24 Aug 03
When I first arrived in Costa Rica, I stayed with a friend who has a Ranario (frog zoo) in Monteverde. He has rather large tanks 3' long, 4' wide, 5' high for many of the frogs (and some larger ones as well. The size I mentioned was used for some D. pumilio, D. auratus, D. granuliferus, all the glass frogs, and others as well. They were feeding the dart frogs crickets that were entirely too large for them to eat, however, as with all tanks they added bananas (which cost less than 2 cents each there) to the tanks. The fruit flies cultured themselves in there and this has worked for them for nearly 2 years. The granuliferus are breeding very well, as are some of the other frogs. They put in new bananas once a week, but it is very cheap and easy to do. The interesting part of what happened to the crickets was observed on the night shows we did. There were ants that hid in the soil and crawled up the tank legs to hunt at night killing the crickets. They thought the frogs
were
eating them for some time before we saw that. We actually had to cement the floor (the whole room is a greenhouse with gravel floors) around the tanks and then seal up the tanks even better. You would think having frogs where they are found naturally would be easy, but they have their own challenges. However, when it was time to set up new tanks, having a few friends come with 3 garbage bags of bromeliads from just down the hill (20 minutes later) sure beats a several hundred dollar bill to Tropiflora or the like. They were amazed what we pay for plants.
Best,
Justin
26 Aug 03
Ed et. al,
There were all sorts of other insects in there. We made some other interesting observations. The D. pumilio and D. granuliferus were both in tanks right next to each other and set up nearly identically. The floor on both was bare. When I first got there, the pumilio were all stacked (about 8) in one plant and refused to move or call. Once we redid the tank, and put leaf litter on the bottom, they were much more active and calling. They seemed to dislike the bare dirt ground. We also added a lot of depth to the tank and different levels for the males to call from. It is my opinion that it is too high in elevation for them to breed (someone can help me on the elevation of Monteverde), but the D. granuliferus were breeding (we have found them higher than D. pumilio. It could also have something to do with the densities of females in the groups as well. An interesting note of the Ranario was the huge problem with red leg in the collection. Every week or so a new frog w as sick with it. The local vet tried his best, but that really was just doing autopsies. I had my dad send enough treatment from That Fish Place for a few bathtubs of water, and we treated it very easily. It is interesting how the most common of things here are very difficult to work with there. They also have no access to pumps to make waterfalls for the tanks. If anyone would like to donate any, let me know (the D. ruficolus-- possibly spelled wrong-- need one before they will breed) and I can give you the address. They do a lot of great conservation work as well at the Ranario on mainly birds for now (3-waddled bell bird mainly) which most proceeds go towards.
Another note about the ants from Ed, there was a lady I met who said the key to keeping her blue jeans D. pumilio was to put chicken bones in the tank. They attract the right specie of ants so the frogs eat them. They have had a few of them in their tank for about 2 years now on this system. Other people that have frog gardens in the country usually cut off pieces of termite mounds (arboreal ones), do the rotting fruit, and some even culture crickets. There is always a good deal of food in the soil though, especially where the termite mounds and rotting fruit are. Also, many places where they have bird feeders (with fruit on the sticks) the flies are also very abundant which attracts frogs, bats, and tons of other things. There's plenty of other stories, but some will have to wait for IAD over a beer. Best, Justin
_______from the notes and contributions of Frognet Patrons_______