# Frogs & Toads > Dart Frogs (Dendrobatidae) > Beginner Discussion >  Quarentine for Noonies...

## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I have not bought my first frog yet and I wanted to ask for advice on quarantine.  Did you Quarentine your first frog(s)? If you didn't did you have problems?  I know that I need at least a 5 gallon container steralized with diluted unscented bleach and quarentines should last for 30 days with a fecal smear checked by a vet.  My husband thinks this is going overboard.  I don't.

~Lady

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## Amy

I quarantine any frogs that I get.  When I got my red eyes, they were going into a viv together and there were no others in there.  I kept them in qt for 30 days.  It's good to monitor their eating and pooping habits so that you know for certain that they are healthy.  I keep a 10 gallon glass tank for my quarantine, gives them plenty of space

I did NOT quarantine or fecal test the first 4 grey tree frogs that I had, they went straight into the viv.  I had a male from that group that was never healthy from the start and probably would have benefited from a quarantine.  He only lived about a year and I struggled to get him to eat the entire time.

When I got my last grey tree frog, I kept him in quarantine for 60 days before moving him over to another temporary tank (so that he could grow big enough to move in with the others)  I fecal tested him twice and the other 3 also.  I was not willing to risk any of them once I was educated about the dangers of not doing a quarantine.

Also, if you skip the quarantine and put them straight in the tank, then discover that they have a possible bacterial/parasitic infection,  you end up ripping apart your entire viv to try to get it clean and stop spreading it.  You do not want to go through the work of building the viv just to have to do that.

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Lady

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## Eli

Hi, i didn't quarantine my first frogs, my white's tree frogs, but my three darts are in QT now.

Since your frog will be a fine spot leuc, i will be the devils advocate and say that he (he should be a he because they are smaller) will be fine for 30 days in a 5 gallon. My white's never had problems but i may have just been lucky. Everything you mentioned about QT is correct. The tank should include:
-damp unprinted paper towels as substrate
-a very very shallow water dish
-a place to hide
-something to climb on
Make sure that all proper temps and humidity are maintained

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Lady

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## Amy

I would also recommend setting up the qt about a week ahead of time since you've never owned frogs before, so you can get an idea of the temps/humidity and what you need to do to maintain them.  My greys were flexible as I learned, the frog you want will not be.

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Lady

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## Paul

Lady,

I QT all my frogs as all. Typically for 30 days but some stayed in QT longer to grow a bit more before being added in with the bunch.  As Amy said the biggest benefit you will get with having only 1 or 2 frogs is not having to tear your vivarium apart to try and kill of a possible parasite. 

For a QT thermometer I like to us standard glass aquarium thermometers. In fact those are what I use in all my tanks now for temp readings. You can put a hydrometer in there initially to gauge how often you need to mist.

My QT was some cheap plastic tubs that I drilled holes in the lid for ventilation. You don't want the QT to be to small, but since it is designed to be temporary you don't need to worry to much about meeting any minimums.

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Lady

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

Getting a parasite and having to rip it all apart and start over is exactly what I want to avoid but I am afraid that my husband may have to learn the hard way.  I have told him that if anything goes wrong he will have to help me do it all over but he still says on the first frog it is overkill.  Thank you for your good advice now hopefully I will be able to talk some sense into his thick skull.

~Lady

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## Paul

It may be "overkill" but it is more about starting out with good best practices and getting a sort of system down. You can use a very cheap Plastic tub from walmart with paper towels in the bottom, a small plant clipping (pothos is a good QT plant) and a old butter or cool whip lid cleaned (hot hot water, no soap) for a water bowl. Doesn't need to be pretty or fancy, just provide them the bare minimum. 

I broke it down like this for my wife the first time we did QT.

I said "We have a <insert $$ amount> invested in frogs, tank, decorations, plants, soil. If we dont spend $15 to QT the frogs properly we could potentially waste Hundreds of $$ on something that could be easily avoidable. 


That is what flipped a light switch for her and made her realize what was at risk if we skipped it. 


Just a suggestion  :Smile:

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Lady

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## bill

I qt everything. Fish get qt'd, shrimp were always qt's when I was breeding them and I qt my frogs. I look at it kind of the way Paul mentioned, I'm protecting my investment. In fact, I'll be setting up a plant qt tank very soon. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

Thanks guys. I think I have it talked into his thick skull.  The plastic tub idea sounds good to me. I'm sure that I can get a good QT set up before I seed with springtails and isopods so that the frog will have a home that is ready with plants and micro fauna when the 30 days is up.  I know it takes 3 to 4 weeks for the springtails to take.

~Lady

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## Paul

Now you're talking! That is the perfect thing to do while QT is under way. Keep tweaking the final home. In those 30 days you will learn how often you need to mist to maintain humidity without killing any live plants you have. It will also (as you said) allow any microfauna population to get established. 

I would also recommend that you get your FF culture 3 - 5 weeks before your frogs if you plan to culture your own. This will give you time to practice culturing and get a system down. Culturing FF is not hard, but takes a bit of practice to get the hang of. It is by far much more cost effective to buy 2 or 3 cultures and start making your own after that than it is to pay 9 or $10 for a culture from a local pet store or continually pay for the shipping expense. 

If you need any tips or tricks for that we can help  :Smile:  I actually have a video of how I do it on my youtube channel. Link is in my Signature  :Smile: 

Paul

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Lady

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I do want to try growing my own FF cultures, though my husband does not have a problem with the expense of buying it from the pet store.  I just like the thought of cheaper food source.  I have a recipe for FF cultures in the poison dart frog care book I bought, plus I have seen videos on YouTube.  So I know to let the food part of the culture cool for a day before adding flies.  I will check your link.  I might have seen one of your videos before.

