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Very nice matty

Glad to see things have come along perfectly. He looks pretty awesome!

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Back in the saddle!

Thanks guys.

Here's the best pic I have gotten of him so far:

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thats a really cool picture matty.
What area does that species come from, like central or south america?

-Vincent

They're found in venezuela and into the surrounding countries a bit.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Great Frogster Matty

And great photos as well.

Sorry I haven't added any comment in a while, but you know I was busy.

Looking really cool, maybe I should remove some water from my tanks and make it something like you have going there

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks LF. I think right now, you'd appreciate how little work this takes. No water changes, no fert schedule. All I do is feed once a day and make another fruit fly culture once a week. I'm afraid to say that this might be easy, especially compared to my reef tank.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

My concern would be the fruit fly culture. I don't think I am ready for breeding something that could be found later eating my food and such

I doubt the wife would appreciate it.

I guess I will have to take a look at the dark side forum to see what is going on with that tank, although my input is usually limited to ooooh and aaaah, LOL.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Don't worry, I haven't updayed it in some time. There's no activity over there. I go to another forum for saltwater related stuff.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty nice job. That looks really great and nice shot of the dart. I'll have to live voraciously through your setup since the wife would never let me set one up.

My Scapes

Thanks tetratech, you can live vicariously off my leuc all you like. Here's some more shots, one a full tank shot.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matt:
Very nice. I'm impressed. I actually committed myself to a pair of yellow imitators which I'll be picking up this weekend. Did that aluminum plant come from the FRI**IN MASSIVE one they have in the greenhouse at TFP? That would be a good source for trimmmings...

That tank screams anubias... petite nana or coffeolia.

Thanks Nate, the two newer plants came from the breeder in Akron. He just clipped some out of his vivs. Nice guy. I haven't, but should, ask the management for some clippings of some of that stuff.

I do have some petite nana in my 50 now. I'm growing it up now. The two bunches came in at the size of a quarter, and have almost doubled in a month. They seem to put out leaves faster than other anubias.

Do you or anyone else know if I have to keep the roots or rhizome submergedon the anubias?

Good luck with your imi's Can't wait for some pics.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Do you or anyone else know if I have to keep the roots or rhizome submergedon the anubias?

I have no idea about that Matty, sorry. I would think that the roots should be sufficient, although some very moist soil should be enough as well (just a guess though).

Nice pictures of frog and tank, what is the white stuff to the right of the frog though? Food?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It's actually dead moss. The calcium and multivitamin powder that I "dust" his flies with burn the heck out of moss I found out, and he's sitting on his "dinner plate" if you will, where I always dump the flies so as little of the dust comes in contact with the moss as possible.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Little update here since Frank said so

I recently got a new plant in. It's called resurrection fern because it can seemingly come back from the dead. I thought this would be a good plant for me. Actually it's great as the largest it gets is about 4-5" and it's also a very humid environment plant. Plus, ferns are shweet and I needed more plants.

So that's all I've added to the tank, other than that the plants, and frog continue to grow nicely. Here's some pics:

FTS first:


The resurrection fern:


My veriagated plant that I still don't know what it is:


And a couple shots of the frog:



In the second you will notice why they call them green toed bumblebee frogs.

K bye

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Nice Matty,

Although I have to say that I begin to doubt that the frog is real. He is always very shiny and sits in the same position.
I am sure you have a plastic frog in there and you just move him around to take the pictures of him.



Looking very nice. A fern that comes back from the dead should be hard to eliminate once one has enough of it. What do you think?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

That's his dinner plate, so no wonder he's always hanging around there. I knew I should have taken a picture of hime climbing the glass. That would put an end to all the naysaying

The resurrection fern is named so because it can deal with short periods of drought by "packing up camp" kind of rolling up all shrivelled and turning brown and what not. Once it gets water again it rolls out and turns green and goes back to work. So it looks like it can be revived from death. It is pretty sturdy too, but I think slow growing. Time will tell on that though. Hopefully it's not too invasive.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi Matt,
I'm amazed at how well the tank is maturing. It's really
nice. BTW... When is the other half of the couple arriving?


Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank!

I'm not sure which half I already have. I wouldn't know what to look for to be honest. I'm sure it will be some time before I'm ready for another.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I love the overall feel of the tank. I know that seems weird but I could almost feel the damp, moist healthy conditions of the tank. That fern is a real beaut and the frog ain't bad either.

My Scapes

Very nice Matty. I know nothing of frogs & what not - but I believe you that he is not plastic. Really I do.

Cheers
TW

and the frog ain't bad either.

For a plastic one, right?

