16 Aug 03
My name is Jon Werner and I am probably one of the newest members of frognet and am an extreme newbie with less than a year experience in keeping darts. I am 31 years old, married to a terrific wife and have a 7 month old son named Logan. I began college as a Biology major but decided to go into education. I now teach fifth grade and have managed to go back to school to finish a Masters degree and I am almost complete with my biology degree as well.
Wanting a biology degree stems from a wide array of interests. I love to largemouth bass fish and have done so for about 20 years. This is a little odd being that I live in western Washington. Most people here fish for trout or salmon and there are not too many bass fishermen. I also have a strong interest in botany. Last winter my wife and I built a greenhouse and we have been gradually filling it. We mainly collect orchids - Pleurothallis and Masdevallias to be specific. I have been interested in Masdevallias for about 7 years and currently our collection consists of about 104 specie of Masdevallia.
My herping interests started when I was very young, finding snakes, alligator lizards and frogs. My interest continued until I focused on chameleons. I have had a pair of Veileds, which I keep in my classroom, quadricornis - my favorite, and C. pfefferi - a stunning montane cham. from Cameroon. All I have bred with regularity. I then focused on Australian dwarf monitors. I built a sizable collection of Red and Yellow Ackies, V. tristis orientalis and V. tristis tristis, and Kimberley Rock monitors. I bred these for close to five years. The last of my eggs hatched three days ago. After meeting Amanda (wife) and having Logan, space and time began to be an issue. Slowly I parted with my collection, saved the money and began to research other possibilities. Amanda and I decided on darts due to their small size and colors. To me their role in tad care has always interested me. Also, there isn't too much vivarium design with monitors unless you want to continuously fix everything due to their digging nature. With our interest in orchids and their requirements, the aspect of viv.
design was more inviting. We visited Todd and Christine to learn some of the ins-and outs
before jumping in. Our first frogs were from Phil Tan - five fantasticus.
We now have about 11 different specie of dendrobates and Epis. - focusing on thumbnails.
John and Jenn, Phil and Todd and Christine have been very helpful to us.
Jon
_______from the notes and contributions of Frognet Patrons_______