Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The frog tank
It ain’t all work and cooking and grocery shopping. And video gaming. Now that I don’t spend hours and hours writing, what do you expect me to do with my free time?
I’ve been working on the frog tank.
Here’s the left side:
and here’s the right side:
Discriminating readers will note a distinct lack of frogs in the frog tank. This is true. I’ve become so obsessed with letting the thing grow in that I’ve neglected buying new frogs. (Sadly, our last azureus died in Santa Rosa, thanks to the heat.) As much as I like Dendrobates azureus, I’m thinking of going back to Dendrobates leucomelas. What do you think? (Noisy buggers!)
I wish I could tell you the names of all the plants you’re looking at, but I’ve forgotten many of them. The orchid is Phalaenopsis stuartiana. There’s a Dischidia pectinoides in there, a couple of different begonias, and an artillery plant. That tall potted plant is one of Karen’s chestnut trees. I’ve been jump-starting them in the tank, then moving them outdoors when they get too big. The lush green moss came from my back yard, believe it or not; who would have thought I’d have to move from the Northwest to Bakersfield to find moss that would grow in my frog tank? Although in fairness, I suspect the moss is doing well because I finally popped for full spectrum lights.
Part of me wants to say forget about the frogs. Get something different for a change. I’d go back to chameleons, but they poop like ungulates, and they require a steady drip of fresh water. Real hassle, that. I dunno, maybe something other than a poison dart frog? I wonder how mantises would do in my tank.
Right now, there’s a delightfully broad range of possibilities. Once I make the decision, the wave equation collapses and I have to live with my choice . . . choose a frog, and it’ll be a frog tank once again.
D.
Ocelots!
Wildebeesteses!
Oh, I know… it’s sorta wet. Hippopotamuseses.
Pygmies?
Miniature sloths?
Oompa Loompas!
You two are no help 😉
But we’re amusing, right?
I like your wave equation reference. We had a similar situation with a wire rodent-suitable habitat, rife with possibilities until we collapsed into into a degu house.
Is that a computer’s internal fan??
OH I LIKE the oompa loompa idea! You could probably get 4 or 5 of those little suckers in there.
Miniature house hippos. I hear they are pretty small, and would fit in. Although, I hear they like missing socks and lint. hee hee… long story.
Chris, I’m just shocked you guys managed to find degus. I didn’t think we’d ever see or hear about them again. By the way, never never never let ferrets near your degus. Um. That’s kind of what happened to OUR degus. Ex-degus.
Yes, Lyvvie, it’s a fan, to keep air circulating in the tank. Good for the orchid, especially.
Dean, they would keep us up with their singing.
Rella, I agree, miniature hippos would be way cool. Although if we’re getting to put miniatures in there, why not a miniature gray whale? There is a water feature, after all.
Lots of degus available around here. We got ours from the SPCA, of all places – they had 4 juvenile females (which we took), 3 older females and 3 males. And we have no ferrets, so as long as we keep the raccoons out of the house, the degus should live to a ripe old age.
House hippos would be way cool!
Get a male! These things breed like . . . like degus. And the babies are hella cute. And if you bought yourselves a snake, too, you’d have no population control problems, and you’d be able to sing “Circle of Life” to your assorted HouseApes.
No snakes – Grandma would never set foot in our house again, and we like it when she comes over because she does the laundry. Also, Dean is of the opinion that 4 pets is at least 3 too many, so turning the living room into a breeding colony would not go over well. Personally, I’m all for it, but he’s bigger than I am.