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Published by The British Amphibian Keepers Society July 2012
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Copyright The British Amphibian Keepers Society 2012
Setting Up Your First
Live Planted Vivarium
Published by, and used with
the consent of:­
Setting Up Your First Planted/Dart Frog Vivarium
If there is one thing I have learned since entering the poison dart frog/live planted vivarium
hobby, it's to keep things simple to begin with. By this, I mean avoid going overly complex
with your choice of vivarium, how you cover the back and possibly the sides, how you
plant the vivarium and how you light and heat it.
This guide was originally produced as a guide to setting up a vivarium for poison dart frogs.
However the information contained is equally useful for ANY live planted, bio-active, vivarium.
Choosing a vivarium
I strongly believe that the best size of vivarium you can start with is one that measures at
least 50cm in width, 40cm in depth (front to back) and 40cm high (tip: vivarium sizes are
usually written as Width x depth x hight, so this would be a 50cmx40cmx40cm, most
vivaria bought and sold in the UK will show the measurements in centimetres). These
dimensions give you an ideal size for either a pair of dendrobates tinctorius (this includes
Azureas, also know as the blue poison dart frog), OR a pair of d. leucomelas. It is also a
relatively easy size to furnish and decorate.
I also believe that the best vivaria for poison dart frogs, and live plants, are those made out
of glass. Although these are less effective at keeping in heat, they are waterproof and
easier to fly proof than vivaria made of wood, and cheaper and more widely available than
vivaria made out of other materials (eg. Plastics). Dart frogs require quite high relative
humidity to be maintained, as such been waterproof is of larger importance than been able
to keep in heat. They are also attractive to look at, with nice clean lines.
So far this all sounds very very simple, however there are different types of glass vivarium
(sometimes called a terrarium, but this word actually refers to a plants only enclosure, once
animals are involved it becomes a vivarium). These been the well known branded types
with a screen mesh top (Exo Terra, Zoomed, Komodo etc) and the lesser known European
style vivaria (these are usually made by hobbyists, please contact us for advise regarding
this style of vivarium).
How Should I Clean My Viv?
If you have followed the advice about seeding it with springtails and
woodlice, then the simple answer is, you don't, they do. All that you should
need to do is to clean the glass of algae, a bit of poop if your frogs climbed
your doors... and any water marks. I tend to just use a non-stick pan scourer
and a bit of lemon juice, and then rinse this off with some RO water. Job
done, and I only have to do this about twice a year tops.
I've Read This Guide, What Next?
Go read some more. Read up on the different dart frogs and how to keep
them, read some journals written by actual keepers, maybe even buy
some books. I spent a good 12 months reading up on darts before I even
thought about keeping them. Good preparation makes for less problems
once you start keeping.
If you require more information or advice, please contact us, we will be happy
to help.
Chosing Your First Frogs
I am actually going to tell you to slow down at this point, take your time getting used to
maintaining your viv for a couple of months first, get your routines down pat. Once you
have this, then you can go and buy your frogs.
Now, I am going to say something quite contradictory here, as although this is at the end of
my little article, you SHOULD have chosen your frogs, through researching them etc,
BEFORE you set up your viv. The reason been that you would have set your viv up to suit
your chosen frogs, rather than trying to find frogs to suit your viv. Hopefully you have
read this through completely at the start. Lol
Anyway, there are lots of frogs suggested for beginners to darts. Of them all though, the 2
absolute best groups you can chose from just have to be dendrobates leucomelas (THE
single best beginner dart frog) and dendrobates tinctorius (note, some morphs of these are
too delicate for the beginner however) the best morph of which for a beginner is probably
the good old Azureas. The number one cause of problems with tinctorius and new keepers
however is trying to keep too many of them together. To keep more than 1 female for
example you need a very large viv, with plenty of hiding places, and décor to break eye
line, otherwise they will fight, often to the death. Males are less aggressive, but you still
need a larger viv to keep more than 1. This is why most people advice keeping 1 male with
1 female when keeping tinctorius.
The other thing newbies always ask is “can I keep more than 1 type of frog together, or
keep some lizards with them?”. The best answer to this is, if you need to ask then the
answer is no. You especially should not mix different morphs of tinctorius, or mix
tinctorius, leucomelas or auratus with each other, they ALL belong to the tinctorius
grouping, and WILL hybridise happily, which is really frowned upon. You will come
across people with bad mixes, and they will tell you it's fine, however the majority of
hobbyists will tell you that they look down upon these people, and that often it is more luck
than judgement that they got away with it. You will also find shops mixing frogs etc, and
they will tell you it's fine, their only interest is making money. As I said at the start of this
article, for the beginner it really is best to keep it simple.
