# Maintaining A Vivarium?



## bjmarche (Jun 30, 2005)

Well i'm getting a poison dart frog in maybe a month, and i was told to keep it an a vivarium, a tank with all live plants in it. I was also told, that the bottom of the tank should have an inch or gravel in it, for the water to drain into, then have a divider, then another type of substrate for the plants to grow in. Does anyone know how i would go about cleaning the water out of the gravel? And how often? And do i simply let the frogs waste sit there and decompose or clean that out too? And also, with a tank with so much humidity, wont mold grow? Thanks for your time


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

im not the most experienced keeper of frogs, but i can tell you some points. keeping a tank like this requires maintinence for sure. the water table in the tank is much easier to go bad since the water is less volume than a tank. you want a pump to circulate water so it doesnt become stagnant with waste and bacteria. your frogs will pollute the water yes, and since this environment isnt naturally filtered thats where you come in.
like a tank, you need regular water changes. depending on amount of water and inhabitants in the tank, change it often. be sure to use the right treatment for the type of animal you have. remember that your frogs ingest this water for hydration so no funny chemicals. 
basically, do your homework online. search some amphibian sites (i dont know of any). ive only had a bull frog before, and he had a different set up. figure the type of plants you need, heat, water, obviously you need a gravel bottom for drainage and a good surface. some frogs cant have sandy surfaces since they might ingest sand while eating. i dont know about yours...
again all this information is basic, and i may infact be missing good points someone else knows. 
research my friend. use a search engine and learn all you can. youll do fine, good luck bro


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## furious piranha (Mar 22, 2005)

does this mean u cant touch the frog......good luck wit cleanin the tank hahah


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## bjmarche (Jun 30, 2005)

haha no don't worry i can touch him, unless i have a cut, if he touches that i'm dead in .. less then a minute. And im going to use a soil substrate on the top half, gravel on bottom. How could i change that water tho? And these frogs don't need to drink the water really, you just keep it at 100% humidity and they'll be fine. I just think water changing would be heard, because its under the soil substrate. hmm well thanks for the help


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## Feeder_Phish (Apr 15, 2005)

i dont think they clean it either the plants or the bacteria do it for them


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2005)

I've never kept dendrobates and I've never built a vivarium. Most of the frogs I've kept were either in a terrarium with a water bowl or in a aquarium with a filter.

Some of the people who build vivariums make "false-bottom" vivariums in which the water is separated from the substarte by pastic egg crate and a pourous material.

I posted some webpages that explain this type of construction. For materials, check out Black Jungle terrarium Supply. I buy most of my terrarium stuff from them when I see them at reptile shows.
here's their webpage: http://www.blackjungle.com/

This ite details some of the construction required to build a false-bottom vivarium:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/vivarium/vivarium.html
*
Don't press this link if you have dial-up because it's a huge page: http://www.wildsky.net/vivarium/evivariu.htm


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## bjmarche (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks alot guys, especially Bullsnake. I've got my vivarium underway as we speak, still waiting for the $250 to purchase my froggy, i'll try to gets some pics up when i get him in.


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## Ccoralli (Feb 4, 2005)

bjmarche said:


> haha no don't worry i can touch him, unless i have a cut, if he touches that i'm dead in .. less then a minute. And im going to use a soil substrate on the top half, gravel on bottom. How could i change that water tho? And these frogs don't need to drink the water really, you just keep it at 100% humidity and they'll be fine. I just think water changing would be heard, because its under the soil substrate. hmm well thanks for the help


don't worry, you could eat your frog and wouldn't die from it. dart frogs lose their toxitity (sp) when in captivity. no one knows why but some people think it is because the frog eat a certain type of ant to create the poison.


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