# General Topics > Member of the Month >  MOTW - Aug 5 - Aug 11 2012 - Welseybrouwer

## Jen

Congratulations to this weeks Member of the Week  -   Welseybrouwer!

Looking forward to learning more about you!

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## wesleybrouwer

As you might guess by my FF name, my real name is Wesley Brouwer, 28 years at the moment. 
Since i live on the other side of the pond, the Netherlands to be precise, this MOW might look out of order at some point.
At the moment it's Sunday 23:00  :Wink: 

In day to day live i work in marketing at the moment, selling investments in both private and business sector.
When necessary i also work in the family business as a carpenter, which i originally studied for.
Besides my job i try putting in as much time as possible in our Dutch frog society, Dendrobatidae Netherlands.
I'm occupied with the English version we first launched in 2010.
I wrote some articles and translate them between Dutch and English.
Obviously i am no native speaker of the English language, so bare with me if i make any mistakes.
Before publication i always let some native speakers read and correct my mistakes, great way to learn the language i guess  :Smile: 

When i was a little kid i kept all kind of pets.
From birds to fish.
I guess my love for frogs started out with my fish hobby.
My favorite family are Cichlids, which i also bred for quit some years.
I was always looking at the frogs that the local petshop had for sale sometimes while getting fish supplies or selling some offspring.
My parents however didn't allow me to get them due to the feeding requirements of fruitflies and other small stuff.
After a while i put up 2 small tanks under my bed and traded me some in secrete.
One contained a trio of golden mantella, the others held fire belly toads.
Sadly enough after some time they found out about it because of a couple of crickets that managed to escape.
You might guess what happened after that......

After i moved out, ofcourse i started my frog hobby.
That was around 7 years ago.
Over time i got a wide variety of species, of which most of them i've bred at least once.
At first i only kept and bred tree frogs, untill i came across someone keeping poison dart frogs.
He wanted to buy some reed frogs from me, i ended up trading H.riggenbachi for a couple D.azureus and trio D.leucomelas.
After that my love for the poison darts was born.

At the moment however, my hobby, time for forums and my work for DN has been put on a lower level due to the birth of my son, Dayen Milan Brouwer.
I decided to give up part of my collection since i noticed having far to less time being able to keep up maintaining all 30 tanks.
The only breeding going on right now is by the egg feeders. (O.pumilio)
For the tree frogs and mantella i simply can't find the time to properly cycle them to breed,
but hopefully that will change again once the little one grew a bit.
He now is around 8 months and a real tie  :Smile: 
How sad i felt about shrinking down over half of my collection, he surely is worth every minute of my time.

Another hobby besides animals and my son i love is photography.
Since 3 years or so i started appreciating it more and more.
I didn't bother photographing anything.
But now i got better at it, i'ts getting more and more fun.
Especially since it's combining great with the other hobbies.
Now i find it harsh that i never captured all species i kept in the past,
only those i kept over the last 2,5 - 3 years.
It's great being able to look back at breeding successes etc.
And looking at how fast Dayen is growing, taking as much pictures as possible is just prizeless.
I will show you some of my pictures at the appropriate day for it  :Wink:

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## Jen

Wow - you through us for a loop!   We will count this as your Monday post.    On Tuesday we will continue ahead with all the info about your frogs  :Big Grin:

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## Heather

It's great to hear more about you. 

Congrats on your son  :Smile: . They sure change our lives in an amazing way. Enjoy every moment  :Smile: . 

Your photographs are beautiful! I always love seeing them in the monthly contests. I can't wait to see more.

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## Faith

Congrats, loved hearing about you and your life  :Smile:  And double congrats on your son. I have two (they are actually the reason we held off on raising frogs.) Now that they are getting up better in age, we're going to start out small and include them in with it. Should be an adventure for sure. Look forward to seeing you around!

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## Jen

*Tuesday*, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

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## Colleen/Jerrod

Nice to see the man behind the awesome Photos revealed. Great to hear more about your life.

I like your sons name!!

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## Namio

Congratulations, Wesley! Maybe you can find a helper with your collection? A relative or a close friend with the same hobby perhaps. Having a kid is no easy task. I'm sure if I had a newborn my pet collections wouldn't mean much in comparison. I wish your son health and happiness. May your collection prosper once again when you have the time!