Screen mesh topped
These are a good viv to get started with,
been very widely available (we stock a
number of brands of screen meshed vivaria
at good prices).
If keeping animals that need higher
humidity, you can easily cover part of the
mesh top with something like a piece of
acrylic.
This style of vivarium is excellent where you
would like a "pond" or deeper are of water!
European style (aka. ENT viv)
These are very good vivaria,
aimed at those who wish to keep
poison dart frogs for example.
They are designed to maintain
much higher levels of humidity,
but this comes at the cost of
reduced ventilation over mesh
topped vivaria.
If you require more information
about this style of vivarium,
please contact us, we will be
happy to advise.
Drainage
Drainage is VERY important in dart frog vivs, for the simple reason that maintaining high
levels of relative humidity means you will be spraying large volumes of water into your
viv. Without good drainage, your substrate quickly becomes sodden, causing plants to rot
and also sores to form on your frogs.
If you are using a European stylepoison dart frog vivarium, then this is all taken care of for
you, if you get one drilled to take a drain set it's as easy as hooking up a drain set, putting
the hose either into a waste pipe or a collection container which you periodically empty. It
makes things an absolute snap, and saves a lot of time and effort.
If not however, then you have 2 real choices.
A Drainage Layer
This usually takes the form of a
layer of material such as Hydro Leca,
Hydro balls, or sometimes gravel.
Most people use the expanded
clays such as Leca or Hydro
balls though as these are
much lighter than gravel.
You would want a layer of this
at least 2 inches deep, and
don't forget to put some form of
pipe down into this so that you can
syphon out excess water,
leave a pond area or to drill the
base of the viv to allow you
to do the same.
On top of this you then need to
use either some weed fabric,
hydro fleece or polyester netting,
this is to keep your substrate
separate from the drainage layer.
We stock high quality drainage
mesh, please ask for more
information regarding this.
Maintaining Temperature
Poison dart frogs tend to come from places that tend to have little variation in
temperature. To this end, when choosing a frog make sure you read up on the
temperatures it can tolerate. Try to ensure you CAN provide temps from this range in
your home, it's much easier than trying to either cool them or heat them. Most of my
vivs for example are unheated as we have our central heating on a thermostat, keeping
room temps at around 21-22 degrees Celsius in the day, dropping to about 19 degrees at
night. With the lighting on the vivs, this means I get day time temps of around 24
degrees Celsius, dropping to about 20 degrees at night. Some frogs though like slightly
higher temps than this, and for these I use a heat mat on the side of their viv, attached to
a thermostat with the probe on the other side of the glass to the mat. On very hot days
in summer, you may need to use fans, and turn of the lights, in order to stop temps from
climbing too high. I tend to use an infra red thermometer to monitor temps at the floor,
middle and top of my vivs.
Lighting
A topic that so often comes up is
whether dart frogs need UV-B lighting
or not. Traditional thinking is that no, it
is NOT essential. However a short
period of exposure each day can be
beneficial for frogs. However, dart
keepers as a rule rely on supplements to
maintain levels ofVitamin D complex
in their frogs (and also the very very
important vitamin A). It's up to you
whether you use UV-B lighting or not.
For plants, and looks, I prefer to use
lights that give off “daylight”, that been
light that is roughly between 5,000
kelvin and 7,000 kelvin.
You can use T8s, T5HOs (HE's are only as powrful as T8s), energy saving compacts,
PLL/Dulux, or even LEDs for this purpose. So long as you provide enough light for the
plants to grow. Don't forget to use reflectors though, else you waste a lot of the light
produced.
I tend to like to use T5HOs, usually 2 tubes+reflectors. For example over a 50x40x40 or
60x40x40 I would use 2 24 watt T5HO tubes with reflectors, usually opting for 865 tubes
and a Narva Biovital. Most of my vivs are on shelves with other vivs though, so I often
use longer and more powerful tubes over them all, sharing them.
NB. DO NOT PLACE TUBES DIRECTLY ONTO, OR VERY CLOSE TO, THE TOP GLASS OF A VIV! This can cause
cracking to occur due to the heat from the tube. You may see images of my vivs with lighting placed on top, but I use large
reflectors that keep the tubes a distance away from the actual glass.
