ENT viv) These are very good vivaria, aimed at those who wish to keep poison dart frogs for example. They are designed to maintain much higher levels of humidity, but this comes at the cost of reduced ventilation over mesh topped vivaria. If you require more information about this style of vivarium, please contact us, we will be happy to advise.
Drainage Drainage is VERY important in dart frog vivs, for the simple reason that maintaining high levels of relative humidity means you will be spraying large volumes of water into your viv. Without good drainage, your substrate quickly becomes sodden, causing plants to rot and also sores to form on your frogs. If you are using a European stylepoison dart frog vivarium, then this is all taken care of for you, if you get one drilled to take a drain set it's as easy as hooking up a drain set, putting the hose either into a waste pipe or a collection container which you periodically empty. It makes things an absolute snap, and saves a lot of time and effort. If not however, then you have 2 real choices. A Drainage Layer This usually takes the form of a layer of material such as Hydro Leca, Hydro balls, or sometimes gravel. Most people use the expanded clays such as Leca or Hydro balls though as these are much lighter than gravel. You would want a layer of this at least 2 inches deep, and don't forget to put some form of pipe down into this so that you can syphon out excess water, leave a pond area or to drill the base of the viv to allow you to do the same. On top of this you then need to use either some weed fabric, hydro fleece or polyester netting, this is to keep your substrate separate from the drainage layer. We stock high quality drainage mesh, please ask for more information regarding this.
Maintaining Temperature Poison dart frogs tend to come from places that tend to have little variation in temperature. To this end, when choosing a frog make sure you read up on the temperatures it can tolerate. Try to ensure you CAN provide temps from this range in your home, it's much easier than trying to either cool them or heat them. Most of my vivs for example are unheated as we have our central heating on a thermostat, keeping room temps at around 21-22 degrees Celsius in the day, dropping to about 19 degrees at night. With the lighting on the vivs, this means I get day time temps of around 24 degrees Celsius, dropping to about 20 degrees at night. Some frogs though like slightly higher temps than this, and for these I use a heat mat on the side of their viv, attached to a thermostat with the probe on the other side of the glass to the mat. On very hot days in summer, you may need to use fans, and turn of the lights, in order to stop temps from climbing too high. I tend to use an infra red thermometer to monitor temps at the floor, middle and top of my vivs. Lighting A topic that so often comes up is whether dart frogs need UV-B lighting or not. Traditional thinking is that no, it is NOT essential. However a short period of exposure each day can be beneficial for frogs. However, dart keepers as a rule rely on supplements to maintain levels ofvitamin D complex in their frogs (and also the very very important vitamin A). It's up to you whether you use UV-B lighting or not. For plants, and looks, I prefer to use lights that give off daylight, that been light that is roughly between 5,000 kelvin and 7,000 kelvin. You can use T8s, T5HOs (HE's are only as powrful as T8s), energy saving compacts, PLL/Dulux, or even LEDs for this purpose. So long as you provide enough light for the plants to grow. Don't forget to use reflectors though, else you waste a lot of the light produced. I tend to like to use T5HOs, usually 2 tubes+reflectors. For example over a 50x40x40 or 60x40x40 I would use 2 24 watt T5HO tubes with reflectors, usually opting for 865 tubes and a Narva Biovital. Most of my vivs are on shelves with other vivs though, so I often use longer and more powerful tubes over them all, sharing them. NB. DO NOT PLACE TUBES DIRECTLY ONTO, OR VERY CLOSE TO, THE TOP GLASS OF A VIV! This can cause cracking to occur due to the heat from the tube. You may see images of my vivs with lighting placed on top, but I use large reflectors that keep the tubes a distance away from the actual glass. We stock a wide range of lighting to suit your needs.
