Dart Frog newbie

[Judy S]

seeking advice on the best species of darts to begin with...have six other tree frogs but want to set up a dedicated viv for the diurnal darts. Also, was told that since I do not have air conditioning in my house (Maryland) that the temps about 80 degrees may kill the darts...any practical suggestions on how to address this issue? Heat can be boosted by the heat pads...but how can I bring down the viv's temperature?? Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

[RecycledAgain]

Temp control really is a necessity with darts. They can deal with temps in the low 80's but it becomes a stresser for the frogs. You also compound the problem with wild temp swings, rapid changes in the temps can do your (especially young) frogs in very quickly. The record heat the north east is a very real problems for some unprepared hobbyist currently.

Dan

[Judy S]

thanks...temps here this summer have been brutal...heat and no rain have killed too many of my expensive and unusual conifers..depressed about that, so am enjoying the landscaping possibilities of paladariums, vivs...but do not want to lose any frogs by overlooking easily addressed things. How can someone be prepared to keep the temps down in a house short of air conditioning??? I have a large Exo to set up for the darts and have plants ready to be cleaned, etc. which I know have the ability to maintain humidity...any ideas? Any suggestiions based on your experience for beginner darts that would be interesting to observe...my other two tanks have nocturnal tree frogs which I enjoy a lot--next to the computer...but wanted some daytime activity...hope you are still online ...I'm getting ready for that first cup of coffee...

[Judy S]

am not used to doing this whole blog thing, so inadvertently my reply to you got put in the new posts area...sorry...and it certainly will be confusing to anyone who reads it without the first post...

[beckdg]

check out this link... Vivarium for A.mavortium.

grius came up with an interesting way to cool the environment as well as not lose any humidity since the air is taken from the cage, cooled and returned right back.

[Judy S]

thanks for the reply...but he's from Sweden and the ads for the systems in his post are not in English...and I don't know Swedish...will have to pursue that on the net...looks expensive though...did I miss something???

[beckdg]

i was referring to the white box on top of his viv. it's basically like a cheap styrofoam cooler with pvc piping plumbed from it to the viv and back. add a pc fan (which he did too) and the frozen water bottles like he did and it shouldn't be too hard to lower temps to acceptable levels.

the misting system is a whole different conversation altogether. for that, i'd personally recommend mist king.

[JimO]

Home Depot sells small AC window units for $100. You could consider a frog room that is temperature controlled. Of course, you'd need to heat the room in the winter.

[Judy S]

Ya know...that looks doable...even for me...how simply elegant a solution...I am now looking for advice on which dart to start with...and how people install the foggers so they don't spit all over the place if you don't use one of the Exo waterfalls...I wanted to use it with either the tree frogs I already have for humidity...or in the large Exo for darts...but I don't want them to drown...that thing spits water all over! Is the only solution..no pun intended...to have the false bottom and be prepared to suck out or pump out from time to time the excess water??? Ideas? That viv was amazing when it was finished...an explanation of what we were supposed to be looking at would've been nice...will watch all the rest of the videos on the same You Tube page. I admitted to being a rookie at all this...so might as well confess that I hadn't read all the pages so didn't know where that darn white box was...stupid, stupid...stupid... Thanks so much

[Judy S]

If I can talk my husband into it, it sure would be the simplest solution, wouldn't it???I'm gonna give him your name and your advice...(he doesn't even know how to turn this thing on...)