We stock a wide range of lighting to suit your needs.
Feeding
You might be wondering why I am talking about
foods here, before talking about frogs. The
simple reason is, it's best to get your live
culturing sorted BEFORE you even think about
buying frogs. Some of the best foods you can
culture for dart frogs include flightless fruit flies,
wingless fruit flies, bean weevils, grain weevils,
springtails and dwarf woodlice. Again, there are
a number of discussions on the forum on how to
culture these, and our sponsors sell fruit flies and
weevils. Get this right before you get your
frogs, and you will find the hobby far easier.
Most adult frogs only need feeding every 2 to 3
days, younger frogs may however need feeding
once a day. Some say the insects should be gone
before the end of that day, however I tend to
feed enough that there are a few left for the next
day.
Supplements
These are VERY important for keeping dart
frogs, I really cannot stress this enough! To this
end, I and many other keepers recommend using
Repashy Calcium Plus to dust every feed (except
for springtails and woodlice). There are lots of
products on the market though, and it's your
choice, however experienced keepers have
found that they get better results with Repashy
Calcium Plus, both with their adult frogs, and
with offspring produced.
Maintaining Humidity
The simplest way of doing this is to mist your tank a few times a day with a plant
sprayer. Aim to keep the humidity between about 70%, rising to about 100% tops at
night.
There are also devices that can aid with this, in the form of misting systems and
foggers. These however are not cheap, and not really needed for just 1 viv. With more
vivs however misting systems really come into their own, and also mean you are not
disturbing your frogs as often. Have a look on our forums if you would like to read
more about these, and lots of folks on there will happily answer any questions you have.
A False Bottom
This takes the form of a piece of what is called egg
crate (as used by reef keepers) or a piece of pond
filter grid (easier to good and stronger than egg
crate) supported on either cut pieces of plastic pipe
(needs to be food safe, eg. Waste water pipe) or, far
easier to do, plastic food tubs. I prefer to use the
food tubs option, as it means you only have to cut
your grid to size, and not the 'feet' it is going to rest
upon.
Once you have siliconed the 'feet' in place, you
then place the grid on top of this. Again, don't
forget you will either need to put some kind of pipe
into place to allow you to syphon out excess water,
leave a 'pond' area for the same purpose or drill a
drain in the bottom of your viv.
Next you need to cut a piece of either weed fabric,
hydro fleece or polyester netting so that it is about 2
cms too big in each direction. You then place this
on top of the grid (I tend to silicone the edges onto
the glass as well), you then put the substrate onto
this, thus creating a false floor.
The main advantages of a false bottom over a
drainage layer are that they are much much lighter,
and also that you can fit a small pump under the
false bottom (don't forget to make a hatch of some
sort so you can get at the pump still) to run a water
feature.
Covering The Back and Sides
This is the next thing you need to do. I prefer to cover the back and at least 1 side, or to
cover both sides as well as the back, as I believe it helps the frogs to feel safer. Some
people however only cover the back. Again, you have a number of choices.
Cover or paint the outside of the viv – If you are keeping 'terrestrial' frogs (eg. Tinctorius)
then this might be the option for you. It is by far the simplest, as you literally just either
paint the outside of the viv black with some SAFE paint, or cover it with something like an
aquarium background, or my fave, black fablon (sticky backed plastic). The advantage of
this is that it does NOT take up any of your floor space, the disadvantage however is that it
gives you nowhere to attach plants, or for creeping plants or moss to grow up. I sometimes
combine this method with another method to offset this disadvantage.
Silicone a covering in - This can take the form of cork sheets or pieces, tree fern panels,
coco panels, fake rocks or even a structured aquarium background (as I experimented with
recently). This is also very easy to do, but unlike the previous method gives you more
dimensions to your viv, and also somewhere to attach plants etc. You can also combine this
with the previous method, eg. Silicone on pieces of natural cork or fake rocks, but leave
spaces between that the outer covering will disguise, giving frogs shelves to hide on etc.
The cheapest covering is probably coco panel, however I find this quite ugly. Cork, tree
fern etc are more expensive, but can be far more attractive to look at from the very
beginning.
Construct your own 3D background – Some people do this using foams etc etc, however I
have never used these methods, so I'm not going to go into them here. I have however used
a method known as the gorilla glue method a number of times.
There are 2 ways of applying the gorilla glue method, direct to glass or onto polystyrene
sheet. Of these 2 methods, I prefer the polystyrene sheet method, however direct to glass is
simpler.
