1st version September 1998
Hiromitsu Tamamizu is well known as a poison frog keeper here in Japan. Because his frog room is not open to the public, this page has been put up to try to satisfy the curiosity of those interested in his frog keeping and breeding methods. After seeing how much effort he has put into his frogs you will most likely agree with me that he is really crazy.
The upper photo is a view of the righthand row in the figure below, looking toward the entrance from the back of the room. The large size terrariums on the right are for pairing and breeding frogs. The middle size terrariums on the left are for maturing frogs. Note the green cement mixing vats under the left shelf which are used as tadpole pools for mass rearing. The grey PVC piping is for drainage.
The lower photo is a view of the lefthand row in the figure below, looking toward the egg and froglet shelf from the back of the room. The middle size terrariums on the right are for maturing frogs and the small terrariums on the left are for juveniles. All of the lighting used in the room is full-spectrum. Note the large sweater boxes on top of the left shelf for raising crickets. Several fans and ultrasonic humidifiers are used to assure an even room temperature and humidity. There several free-roaming phelsuma and mantellas!
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These healthy free-roamers indicate that the environment is right!
Rough floor plan for the frog room. The number of terrariums and the relative positions of the shelves are not acurately depicted.
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Photo to the right: A shelf housing eggs and newly morphed froglets. The blue plastic containers are those sold at DIY stores for sorting small parts etc.
Photo to the left: The inner trays have been removed for the froglets. The sieve at the right is for ventilation, and is removed for putting in food. These containers are easily washed by flooding with water and draining through the sieve. The low height and small floor area of these quarters ensure that all frogs get properly fed. However, frequent cleaning by the above method is a requirement. These are D.leucomelas froglets.
These are juvenile frogs in medium-size rearing terrariums.
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Photo to the right: Plastic containers (25x40x14cm) housing Drosophila cultures. Each container houses 9 cultures of 60ml food medium, and 6 boxes are used per day.
Photo to the left: These large sweater boxes (70x40x20cm) contain House Crickets to supplement the Drosophila .
An RO system is always nice to have.
A 90x45x45cm pairing and breeding terrarium. Groups of frogs are kept in a enclosure this size until a pair is formed, then the other frogs are removed and the pair are allowed to continue breeding. The front left panel is screening material. Water sprinkling is automatic and each enclosure is fitted with a drain.
A pair of D.tinctorious in front of their plastic breeding cave. The substrate is loam baked into ceramic grains. It is sold in Japan as potting substrate for BONSAI etc. It retains water, is neutral pH, is easily washed, and is easy to sterilize.
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The automatic sprinkling system in action (left) and a drain for the overflow (right).
Some of the inhabitants of the "Frog Room" are shown below.
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D. auratus eggs
D.histrionicus eggs
ventrmaculatus eggs
A green plastic cement mixing vat (90x60x22 cm)used as a pool for tadpoles. Plastic strips on the edges turn back froglets trying to climb out. Suprisingly, this seems sufficent to prevent escape.
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Left: D.leucomelas froglets morphing in a tadpole pool. There have been no cases of froglets drowning.
Right: Blue and green D. auratus tadpoles and froglets. The froglets prefer the walls of the pools to the plants for climbing out. Tadpoles raised this way grow larger than those raised individualy in small containers.
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The reward for a lot of effort.
Have you ever seen D.galactonotus eggs? They look different from other dendrobatid eggs and are completely white! The photo shows two-day-old D.ventrimaculatus eggs on the left and galactonotus eggs on the right. Frog eggs which are white, such as those of certain tree frogs and Mantellas are usually sensitive to light and should be kept in the dark. The embryos usually turn dark a day or so before hatching. We will see if this is also the case with D. galactonotus. (Sept 3rd 1998)
Look forward to additional photos and text.
Questions in Japanese can be sent to Hiromitsu Tamamizu or in English to Shin Sugiyama.