Feeding You might be wondering why I am talking about foods here, before talking about frogs. The simple reason is, it's best to get your live culturing sorted BEFORE you even think about buying frogs. Some of the best foods you can culture for dart frogs include flightless fruit flies, wingless fruit flies, bean weevils, grain weevils, springtails and dwarf woodlice. Again, there are a number of discussions on the forum on how to culture these, and our sponsors sell fruit flies and weevils. Get this right before you get your frogs, and you will find the hobby far easier. Most adult frogs only need feeding every 2 to 3 days, younger frogs may however need feeding once a day. Some say the insects should be gone before the end of that day, however I tend to feed enough that there are a few left for the next day. Supplements These are VERY important for keeping dart frogs, I really cannot stress this enough! To this end, I and many other keepers recommend using Repashy Calcium Plus to dust every feed (except for springtails and woodlice). There are lots of products on the market though, and it's your choice, however experienced keepers have found that they get better results with Repashy Calcium Plus, both with their adult frogs, and with offspring produced. Maintaining Humidity The simplest way of doing this is to mist your tank a few times a day with a plant sprayer. Aim to keep the humidity between about 70%, rising to about 100% tops at night. There are also devices that can aid with this, in the form of misting systems and foggers. These however are not cheap, and not really needed for just 1 viv. With more vivs however misting systems really come into their own, and also mean you are not disturbing your frogs as often. Have a look on our forums if you would like to read more about these, and lots of folks on there will happily answer any questions you have.
A False Bottom This takes the form of a piece of what is called egg crate (as used by reef keepers) or a piece of pond filter grid (easier to good and stronger than egg crate) supported on either cut pieces of plastic pipe (needs to be food safe, eg. Waste water pipe) or, far easier to do, plastic food tubs. I prefer to use the food tubs option, as it means you only have to cut your grid to size, and not the 'feet' it is going to rest upon. Once you have siliconed the 'feet' in place, you then place the grid on top of this. Again, don't forget you will either need to put some kind of pipe into place to allow you to syphon out excess water, leave a 'pond' area for the same purpose or drill a drain in the bottom of your viv. Next you need to cut a piece of either weed fabric, hydro fleece or polyester netting so that it is about 2 cms too big in each direction. You then place this on top of the grid (I tend to silicone the edges onto the glass as well), you then put the substrate onto this, thus creating a false floor. The main advantages of a false bottom over a drainage layer are that they are much much lighter, and also that you can fit a small pump under the false bottom (don't forget to make a hatch of some sort so you can get at the pump still) to run a water feature.
Covering The Back and Sides This is the next thing you need to do. I prefer to cover the back and at least 1 side, or to cover both sides as well as the back, as I believe it helps the frogs to feel safer. Some people however only cover the back. Again, you have a number of choices. Cover or paint the outside of the viv If you are keeping 'terrestrial' frogs (eg. Tinctorius) then this might be the option for you. It is by far the simplest, as you literally just either paint the outside of the viv black with some SAFE paint, or cover it with something like an aquarium background, or my fave, black fablon (sticky backed plastic). The advantage of this is that it does NOT take up any of your floor space, the disadvantage however is that it gives you nowhere to attach plants, or for creeping plants or moss to grow up. I sometimes combine this method with another method to offset this disadvantage. Silicone a covering in - This can take the form of cork sheets or pieces, tree fern panels, coco panels, fake rocks or even a structured aquarium background (as I experimented with recently). This is also very easy to do, but unlike the previous method gives you more dimensions to your viv, and also somewhere to attach plants etc. You can also combine this with the previous method, eg. Silicone on pieces of natural cork or fake rocks, but leave spaces between that the outer covering will disguise, giving frogs shelves to hide on etc. The cheapest covering is probably coco panel, however I find this quite ugly. Cork, tree fern etc are more expensive, but can be far more attractive to look at from the very beginning. Construct your own 3D background Some people do this using foams etc etc, however I have never used these methods, so I'm not going to go into them here. I have however used a method known as the gorilla glue method a number of times. There are 2 ways of applying the gorilla glue method, direct to glass or onto polystyrene sheet. Of these 2 methods, I prefer the polystyrene sheet method, however direct to glass is simpler. Direct to glass It's what is says on the tin. You pour a thin layer of Gorilla Glue (the standard, NOT super or wood) onto a horizontal glass surface, then spray this with a bit of water and leave it for about 5-10 minutes whilst it foams up. You then simply push on a substrate of your choice (eg. Tree fern fibers, eco-earth type substrate or even orchid bark) onto this foamed glue, then keep pushing it into the shapes you want.