Direct to glass
It's what is says on the tin. You pour a thin layer
of Gorilla Glue (the standard, NOT super or
wood) onto a horizontal glass surface, then spray
this with a bit of water and leave it for about 5-10
minutes whilst it foams up.
You then simply push on a substrate of your choice
(eg. Tree fern fibers, eco-earth type substrate or even
orchid bark) onto this foamed glue, then keep pushing
it into the shapes you want.
Planting
Again, this is your choice really. However do make sure that the plants you chose don't
quickly outgrow the viv, and that they will be ok in high humidity. Again, our sponsors at
Dartfrog stock a wide range of plants that are suitable for vivarium use.
Remember though, most bromeliads do NOT like been planted in the substrate. Instead
either attach these to wood/decor with a bit of moss to retain moisture, or attach them to
your background etc. If you want help and advice with this, then just pop on the forum,
lots of folks on there happy to help.
Decorating
At this point, the choice is pretty much yours. If
keeping tincs though I advise keeping things simple,
or at least try to make sure wood you use etc
provides horizontal surfaces easily reached. Fave
materials I have used include Unipac fake rocks,
knife stone, aquarium shale, liana wood, Sumatra
driftwood, bogwood, redmoor root wood, in fact
any aquarium wood really. Possibly best to avoid
grape wood as it has a reputation for going mouldy
in dart frog vivs. Our sponsors carry a nice range of
woods as well. Remember, the aim is to provide
hiding places and climbing and perching spots.
Some other materials you can use are jungle pods,
savu pods etc as sold by our sponsors. If you are
keeping tinctorius or other 'terrestrial' frogs then I
would also advise you put in a couple of coco huts
with a petri dish under them, your frogs will spawn in
these, making pulling the eggs much easier. If your
first frogs are to be thumbnails (not really the best
beginner darts) then I also recommend fastening some
35mm film pots to the back and sides, and a few on
the substrate as well (my French Guyana vents lay
their eggs in film pots on the substrate at the front of
the viv...).
The problem with this method is it can be harder to get the shapes you want. You also
HAVE to tip the vivarium so the surface you are working on is completely horizontal,
otherwise the glue runs off, and you have to keep it this way for about 2 hours.
Polystyrene Sheet Method
This method is, in my opinion, superior as 1 you can carve shapes into the polystyrene and
2 you can do the gluing OUTSIDE of your viv, and then simply silicone in the sheet, so no
need to tip the viv. You can however, if you wish, silicone the polystyrene into place
BEFORE applying the glue, the choice is yours.
Carve the shapes you want
into the polystyrene, then give
it a blast with a heat gun to
seal the surface again.
(either after you silicone the
polystyrene into the viv, or
before doing so) Cover the
polystyrene thoroughly with
gorilla glue, use a brush to get it
into all the nooks and crannies.
Spray the glue with water, and leave
for 5-10 minutes for it to foam up.
Apply your substrate of choice,
pushing it into the glue well,
keep checking on it for bubbles
and pushing it back down.
Let it dry for about 2-3 hours
before you tip the surface
vertical, you can then silicone
the sheet into place if you
haven't already.
The Substrate/Soil
Once you have sorted out your back and sides, it's time to sort out some sort of soil.
There are a few options to chose from, including buying a ready made dart frog
substrate, clay substrates (not going into these here) or making your own dart frog
substrate.
My preference is actually to make my own. It is very simple to do, and tends to give
the best results. I based my mix on a mix known as “ABG Mix” which was
developed by a zoo in the US. It's made up by first mixing 70% fine orchid bark to
30% tree fern (xaxim) fibers. To this I then add about a handful or 2 of
SPHAGNUM peat, a handful of tron up LIVE sphagnum moss, 2 handfuls of
crushed torn up dried dead oak leaves and about 10mls of calcium bentonite clay
powder. I sometimes also add about 15mls of reptile calcium.
I give this all a good mixing, moisten it with some chlorine free water, and then I add
in some dwarf woodlice and tropical springtails. These are often referred to as
custodian insects, as they will basically clean your viv for you of poop etc, whilst
also acting as an extra source of food for the frogs. If you plan on keeping more
frogs in the future it is WELL worth making up a 25 litre bucket of this mix, and just
keep the insects fed with some fish flakes until you use the substrate. This gives the
insects time to multiply nicely.
Plants LOVE this mix, and I suspect that
the extra calcium in it makes it's way into
the frogs via the custodian inverts.