Humble 5 Gallon Pico Tank

[Wonderboy]

I used to keep them, too - that sounds pretty dangerous @Tired lol, but pretty funny, too. Darts are for viewing IMO; I would think that bringing them on tours could typically be stressful and risky - maybe especially for breeding stock. You made me smile though  :]

[Tired]

You certainly don't want to go running around with them, but it's easy enough to get them used to a cup. I had to trim their plants (too much pothos) and didn't want to worry about where the invisible hiding frogs were while I had scissors, so I taught them to go into a betta cup, then I'd just put the lid on and set it aside for a little while to trim. They didn't show any stress behaviors- no hunching down trying to hide, no rapid hopping trying to escape, no repeated efforts to jump out. I had tincs, and if you give them flies, tincs do not care what else is happening. I eventually picked up the cup and walked slowly across the room because I thought a novel set of things to look at might be decent enrichment, and they still didn't show any stress behaviors, they just stared around and did the "food?? food!" toe taps. Slowly walk over and set them near the aquarium while I prune, slowly take them back, open the cup and tilt it inside the viv to let 'em out. And the final clue that it wasn't stressing them out- they went back in the cup every time once I'd trained them. 

Darts don't know they aren't poisonous, so a lot of them, if you move slowly and don't try to grab them, are confident enough that can be taught to hop into cups or other containers. I know I met someone who teaches any easily-bullied-at-mealtime ones to go into the frog equivalent of mandarin cafes for dinner, and someone else who teaches bettas to go into cups so they can be set aside during water changes and disturbed less. 

[Wonderboy]

I guess I had too many/too much going on to take that time. Still sounds dangerous; I always have uncaged animals running around here and there. I had opted for slower growing species so that I didn't need to trim often; pothos def grows in the house too quickly for me with almost no light... so I avoid in containers. I guess I prefer not to bother any of my setups very much. I would just trim, or feed, they would just watch. What do you do during maintenance, @Poison Dart Frog? What plants do you prefer? I see some pothos  :]

[Poison Dart Frog]

28 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

I guess I had too many/too much going on to take that time. Still sounds dangerous; I always have uncaged animals running around here and there. I had opted for slower growing species so that I didn't need to trim often; pothos def grows in the house too quickly for me with almost no light... so I avoid in containers. I guess I prefer not to bother any of my setups very much. I would just trim, or feed, they would just watch. What do you do during maintenance, @Poison Dart Frog? What plants do you prefer? I see some pothos  :]

Pothos are just about the easiest so I use those some. Fittonia (nerve plant) is another one that's easy and looks pretty nice. A long time ago I ordered a variety of plants from Josh's Frogs but ever since that one order I've just went to Lowe's when setting up a new vivarium. Wandering Jew is also nice looking and really hardy. The easy ones are really my favorites I think. Also, I remember someone who was knowledgeable telling me that leaf litter was the difference between having healthy frogs or not (since it gives them places to hide quickly and lowers stress) so I always try to replenish the leaves as they break down. 

[Tired]

Java moss grows best if it's right next to an area of water, it needs to stay pretty wet, but can spread far away from the water by wicking it. It's an aquarium moss, but looks great terrestrial. Rabbit's foot fern is often at Lowe's, is easy to grow, will happily climb backgrounds and hardscape, and looks pretty cool. 

 

Ever used bones in any setups? I had a setup that was set around a horse skull, and it looked amazing. Algae grew all over the skull. Plants love to grow on bone. You just have to make sure none of the various holes (braincase, nasal cavity, etc) are open. I filled them with sphagnum. Left the eye sockets open, though, and the frogs liked to sit in those. And there's something nice about the shapes and the various shades of white against everything else. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

2 hours ago, Tired said:

Java moss grows best if it's right next to an area of water, it needs to stay pretty wet, but can spread far away from the water by wicking it. It's an aquarium moss, but looks great terrestrial. Rabbit's foot fern is often at Lowe's, is easy to grow, will happily climb backgrounds and hardscape, and looks pretty cool. 

 

Ever used bones in any setups? I had a setup that was set around a horse skull, and it looked amazing. Algae grew all over the skull. Plants love to grow on bone. You just have to make sure none of the various holes (braincase, nasal cavity, etc) are open. I filled them with sphagnum. Left the eye sockets open, though, and the frogs liked to sit in those. And there's something nice about the shapes and the various shades of white against everything else. 

I have a few different fake skulls in my vivs. Yeah, they are cool. Primate skulls in 2 of them and one looks like some kind of dinosaur skull. I think they go well with the poison part of the poison dart frog themed setups. As if these animals were poisoned by the frogs and died there in the rainforest. Oh yeah, love the rabbit foot's ferns too.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I bought a small gorgonian. It is a nice looking purple color with brown polyps. I also got a small frag of a different type  that has very thick polyps compared to the one I have had for a while. Gorgonians are one of my favorite corals. 

[billygoat]

11 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I bought a small gorgonian. It is a nice looking purple color with brown polyps. I also got a small frag of a different type  that has very thick polyps compared to the one I have had for a while. Gorgonians are one of my favorite corals. 

Beautiful! 😊 I love gorgonians as well. It's cool to collect an assortment of different species and compare the way they look/grow. 

 

The small frag with the big polyps looks like it might be a colony of corky fingers (Briaerum asbestinum), which is an encrusting species that can colonize and kill other gorgonians that it touches. It's very beautiful and can grow quite large, but be careful that it does not come into contact with other gorgs. It could also be a Eunicea, but if it has a lumpy, irregular shape with pale purple or whitish flesh when the polyps are closed it's Briaerum for sure. There shouldn't be anything to worry about unless it falls over on top of another gorg or something, but it's just something to keep in mind. 