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## Bruce

I just use repashy's superfly for my cultures. 4 lbs lasted me almost a year, its super easy to use, and its given me huge booms from almost every culture I've made with it.   :Smile: 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

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Lady

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I will be ordering what I need to culture flies. Once we broke down the price advantage my hubby thought that it was the best way to go.

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## Lynn

I'm with Bruce.   I use Repashy's Superfly for my cultures as well. ( an order can be placed directly w/ Repashy) 
Tried many brands and recipes; didn't like any as much. 

IMO - this is one of those expenses we just can't skimp on ---- don't want to run out of food !
You want to ALWAYS have at lest one full blooming back up....and others in different cultivating stages
Because, if and when they crash ---*they crash* and then there's none !!!  :Frown:  
We need to plan ahead and have a ready made source of FF you can get with in a day or two.
Keep the bag of Repashy in the frig between culture preps.

Practicing is a good idea.

Juvenile leucs will need the smallest Drosophila melanogaster
When they are adults they will enjoy D. Hydei.
However, sticking with just the melanogaster would be fine.

 :Butterfly:

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

> I'm with Bruce.   I use Repashy's Superfly for my cultures as well. ( an order can be placed directly w/ Repashy) 
> Tried many brands and recipes; didn't like any as much. 
> 
> IMO - this is one of those expenses we just can't skimp on ---- don't want to run out of food !
> You want to ALWAYS have at lest one full blooming back up....and others in different cultivating stages
> Because, if and when they crash ---*they crash* and then there's none !!!  
> We need to plan ahead and have a ready made source of FF you can get with in a day or two.
> Keep the bag of Repashy in the frig between culture preps.
> 
> ...


You are absolutely right. Don't ever want to run out of food. Fortunately there is a pet shop that sells live flies if I have a catastrophic event with my cultures.  I will look into the Repashy's Superfly right away.  If it's the best then I want to try it.

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

Oh Noooo!!!! I am deathly allergic to something in the Repasy's Superfly mix.  I am allergic to Paprika and Tumric.  If I get any on me or smell it while it's hot I may end up in the hospital. What will I do?

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I may have to use home made culture.

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

BTW I have the plastic tub for my quarantine.  We will mod it and come up with all the things we need for it while we wait for the dresser to set the Viv up on.

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## ColleenT

i think they put that in there to inhibit mold. if you don't use it, ( obviously if you can't) keep an eye on cultures for mold.

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Lady

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## Lynn

> Oh Noooo!!!! I am deathly allergic to something in the Repasy's Superfly mix.  I am allergic to Paprika and Tumric.  If I get any on me or smell it while it's hot I may end up in the hospital. What will I do?


Yikes. You might read the ingredients in the NEHerp mix?

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Lady

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## Paul

I have a bunch of the NeHerp media at home. I will look at it tomorrow (unless I forget) and let you know the ingredients. 

For the lid of your QT Tub a little trick Lynn shared with me. Get an old Fork and heat the tip of it up under a flame. Push the fork through under side of the lid and it will melt nice small little vent holes.

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Lady

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

Paprika and Tumric are used lots of the time in human food as a preservative that prevents mold.  I have to avoid those foods like the plague.  I found a recepie for cultures that involves mashed bananas, apple sauces, Rolled oats, distilled vinegar, water and bakers yeast.  This can be made in batches minus yeast and divided into bags to be frozen to save for later. Then defrost and add yeast as needed for use. My hubby and I think this might be the safest thing for us to use.  Since it has real fruit in it it has real vitamins.  Yes we will watch for mold and mites.  If we have to get ones from the pet store only he will handle them for my sake.

We have also figured out how to make vents for the Qaurentine tank and for a isopod farm in a sweater box.  We can get springtails for $5 at the pet store and will also try to keep a culture of them alive too.  but we really want to avoid the cost of a second isopod culture since those we have to have shipped.

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## Paul

The thing I do with the Isopods is set them up in a plastic shoe box sized bin and let them breed for several months before I add some of them to the tank. Isopods are slow breeders and could quickly be made extinct in your tank. Iso's are super easy to culture also  :Smile: 

This way you will never run out  :Smile:

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Lady

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

> The thing I do with the Isopods is set them up in a plastic shoe box sized bin and let them breed for several months before I add some of them to the tank. Isopods are slow breeders and could quickly be made extinct in your tank. Iso's are super easy to culture also 
> 
> This way you will never run out


we got a shoe box sized plastic tub at the same time we got our quarantine tub just for farming Isopods.

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I think I have the water dish for my quarentine. It's the lid to a cream cheese tub washed in hot water.

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

I talked to Josh from Josh's Frogs on the phone. Turns out Paprika and Tumric are in pretty much every commercial fruit fly mix.  He says the old Mashed Bananas, Apples Sauce and Rolled Oats mix is a power mix old frog keepers swore by before commercial mixes. So I will go with it and hope for lots of nice fat flies to feed my little frog.

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## Lyda Mae or she mae not

So now I have the tub set up.  It has some non-metal screen held in place by hot glue and silicone in an area just large enough to let me put a clamp lamp.  There is a Pothos planted in a small cream cheese tub that was washed with only hot water.  The water dish is the lid of the tub sterilized with diluted unscented bleach at the same time I sterilized the whole tub.  I also rinsed the whole thing thoroughly with plain hot water.  I have a elephant pod for a hut and plan to line it with wet unprinted paper towels and leaf litter.  I spray it down with frog safe water a few times a day so the plant does not dry out.  I also spray the Vivarium about as often.  I am sure it will be moist and warm enough so long as I keep on the ball about misting it.  I hope that my frog will find it livable for the short time he will live there.

I also have spare sterile water dish from another cream cheese tub just in case I have to do treatment baths with any medication.  I hope I don't but you know what they say about and ounce of prevention.

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