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Watch My Frogs

 

Page opened on Fri, 22 Sep 2023 18:11 in New York State in the USA, where the frogs live.

Due to a recent unplanned move and a lack of adequate Internet bandwidth and throughput at the new location to support a 24/7 video feed at this time, this site is using cached video for the time being. I recorded a few days of day and night video before the move and time-coded it to simulate the live feed so visitors would have something to watch until I can get the live feed up and running again. This being a very rural area, I can't make any predictions as to when that will be.

If the picture is dark, then it's "night time" for the frogs, which means that their day light is turned off and the night light is on. The tank lights are controlled by an aquarium timer and are on a 12-hour cycle. The day lights are on from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. New York time (GMT-5).

Other residents of the tank include a handful of ghost shrimp. They're in there mainly to pick up any of the leftovers that the frogs leave. I consider them the janitorial crew. Some of them do get eaten by the frogs, so it's high-risk janitorial work.

The habitat equipment is as follows:

Tank capacity: 10 gallons. The tank and hood were actually the ones that came with an Aqua Culture 10-gallon Aquarium Starter Kit that I had sitting around unopened and that I decided to use for a special dedicated frog tank for this site. The only parts I used were the tank and the hood. I don't like internal filters for frog tanks.

Hood and Day Lighting: I'm using the Perfecto Tetra Aquarium Hood with built-in LED lighting that came with the kit mentioned above. I like LEDs because they use almost no electricity. I did have to make covers for the filter cutout and feeding holes in the hood, however, because frogs will jump out of the tank if given the chance.

Night Lighting: I'm using a Mingdak Blue LED Aquarium Light. Whether or not to use a night light is up to you. The frogs don't care. I'm using it more because the camera needs it than for any other reason.

Light Timer / Power Strip: Coralife 05152 Digital Power Center. This timer has daytime, night time, and always-on outlets. It controls all of the tank's electric accesories.

Heater: This habitat uses a 100-watt Tetra HT Submersible Aquarium Heater. That's more than enough for a 10-gallon tank in a heated room.

Air Pump: Just a generic aquarium air pump that I had. There's not a whole lot of difference in air pumps. Just get one rated for the size of your tank or larger.

Filter: This habitat is using Marineland-ML90749-Magniflow-Canister-Filter. It has generous media trays, a good flow rate for an ADF tank of this size, and is well-made. Another good filter for an African dwarf frog habitat would include the Zoo Med Nano Canister Filter of the appropriate size for your tank.

Filter Media: Seachem Matrix, bio-balls, and the filter sponges included with the filter. I also used some ceramic rings borrowed from the filter of an established tank to jump-start the cycling process.

Plants: One dwarf Anubias (Anubias nana), one Marimo ball, and one hornwort.

Sound / Vibration Dampening: I have two layers of Reflectix between the tank and the stand to dampen vibrations from people walking in the room and the hum of the filters and pumps for all the aquatic tanks in my office. It's basically metallized bubble wrap. You could also use something like styrofoam or carpet padding.

This feed uses HTML5 and should work on any recent browser, including mobile browsers. If it doesn't work on your device, please send me an e-mail at

 

An African dwarf frog swimming in an aquarium and facing the camera. Two African dwarf frogs eating food pellets on the gravel floor of an aquarium Three African dwarf frogs loitering near an aquarium heater as if they are warming themselves. African dwarf frog swimming in a mass of bubbles in an aquarium. African dwarf frog with its head peeking out from an aquarium air stone. A hand holding an aquarium water testing reagent strip. African dwarf frog loitering near the intake screen of an aquarium filter. Three African dwarf frogs loitering behind a Go Pro action camera submerged in an aquarium.

The gray-bearded author outdoors with a small wild bird on his shoulder and a Buy Me a Coffee tip link
buymeacoffee.com/rjmweb