 

I like this little pico a lot! Can't wait to see it grow in and mature. 😁

[Poison Dart Frog]

19 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Beautiful! 😊 I love gorgonians as well. It's cool to collect an assortment of different species and compare the way they look/grow. 

 

The small frag with the big polyps looks like it might be a colony of corky fingers (Briaerum asbestinum), which is an encrusting species that can colonize and kill other gorgonians that it touches. It's very beautiful and can grow quite large, but be careful that it does not come into contact with other gorgs. It could also be a Eunicea, but if it has a lumpy, irregular shape with pale purple or whitish flesh when the polyps are closed it's Briaerum for sure. There shouldn't be anything to worry about unless it falls over on top of another gorg or something, but it's just something to keep in mind. 

 

I like this little pico a lot! Can't wait to see it grow in and mature. 😁

It has tan/brown flesh beneath the polyps. And I glued it to the top of a  rock away from everything else (glad I did that now). It took only a few minutes after I glued it for the polyps to come out and they've stayed out ever since. 

 

The LFS also had a red gorgonian but I think maybe that was a non-photosynthetic one. The polyps weren't out on it when I saw it though. I love the red color of it though.

And thanks!

[Poison Dart Frog]

I'm curious if the pink mushrooms are the same Caribbean variety as The Maw @billygoat They have a pretty cool feeding response even with a tiny piece of flake food. 

 

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I'm curious if the pink mushrooms are the same Caribbean variety as The Maw @billygoat They have a pretty cool feeding response even with a tiny piece of flake food. 

 

It's always fun to watch mushrooms feed. I dont think that you have a Maw sadly. BUT rhodactis mushrooms "bounce" pretty well under heavy blues.

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I'm curious if the pink mushrooms are the same Caribbean variety as The Maw @billygoat They have a pretty cool feeding response even with a tiny piece of flake food. 

 

Yeah I agree with @Ratvan; looks like a Rhodactis mushroom to me. These are also robust eaters and can get pretty large under the right conditions, but their feeding response is much slower than the Maw (Discosoma neglecta), which will close in a matter of moments when presented with food. D. neglecta is usually a mix of green and brown rather than pink, and it can be easily distinguished by its distinctive marginal tentacles.

 

Still pretty cool though! Feed these guys regularly and soon you will have more of them than you know what to do with. 😂

[Poison Dart Frog]

I've increased my water changes slightly and have been removing algae each time, so I am finally getting past the ugly stage. This rock was covered in green hair algae and is finally disappearing. Strangely though my nitrates seem to test close to 20 even after a water change. But the corals seem to be looking better than ever especially my little toadstool frag which resisted my attempts to glue it to a rock and has nke attached itself to a little piece of rock rubble. 

 

[Ratvan]

Damn that toadstool is very nice, what are your Phosphates at?

[Poison Dart Frog]

8 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Damn that toadstool is very nice, what are your Phosphates at?

I tested them about a week ago and they showed almost zero (maybe because algae is taking them up?). I will test again when I get my reef test kit back from my GF (we split the cost on the 2 API test kits). 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Can mushrooms stick to glass? One of mine is partway on the glass...

[Tired]

There's a display at my LFS that has some shrooms growing on the glass. I think most corals will attempt it. 

[WV Reefer]

29 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Can mushrooms stick to glass? One of mine is partway on the glass...

Yes they can. Ive seen many tanks with mushroom walls. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

Yes they can. Ive seen many tanks with mushroom walls. 

That would look really nice. I am hoping mine continues to move onto the glass.

 

Also, I ordered one of the magnetic nanorox. I'm wondering what kind of coral would be good for that. It will be mounted probably about halfway up the back glass so it would receive a lot of light. Maybe another kind of mushroom I was thinking, but I guess they prefer lower light... 

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

That would look really nice. I am hoping mine continues to move onto the glass.

 

Also, I ordered one of the magnetic nanorox. I'm wondering what kind of coral would be good for that. It will be mounted probably about halfway up the back glass so it would receive a lot of light. Maybe another kind of mushroom I was thinking, but I guess they prefer lower light... 

I like corals that can spill over the edges. I have some Sunny D’s on one of mine that look nice. 

[Ratvan]

11 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Can mushrooms stick to glass? One of mine is partway on the glass...

Yeah got a load on the bottom of my 5.5g (barebottom)

 

9 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

That would look really nice. I am hoping mine continues to move onto the glass.

 

Also, I ordered one of the magnetic nanorox. I'm wondering what kind of coral would be good for that. It will be mounted probably about halfway up the back glass so it would receive a lot of light. Maybe another kind of mushroom I was thinking, but I guess they prefer lower light... 

Yuma mushrooms are more tolerant of higher lighting if you want to take the all mushroom route. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I feed frozen food once each week. When I do the pom pom crab usually comes out of her cave (otherwise so I only see her after the lights go out). I try to target feed her a Crab Cuisine pellet a couple times a week also. 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

The Pom Pom Crab is still doing well. Also, I've set up another small aquarium in my home office. It's an old acrylic bow front that I've had for years. I think it's about 6 gallons and I bought a small filter and a $30 Aquatop nano reef light for it on amazon. Not sure what I'll put in it yet.

 

 

[Tired]

Pretty cool. And is that a stomatella in front of it? Such long antennae! I'd like a couple like that, where did you get it?