The Orange Juice Experiment

In a recent thread on Dendroworld, there was a claim that replacing orange juice with water reduced the smell of Drosophila cultures. I've been testing this and now I have the results.

I can see no difference in the smell of cultures with or without OJ. That is, some cultures smell worse than others, but this doesn't seem to be controlled by juice/water. How wet the culture is seems to be a more important factor. What I do see is that cultures with water rather than OJ produce noticeably fewer flies, so I'm sticking with the original OJ recipe.

A sad day

The patriarch, my oldest dartfrog (shown here with her lifelong partner), has passed away. Peacefully, seemingly of old age. I don't know how old these frogs were as they are the only wild caught dartfrogs I have ever owned, although I received them in 2004 from another keeper, not directly from the wild. If you've ever received any Patricia from me, they were descendants of this frog.

She is succeeded by one of her many granddaughters, but will still be missed.

Hot in here?

The Photobooth app on my shiny new iPad2 (yeah, get over it ;-) has a "Thermal Camera" setting, so I snapped this. I'm not entirely convinced how accurate this is, but it does point to something very interesting - the existence of thermal microclimates within a vivarium.

When your frogs wander around, they're doing more than entertaining themselves, they're regulating their body temperature by seeking out the correct thermal zone. This is one reason why frogs will always be happier in a big vivarium than a small one (in addition to all the other benefits).

As the weather gets warmer - be careful, don't let them overheat!

 

My old friend

 

 

 

 

Just out of the water

Mannophryne triniatis

Another trip down memory lane

I've been fiddling around with old videos recently. I don't own any of these animals any more, but it's good to see old friends:

(Typhlonectes natans, firebellied toads)