Frog Cube

In the process of learning google sketch, I thought I’d take a break from my slanted cube, and focus on the elongated cube, call a vertical tank by many. I personally believe while an slanted cube has it’s own aesthetics to consider, the requirements for an elongated cube are entirely different.

Consider for example that a standard 10 gallon tank is 20″x12″x10.” These numbers are not based not on a perfect aesthetic, but cutting a standard pane of glass with little waste. I however, want to use the golden ratio. Which really comes down to spacing object using a mathematical formula of about 1.61803399.

So in this example you see, since I have 20″x20″x1/8″ panes of glass (which I need to run out and snag more of), placing one pane on the top and bottom gives me a total height of 20.25″. Using the golden ratio, I can determine by width needs to be about 12.5″. I chose to make this be the same on all sides, thus making it an elongated square. The total volume then become 13 gallons.

In the visual, since I couldn’t continue the golden ratio into the opening of the tank, chose to use a square. However, in retrospect, I’m wondering if I should make space for lighting. Adding an ABS top that adds 2-1/8″ would also require a change to the width. With a total height then of 22.375″, the width should then be 13.83″. Alternatively, I could just make it an even 14″, and increase the height of the light to about 2.4″. Oh the fun that is math!

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These are Bromeliads. I believe they are Neoregelia ‘Zoe.’ I get a big pitcher of them for about $35 from the store down the street. I’ve been meaning to get Neoregelia ‘Fireball’ for about two or three times the cost, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Right now I’m thinking about trying to grow a ton of these outside the house in a system where I could attach misters to keep them humid enough to do okay. At least that’s the plan. Not sure how well it will succeed. The ones above are sitting on some driftwood in a tank at my office. The skylight above provides enough light to keep them happy.

As I started in a different, I’m hesitant to continue adding broms to tanks. The frogs love them and use them for hiding and lounging and laying eggs and dropping tadpoles. But the last part makes my life difficult, because getting a tadpole out of a brom is a pain. However, after thinking about this for a while, I realized I don’t plan on removing tads in the future. So why not let the froggies enjoy the broms. Well two reasons. 1) Of all the plants in the tank, these need the most light. So you can’t have these in a tank with low light conditions. 2) They are the only big plants that are mounted to the sides of the tank, and tend to grow with pups and block all the other light from reaching the bottom. So something to consider.

If you do decide to use broms, I do suggest at least a 1000 lux light. if your broms are near the top of the tank, a 13w CFL will do. But if they block the light for the broms below, those broms at the bottom will dies. Before planting I highly suggest disinfecting all plants. Otherwise you’ll get slugs and snails and all sorts of thing you don’t want in your tank. I have that problem right now and am working on a solution to resolve it (called dry ice for half an hour to remove oxygen). To disinfect, soak the broms in soapy bleach water.  Take a 5 gal bucket. Add two gallons of water, a few tablespoons of Lemon Fresh Joy, and maybe 12 oz. of plain Chlorox bleach.  Soak them for around 15 minutes, then rinse those guys good in fresh water. You don’t want any soap or bleach left on the brom. Give them a day to relax before planting them.

Posted in Vivarium

I believe this is the male Tarapoto of this particular vivarium. One of my first offspring from last year. While I have been told I overpaid for his parents, they did produce quite a few eggs until very recently, when I thought adding more coco fiber to their vivarium might be a good idea. It wasn’t. I’m hoping this little guy’s mate will be ready to lay eggs soon, with more progeny forthcoming.

At the moment while my Tarapoto are slowing down in their breeding, The Varadero and Yuri are speeding up. So much so I’m sure to have over 10 of each, assuming they make it as juveniles. Only time will tell.

So I thought I’d take some time to reflect on my imitator dart frog experiences over the last year and a half. This is what I know:

1. FRUIT FLIES: Wingless fruit flies are better than flightless fruit flies. And never mix them together unless you want to give flight to the flightless. Good fruit fly nutrition will trickle down to the frogs. So vitamins for everyone! And always make sure you culture enough fruit flies! Put a nice group of 30 or so fruit flies in a 32 ounce deli cup. Make two cups, twice a week. And the tops designed with vents do make things easier in the long run.
2. SPRINGTAILS: Seed your tanks with them, and as long as you have ample food they will never go away. Great alternative for dinner.
3. FEEDING: Keep a slice of banana around to keep the fruit flies from wanting to wander. It also makes a nice feeding area. Dust the fruit flies with vitamins before tossing the on the bananas, Or pump some into the misting system.

More later.

Posted in Dart Frogs

Sometimes it’s hard to visualize my designs, so it’s great to put them down on the computer so I can see how three-dimensional objects connect. In this case, someone suggested that free 20″x20″x1/8″ should be put together without cutting. Sure, the front would need to be cut with a way to get into the tank, but the other five sides could be slapped together with silicone. I wasn’t sure how this would play out, but looking at this photo I can see how the top and bottom lip on the front would stick out. My main concern is that the top glass has nothing but silicone to keep it from falling. The again, if the bottom can handle all the weight, so should the top.