Planting Again, this is your choice really. However do make sure that the plants you chose don't quickly outgrow the viv, and that they will be ok in high humidity. Again, our sponsors at Dartfrog stock a wide range of plants that are suitable for vivarium use. Remember though, most bromeliads do NOT like been planted in the substrate. Instead either attach these to wood/decor with a bit of moss to retain moisture, or attach them to your background etc. If you want help and advice with this, then just pop on the forum, lots of folks on there happy to help.
Decorating At this point, the choice is pretty much yours. If keeping tincs though I advise keeping things simple, or at least try to make sure wood you use etc provides horizontal surfaces easily reached. Fave materials I have used include Unipac fake rocks, knife stone, aquarium shale, liana wood, Sumatra driftwood, bogwood, redmoor root wood, in fact any aquarium wood really. Possibly best to avoid grape wood as it has a reputation for going mouldy in dart frog vivs. Our sponsors carry a nice range of woods as well. Remember, the aim is to provide hiding places and climbing and perching spots. Some other materials you can use are jungle pods, savu pods etc as sold by our sponsors. If you are keeping tinctorius or other 'terrestrial' frogs then I would also advise you put in a couple of coco huts with a petri dish under them, your frogs will spawn in these, making pulling the eggs much easier. If your first frogs are to be thumbnails (not really the best beginner darts) then I also recommend fastening some 35mm film pots to the back and sides, and a few on the substrate as well (my French Guyana vents lay their eggs in film pots on the substrate at the front of the viv...).
The problem with this method is it can be harder to get the shapes you want. You also HAVE to tip the vivarium so the surface you are working on is completely horizontal, otherwise the glue runs off, and you have to keep it this way for about 2 hours. Polystyrene Sheet Method This method is, in my opinion, superior as 1 you can carve shapes into the polystyrene and 2 you can do the gluing OUTSIDE of your viv, and then simply silicone in the sheet, so no need to tip the viv. You can however, if you wish, silicone the polystyrene into place BEFORE applying the glue, the choice is yours. Carve the shapes you want into the polystyrene, then give it a blast with a heat gun to seal the surface again. (either after you silicone the polystyrene into the viv, or before doing so) Cover the polystyrene thoroughly with gorilla glue, use a brush to get it into all the nooks and crannies.
Spray the glue with water, and leave for 5-10 minutes for it to foam up. Apply your substrate of choice, pushing it into the glue well, keep checking on it for bubbles and pushing it back down. Let it dry for about 2-3 hours before you tip the surface vertical, you can then silicone the sheet into place if you haven't already.
The Substrate/Soil Once you have sorted out your back and sides, it's time to sort out some sort of soil. There are a few options to chose from, including buying a ready made dart frog substrate, clay substrates (not going into these here) or making your own dart frog substrate. My preference is actually to make my own. It is very simple to do, and tends to give the best results. I based my mix on a mix known as ABG Mix which was developed by a zoo in the US. It's made up by first mixing 70% fine orchid bark to 30% tree fern (xaxim) fibers. To this I then add about a handful or 2 of SPHAGNUM peat, a handful of tron up LIVE sphagnum moss, 2 handfuls of crushed torn up dried dead oak leaves and about 10mls of calcium bentonite clay powder. I sometimes also add about 15mls of reptile calcium. I give this all a good mixing, moisten it with some chlorine free water, and then I add in some dwarf woodlice and tropical springtails. These are often referred to as custodian insects, as they will basically clean your viv for you of poop etc, whilst also acting as an extra source of food for the frogs. If you plan on keeping more frogs in the future it is WELL worth making up a 25 litre bucket of this mix, and just keep the insects fed with some fish flakes until you use the substrate. This gives the insects time to multiply nicely. Plants LOVE this mix, and I suspect that the extra calcium in it makes it's way into the frogs via the custodian inverts.