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## wesleybrouwer

@Heather
Thank you, can't agree more about that.
I knew on forehand things would change, but it truely has a big impact on you're way of life,
but it's worth the time and effort  :Smile: 

Thanks for the compliment on my photographs as well. I'll pick some nice once for the Wednesday  :Wink: 


@Faith
Thank you as well.
Guess it would be nice if you're kids share you're interests.
I sure hope mine will be interested in amphibians/reptiles as well,
we still need enthousiast for the future generations to come  :Wink: 

@Colleen/Jerrod
Thank you for the amazing compliment.
Glad you like Dayen's name  :Wink: 
It was terrible finding a name we both liked, glad we didn't have to choose names for a twin  :Wink: 

@Namio
Sadly enough no relatives that can help me out on that.
Since the birth of my son i noticed how much work i had,
upkeeping 30 tanks and then the offspring that are seperated as well.
Now i cut in my collection, i still need about 2 hours when i'm upstairs in the hobby room.
Setting up fruitflies etc. not calculated.
Normally in weekends i spend most of my time and in the evening after work.
But with the care for the little one i just can't spend that much time,
don't even wan't to by the way.
Glad when i'm home from work i can spend some time with him instead.
Guess in time i'll expand again, hopefully frogs will be available in some years from now as well  :Wink:

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## wesleybrouwer

> *Tuesday*, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!


I think i told to much on day 1  :Smile: 
Like i said, i think it started out from my fish hobby.
Always had a love for animals tho.
I was raised with lots of animals.
At home we had dogs, cats, a horse, goats, rabbits, chickens and fish when i was little.
We lived in a home with a large piece of ground (in Dutch point of view that is  :Wink:  ) so we had all the space for them.
In the yard i was always looking for frogs around the pool and dike in the back.
My grandpa always had aquaria as well, especially the salt water ones were my favourite, but never had a chance to get one myself.

Like everyone else, i made some mistakes over time.
Not taking enough time to let the viv settle, 
leaving my 200+ offspring of P.bicolor in front of a window, while going out the rainy weather turned sunny all of a sudden.
Resulting in most of my offspring to die..... etc.

I kept a wide variety of frog species over time.
I think my heart still is with the African and Asian species most.
Love the way the evolved, in my point of view even more incredible then the poison darts or other new world species.

I now bred and kept Phyllomedusa, Trachycephalus, Afrixalus, Hyperolius, Heterixalus, Boophis, Guibemantis, Mantella, Microhyla, Agalychnis, Polypedatus, Rhacophorus, Bufo, Pedostibes, Melanophryniscus,Occidozyga, Bombina and some Dedrobatids.
Perhaps i forgot some, but i covered most i guess.
At the moment my collection consists of Pedostibes, 3 Mantella species, 3 types of pumilio, Trachycephalus, leucomelas and P.bicolor.

At last, how i came to FF.
I was searching forums for DN, when i spoke to someone that ordered a magazine.
He told me to take a look at this forum.
Well, i must say that i liked the atmoshere so much that i decided to stick around  :Smile: 
At the moment posting on FF most on day to day basis.
It became one of my favourite forums i came across. (And it are lots i visited  :Wink:  )

So thumbs up for John and all active FF members making this forum to what it is.  :Big Applause:

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## Jen

Alright everybody, Picture day!!!!

*Wednesday*, show and tell. Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips.

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## Faith

> @Faith
> Thank you as well.
> Guess it would be nice if you're kids share you're interests.
> I sure hope mine will be interested in amphibians/reptiles as well,
> we still need enthousiast for the future generations to come


Most definitely! I've shown them frogs (in nature, on TV, online, etc.) since they were able to walk. They both love any herp out there and already know how to be respectful of them. They are super siked for us to get some  :Smile:

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## NatureLady

Congrats Wesley! I can't wait to see more of your photo's! Children sure shake things up for a herp collection, but wait until he is old enough to have his own mini collection! My oldest is 6 and already has her own viv she cares for...like Mommy!

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## wesleybrouwer

Made a quick selection of some of my pictures, both edited as unedited  :Smile: 
I know it's a lot, but got so many it's hard to pick  :Wink: 











































*
Family portraits*







Self portrait  :Smile: 



*Our little pride ofcourse 
*

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## Colleen/Jerrod

Spectacular photos Wes and a beautiful family you have  :Smile:

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## Namio

I like how your son got a "I love mama" pacifier and a "I love dad" shirt, and that lion looked mad in the pic.

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## Heather

Once again I'm am fascinated by your photos. You certainly have a photographic eye  :Smile: . Did you attend photography classes? 

Great photos of your son and your family  :Smile: .

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## Lynn

Hi Wesley,
I have just had a chance to read through and enjoy this thread!
Dayen is just adorable.
It's wonderful to love and adore a precious child.
_It goes by like the blink of an eye_ !
Lynn

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