Eh, I’m just going to cut things down with a glass cutter. It’s not that hard. In fact there a 20″x20″ tile and glass cutter on sale with shipping for $35 online.

Posted in Vivarium

Every now and then I’ll see a little Varadero hoping around with a tadpole on his back and think, “When the hell did this happen? Why wasn’t I notified!” A few weeks ago I went into his tank and found eggs, then about 5 tads all in different locations. Today I can’t seem to find any eggs or other tads in the tank. I don’t even know how this little one showed up. I think the proud father has had the tad on his back for a couple days. Now, after dropping an water filled canister in the tank, the transaction is complete and I have successfully removed said tadpole and placed him with the other tads.

At least this time the male ran around the tank and let me know a tad existed. As you can see he even let me pick him up and show him off to the camera. The problem is generally he’ll find a bromeliad fulled with water from the mister to drop the tadpole in. Then I’ll have to take the bromeliad out, often destroying the root structure in the process, and then find a way to get the tadpole to leave it’s nest in exchange for a plastic cup with a little java moss inside. Some trade!

This is why most experienced froggers prefer keeping a ton of film canisters stuck to the walls inside the tank with suction cups. So the dart frogs can lay eggs and even drop tadpoles in a place that’s easy to access and replace. My problem is that is just make the tank look bad. Eh, I hate compromises. Maybe I should just buy some fake plastic bromeliads. That or just leave the tads in the tank for the parents to raise.

Posted in Dart Frogs

While R. imitators have always been my focus, I do have one tank with a couple Leucs which never breed! It’s so annoying since I really would love for little tads to appear in the water to see how my leucs work out in the long term. Maybe I need to buy more. Who knows.

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I don’t generally spend quite a bit of time concerning myself with the eggs, tads, and new morphs. I’ve been thinking I aught to record the process, but I haven’t yet built the automated system to do so. Building is usually my gig, but I do get pleasure in seeing new frogs come to be. It let’s me know I’ve done something right.

Inside this film canister you can see three eggs just starting to become tadpoles. I’ll put them in the water maybe next week. Below them there are two more in that canister, making it a total of five.  These tads come from my paid of Yuri. I’ve been slow to breed them, but now I have 2 morphing and 3 more tads in the water. If these five make it into the water, I’ll have a total of 10 offspring from my two Yuri who were doing nothing for a very long time. I’m pretty psyched.

I’m really enjoying the lines and yellow with Yuri. I have a nice pair from different parents. At the start the offspring were getting SLS. But it looks like the parents have figured out all the kinks and now the eggs are finally getting fertilized and becoming tadpoles that properly morph. That is, depending on how this one does. I have high hopes for him and his brother.

I was a little worried about this pair, so it’s nice to see that everything is resolved. I’ve been really worried these Yuri would never breed properly. As it is now, the male yuri’s brother is still waiting for a female to come around.

Posted in Dart Frogs

If you don’t know what craigslist is you may just be living under a rock. While there are many uses, such as finding some locals to play Halo with on the weekend, it’s also a great tool for finding other people’s crap at ridiculous prices. I usually just post stuff under the free section. Within an hour whatever I post is off my front lawn and in someone’s pickup truck. Sweet.

Every now and then you find a sweet gem. Like these 15 x 15 x 36 Black Lucite Pedestals that appear online about a half hour after I left work. With any luck I can pick them up tomorrow. Perfect for displaying my slanted cubes. And any plants my wife feels needs to be raised far above where my son can reach.

Use it! I’m lucky to be in the Bay Area where the company is located. People use it here more than garage sales. Those in my home of Detroit are not so lucky. Bummer.

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I love being on the bleeding edge of technology! There’s just so much you can do with stuff once it becomes commercially available. Take the SDK for the xbox kinect. Brilliant! Okay, so I don’t personally have much use for it right now, but its usefulness doesn’t relate to this hobby. 3D printers do. Oh yeah. Have you seen the Solidoodle for $499?

Not sure if I want to build with ABS or PLA. Really depends on what is best for the frogs. But I can totally imagine constructing backgrounds that have planter areas, hiding spots for dart frogs to sleep or lay eggs, removable areas if they do lay eggs, and a ton of branches to make the space more useful for mobility.

As I was envisioning this, I assumed I’d need to coat a layer of coco fiber on it. But what if you could build everything out of wood? Apparently you’d be a 3D power-based printer using inkjet technology.

Okay, it’s still being developed, but look at the potential to make things out of wood flour!

http://open3dp.me.washington.edu/2011/04/woodnt-you-know-it-3dp-in-wood/

I guess I’m going to have to wait for that one. But I see some great potential in the future. Until then I think I’ll look into this Solidoodle using PLA. I hear it can stick to acrylic very easily and is made from corn starch.

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