Thanks guys. Good to know someone thinks I'm not faking it . I think the fern is taking pretty well to the viv. Can't wait to see those new leaves roll out.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Here ya go LF. Try tellin' me he's plastic now

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Awesome pictures, Matty!!! That's so cool!

I was a bit skeptical about keeping just the one frog, even though the tank isn't all that big, but the little guy is clearly pretty comfortable and active in the fantastic home you've provided. How do you feed him, I know you started some fly cultures, but how is that going?

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

IT'S ALIVE !!!



Very nice pictures, Matty. I think I would take shots of that little fellow all day long, he/she is for sure a very pretty frogster.

Interestingly, I had the same question in mind than illustrae, so how are the flies doing?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Well again I didn't figure you guys wanted to see the ugly end of the business. But the flies are really easy to keep and breed, and if you are careful, none get loose. The tank is sealed and I use a large funnel into a cup that traps the flies in the cup. They get "dusted" with nutritious powder as a big problem in captivity used to be calcium deficiencies, now isn't a problem anymore.

So I grabbed a couple pictures. Those grossed out by bugs probably won't enjoy this, but they are harmless and contained, so rest easy.

So here they are, the oldest on the left, and the newest on the right. I need to dump the one on the left and make a new one sometime soon. All of these are definitely unnecessary, as one batch is more than enough, but I've heard that "crashes" happen, and one should be prepared with extra flies. So I make one every week. It's cheap and easy, so I don't mind. Each batch maybe costs 25c or so at the very most. I'm not including the cost of the gatorade though I drink that anyways.





Oh, and yes he is most happy in the 10 gallon tank. I can't imagine him finding his food in anything larger as of now. In the future I might put him and another in a 20Long for life.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks Matty for the info, but:

" The tank is sealed and I use a large funnel into a cup that traps the flies in the cup." --- I don't get that part

How do the flies get into the tank if the latter is sealed? Do you break the seal? and what's up with the cup? Does the frog eat them out of a cup? I would imagine they don't stay in that cup for too long.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Yeah I guess that doesn't make a lot of sense without more information. 2/3 of the lid is totally sealed off with silicone. The last third I sealed in silicone, and cut the lid loose from the tank with a razor, leaving the silicone mold on the lid. When in place it is essentially sealed, but I can lift the lid up to dump the flies out of my cup.


The funnel is just useful because it directs the flies into the cup, and while the funnel is on the cup, they can't climb the sides of the cup to get out. Once The flies are dusted and I have arrived at the tank, I lift the lid and dump the flies onto his "dinner plate" the little rock in the middle of the moss where he likes to wait patiently for me to deliver his dinner. Most of the dust lands on the dinner plate and not on the plants, which it would burn. I would guess the high mineral content has a high pH or something.....I'm not sure on that, but the plants don't like it.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Very interesting Matty

In the future I might put him and another in a 20Long for life.

Is that because he will get a lot bigger? How big is he at full maturity. Plus I forget - how old is he now?

Cheers
TW

He will probably still double or less in size. I'd say he's about nickel size up from dime size when I purchased him. I've had him maybe 2 months and he was about a month out of the water when I got him. Still a baby. Plus I wouldn't put two in a 10G tank. Some do and it would be seen as acceptable, but I would personally want to give them a bit more room.

EDIT: Thinking about it, what would an aussie be doing with a nickel? So when I got him he was about 1cm or so, maybe now he's about 1.5ish cm or slightly more. He could eventually get to 3-4 cm I would guess.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I saw an interesting little plant hitchiker today, everyone has seen these guys before I'm sure:



It must have come in on the fern, maybe there's a couple more and could be a free food source for the frog....who knows.

And I got one of the frog...he was standing really weirdly, not sitting with his bum on the ground like normal, dunno what that was about, but I took a pic:

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

everyone has seen these guys before I'm sure

Is it a louse? I have no idea

Nice shot of the frog, maybe the surface is too scratchy for his sensitive bum. Or he has a rash

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It's a rolie-polie, pill bug, or more technically I think it's a terrestrial isopod. Turn up any stone or hunk of wood in the forest and you'll find them.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Ah, a rolie-polie - I would have never guessed as I somehow assumed that the critter in the shot is more or less see-through, only now do I notice that this must be from the light reflection. These guys are a dull gray, right?

Anyway, it is an awesome close-up. What camera and lens was that?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks LF.

Yep they are a dull grey, sometimes brownish for whatever reason. I took it with my A710 IS. No special lens. Same as all my other shots. Pretty good for a $250 P&S huh?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

So, will froggy eat the rolie-polie, pill bug

Cheers
TW

I doubt it would even thinkabout eating the adults, but maybe little ones or larval isopods. I remember him sitting over in the area with the fern for a few days after putting it in the tank. Maybe he was hunting

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients