teehee, so many questions! We're like school girls...well dorky frog loving school girls, but you get it!
I love the eco earth, that's why I always choose to open the reptile section when I have a helper. The new girls can clean pee off the hamster cages, I'll play with the slimys.
I was suprized that it acctually covered the bottom, way to expand brick of dirt-like substance! The pan is more of a place holder for now, but i hadn't thought about the metal being harmful, I just figured, it's a cooking pan, if I can eat out of it it should be ok! lol. Maybe not! I'm still toying with materials. As for rocks, I was hoping to boil some lake rocks, rather than shell out for shiny stones or somehting, as they're just going to be covered in moss anyhow. But I may take a trip to the garden center and see what they have. Lots of times there's chippings off of flagstone they sell just laying around. Most of the time free too! Is boiling enough to remove any contaminants? I was thinking of boiling for 2 hours aprox. I was going to also put a nice piece of driftwood in the pool, not just for looks, but I thought it may be more natural and make it easyer for the frogs to enjoy the water fun. I've been thinking of going with native Florida species (or now native, like the Cuban tree frog). I've already got the little carpenter frog, though he's way to small not to be lunch, and guess what! I found a partially morphed tadpole in the common goldfish tank today! Same frog as the former "mystery frog" ! He'll have a buddy soon. Right now he's in a partially filled mini bow 2.5 with water sprite and a chunk of driftwood partially submerged (for when he gets his front leggs). He has back legs, front stumps, and still has a mostly sucker-mouth, though it looks to be widening into the regular frog mouth. Tips on feeding him? the sucker mouth leads me to believe algea eater right now, so the tank is placed to take advantage of sunlight to grow some naturaly for him. Tips welcomed!
I'm jealous of your plants. sigh...it'll be a bit before I can get some going. I'd like to try and find some native Florida marginal plant species, as well as some tropical house plants I keep forgetting to water. I can never remember the type of orchid i have, got it at an orchid show 2 years ago, never bloomed, but keeps growing. It's a small species, and the flowers(if it ever gets any) are supposed to be very small and yellow.
Usually good LFS' don't suffer from chain stores, as the idependant stores can do what they want, where as the chain is controlled by the corporation. It'd be nice to hear the other end of the coin too, if you worked for a private lfs. I was offered a job at my fav lfs, but turned it down (even part time) because I love my chain store so much, plus I can get benefits and the pay is better (plus regular increases!). A coworker of mine took the job, and still works for my chain too, so he gets both worlds. I'm sure I would enjoy the private lfs world, but I'm just really comfortable in a corporation. (probably why I worked for victoria's secret for 4 years! and the funny part is, I get paid more for being at this job 1 year than I ever got paid at VS!) Anyhoo, I could go on forever about how much I love my job, but I think it might be off topic! haha!
croak is just like hte one I heard on the net for carpenter frog, pe-tunk pe-tunk (but very soft and a bit higher than the recording, but he's just a wee thing)
camera is a very frustrating Vivitar purchased 3.5 years ago. I can't get to close to anything or it blurs, and if I'm far enough away not to blur it, the zoom doesn't capture what I want.
I hope your plants take hold for you! You know if they get overgrown I'd be happy to help you out...you know.
