Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Frogger
Long-timers here (and folks in Crescent City and Brookings) know I’m a frogger. I keep poison dart frogs. Hmm, I haven’t really talked about that since 2006, so if you didn’t know about the frogs, or you forgot, you’re forgiven.
As I write this, I have Stickam up and running so y’all are welcome to sign on and say hi. Over in another window, I’m perusing Black Jungle for plants and other terrarium gear. You see, I’m revamping the frog tank*. I do minor maintenance (water changes, plant-trimming, furniture-rearranging) every few months, a bigger cleanout about once a year, and a major revamp every few years. We’re overdue for the big revamp.
This time, I want The Perfect Waterfall. I always manage to screw up my water feature, but this time . . .
I started with floral foam bricks. Today, I glued them together (using aquarium silicone) in an irregularly staggered stair-step, and now I’m letting them “cure.” I also went to a retail quarry and begged a few scraps of slate. The idea is to mush everything together with the aid of aquarium silicone and Great Stuff. My tank is already plumbed for the pump. Basically, it’s a huge false bottom setup, but there’s a drainage grommet in the big tank that drains down to a small tank in the aquarium stand. There’s a pump in the small tank which pumps the drained water back up to the big tank through a separate grommet. That’s going to be the source of my waterfall, my No Longer Lameass Waterfall.
I want better plants this time, too — I’m tired of that philodendron (or whatever it is) with the enormous leaves. It took over EVERYTHING. I want my tank to look like this. Wish me luck!
Yes, I’ll take pictures.
D.
*No, I don’t have time for this, but the sight of my beloved frog tank in such disrepair has been weighing on me. And my poor frogs are stuck in little Sta-in-Pets, waiting for me to do my thing. Of course, it’s a good question whether I should transfer them back. The frog tank is in our garage, which during the summer months was an OVEN.
Break a leg!
Hopefully not a frog leg!
What do you feed them? I’m thinking crickets might be too big?
Fruit flies. We used to raise them ourselves, but now we buy cultures from Ed’s Fly Meat.
Oh, fruit flies. At work, we typically have a never-ending supply of them in the summer. And organic pesticides are something of an oxymoron; I think it just means it’s safe for fruit flies and annoying to humans.