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Ade
Tadpole
United Kingdom
153 Posts |
 Posted - 18/03/2010 : 20:53:52
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Hi folks, new to the forum, and to amphibian keeping, so thought I would post a quick hello.
I'm a 35 year old married father of 4. I am totally new to the hobby, however I have been reading around the hobby for many many years, just lacked the space to be able to set a habitat up. Well we moved to our current home just before Christmas, and have much more space now, so myself and my wife finally got to indulge our desire to give herps a try, and chose to start out with a White's tree frog set up.
At the moment we just have the one frog, but I have 3 more on order (all Australian White's). Current habitat is an 18"x18"x18" Exo Terra glass terrarium, with the option to upgrade to larger at a later date if the need arises.
I entered this hobby via freshwater tropical fish and freshwater invertebrates, a hobby that in the UK I am fairly well known in. I can but hope that I will be as lucky with amphibians as I have been with freshwater shrimp. 
Ade
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Kehhlyr
The Amphibian Administrator
United Kingdom
264 Posts |
Posted - 19/03/2010 : 13:46:51
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Hiya Ade and welcome to the forum.
Whites are great little frogies, especially when they're a little bit bigger and start shouting at the hoover and hair-dryer.  |
-=Kehhlyr - The Resident Loon
SOME OF MY ANIMALS
 
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lewy
The Amphibian Administrator
United Kingdom
1356 Posts |
Posted - 19/03/2010 : 17:56:57
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Hello, Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like your off to a great start, I look forward to pics of you set-up and your frog(s).
Would love to know a little more about fresh water shrimp too, they sound interesting |
Lewy
THE AMPHIBIAN.co.uk Team
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Ade
Tadpole
United Kingdom
153 Posts |
Posted - 19/03/2010 : 19:24:31
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I've posted some pics of some of our other critters [url=http://www.theamphibian.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=432]here[/url]. The shrimp themselves are fairly easy to keep, just a bit more sensitive than tropical fish. You can even get away with just small air driven sponge filters for them when kept on their own as they produce very little waste. Crays are even easier to keep, but require good filtration as they are large messy eaters, similar I would say to an axolotl, with the addition of a pair of quite powerful claws. ;) If you have any questions about them feel free to ask, if you peek at my profile you will find a link to my little shrimp website as well. ;)
Ade
PS. If you like Lewy I can pop you a link to here in my affiliates listing? |
Edited by - Ade on 19/03/2010 19:26:06 |
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Kazerella
The Amphibian Administrator
United Kingdom
969 Posts |
Posted - 22/03/2010 : 18:21:00
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Welcome to the forum Ade - your collection sounds interesting, so link away
White's are great, we've just purchased ourselves two after many months of researching different tree frogs |
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Ade
Tadpole
United Kingdom
153 Posts |
Posted - 23/03/2010 : 09:50:43
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Thanks Kaz.
Yeah, we did a bit of research before buying as well, although I tend to be quite a fast moving person.  I had read around on a lot of websites, and bought a copy of the AVS Popular Treefrogs book, then my wife came back from a trip into town really excited. "They've got a White's treefrog in our LFS (well she didn't say our LFS, but heh... lol), and Vivariums etc, go get the stuff!", which was followed by me grabbing a taxi to dash into down, buying an Exo Terra terrarium, substrate, bark etc, and froggy, and dashing home with it all. Only to get home and realise that the guy in the shop when I asked him to sell me everything I needed had omitted a thermostat, thermometer, hygrometer or even food.  Cue another mad dash, this time to our nearby chain pet store (literally around the corner, I walked there and back) to get these and also some food (no crickets, so he had to make do with mini mealworms, crickets have come now, but now waiting for some tall lidded buckets and dusting powder I ordered to arrive... lol). He's eating 3-4 mini meal worms every 2 to 3 days at the moment, so at least he seems to be eating well.
Anyway, my website. Uhm it's not actually a personal site, so if it breaks any of your unwritten rules please do feel free to edit my post and remove it. You can find it here though, and if you look down the bottom on there (apart from in the forum) you will see I popped your little banner on there. I like small and friendly sites, as over time they grow into larger but still friendly sites. I also like the fact that this one is amphibian specific.
Ade |
Edited by - Ade on 23/03/2010 09:51:44 |
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Kazerella
The Amphibian Administrator
United Kingdom
969 Posts |
Posted - 24/03/2010 : 12:57:49
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Like the site- I would never have thought there would be so many species of shrimp available. Plus I didn't know some were so bright coloured either
We don't mind links as long as they are useful and in context.
It's a shame but a lot of pet shops don't think of stats as being essential, especially for amphibians. It's daft really because not only are they ensuring the frog would have a safer life, but they'd also make more money. It makes no sense for them to be so pants
Great thing about 'phibs is that you can find things in the garden to vary the diet (as long as you know it's a fertilizer-free zone). My toads/frogs and sals love earthworms and woodlice. |
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Ade
Tadpole
United Kingdom
153 Posts |
Posted - 24/03/2010 : 15:11:26
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Coming from an aquatic background (planted tanks and freshwater inverts mainly) I am a bit stats obsessed. Also means I have a fair bit of kit, like an RO (don't use it for the frog, RO water is too devoid of minerals to use on it's own usually, so instead I am using Asda bottled water) system, test kits and a habbit of wanting to know stats and parameters. Also means I have a good idea about lighting for live plants, waiting for some moss and a ficus to arrive and I'll probably have a look what they have in our local B&Q soon, I love live plants.
Thanks for the tip about garden critters. Not sure how organic our garden will be yet, as we moved here just before Christmas. We have however already installed a composter. lol
As to all the varieties of shrimp, the ones described on my site are only a small sample of what you can get. Most of them are the ones that you can actually get in the UK, with a few exceptions like the blue pearl shrimp which you will be pushed to find over here (got mine from Germany). There are lots more available over in Germany, France and Holland. There's all the recently discovered species for the ancient lakes in Sulawesi which are gradually finding their way into the hobby, not described on my site yet as most UK hobbyists who have tried them have failed badly, German hobbyists have had more success though which means that tank bred specimens are slowly becoming available, along with info on how to actually keep them alive.
Seem to me that the amphibian hobby and shrimp hobby are very similar. Both require you to take a bit more care in how you keep your pets, with some species more difficult than others. Both are quite exciting and interesting hobbies with the opportunity to learn a lot. :D Already we are thinking of more vivs for more species, once I have my hand in with the White's I'd love to keep some Vietnamese blue tree frogs as well.
Ade |
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Kazerella
The Amphibian Administrator
United Kingdom
969 Posts |
Posted - 25/03/2010 : 19:53:14
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Those Germans! They seem to have the best hognose snakes and dart frogs too!
Amphibians are really interesting.We got into exotics through keeping snakes, but recently 'phibs have been our major focus.
Lewy says planting up the vivs is the best bit |
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Hi all from rainy Staffordshire
