23 Oct 04

Hello everyone,

The recent flurry of activity on FrogNet has prompted me to introduce myself. Actually, re-introduce myself, as I used to be pretty active on this forum a few years ago. Some of you know me, but most of you don't. So here it goes:

I have a background in Marine Science, but am a translator by profession (English and Portuguese). I translate in a lot of different fields, ranging from legal documents and financial statements to technical manuals and scientific papers. When I'm lucky, I'll get something in the field of science requiring lots of research, which I love to do. Unfortunately, for financial reasons I gave up working in science quite a few years ago, but never lost my interest in it and my love for nature. I do consider myself a layman and only voice (or used to voice) my opinion in more practical matters related to dart frog keeping, leaving the "brainy" subjects to more capable people like Brent, Ed, and many others on FrogNet. But I do love to read their e-mails.

I used to keep and breed many types of dart frogs, including several morphs of tinctorius (I bred a whole bunch of powder blues at one point), metallic green auratus, leucomelas, azureus, terribilis, tricolors, lugubris, imitators, and vents. I also used to have a colony of ruby-eyed tree frogs, which I sent to a guy in Oregon but have since lost touch with him. Never did find out if they bred for him. In spite of what my collection used to consist of, my real interest has always been the thumbnail frogs. I'm fascinated by these little frogs. At one point I was quite successful at breeding vents, but only after I stopped pulling out eggs and started leaving them alone.

Anyway, the reason why I got out of the hobby is that in April of last year I went to Brazil and ended up spending 11 months there when I was supposed to spend only 3. When I came back, I had lost all my frogs. I can't really blame the person I left in charge for two reasons: one is that she really isn't a frog person and did not know how to properly care for them, and two and more importantly, is that she's my mom. I knew my collection was going to take a hit when I decided to stay there longer than planned, but when all is said and done, it was my own choice. After I came back, I was quite frustrated with myself and a little reluctant to get back into dart frogs. But a good friend of mine has encouraged me to start again by loaning me a pair of leucs, which I intend to get going and breeding very soon.

I hope I can once again contribute to discussions here on FrogNet, as this forum has given me a lot throughout the years. I also encourage the veterans not to give up on it. FrogNet was one of the main reasons I got involved in and was successful at keeping dart frogs and it would sadden me deeply to see it wither and die.

In any event, I think I'm back for good. I'll try to contribute with what I can, but it might take a while for me to get going again. I've been away from everything frog-related for almost 2 years, so I have forgotten a lot.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the long e-mail. I got a little carried away. :o)

Best regards,

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Fred Armando


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