The photographs are the timeline

From a plant experiment to a working frog room.

I didn't set out to build a dart-frog vivarium. The first tank was just a planted terrarium, and I even threw in some carnivorous plants because I wanted to see how they'd do. Somewhere along the way it turned into a frog project, and the photos followed: the tinkering, the glass build, the slow grow-in, the frogs themselves, and finally the electronics I bolted on to keep an eye on it all. Here's how it actually went.

Browse the timeline

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Each chapter is a group of my original project photographs and clips. Select a photograph to open it full-size, or play a video in place.

Sequence

Follow the project in order.

The chapters move from the first plant experiment through construction, grow-in, two working tanks, monitoring, and a newly morphed froglet growing into an adult.

Context

Read what each image can prove.

Captions separate photographed steps from later explanations and identify the early carnivorous-plant experiment without presenting it as care advice.

Originals

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Photograph tiles link to the full project image. The two morph clips play in place as silent video, beside their capture dates and field notes.

At the beginning

It started as a plant tank.

16 photos

This was only ever supposed to be a planted tank. I set up a modified Exo Terra under grow lights, started collecting tropical plants, and somewhere in there the dart frogs arrived and pretty much took the whole thing over. They came to me in August 2019, every one of them a juvenile. These are the earliest photos I kept: the frogs, the first moss, and me slowly realizing what I'd gotten into.

Freshly planted Exo Terra tank under pink-purple LED grow lights with bromeliads, cork, and moss. Where it all started Black-and-blue dyeing poison dart frog on cork bark. First good frog photo Dart frog on bright green foliage. Exploring the greenery Blue-and-yellow dyeing dart frog among moss and ferns. Blue legs, yellow back Poison dart frog on leaf litter and cork substrate. Down in the leaf litter Dyeing poison dart frog on cork bark among bromeliads and leaf litter. Not alone in there Blue-and-black dart frog on a wet leaf. Close as they'd let me Blue dart frog with yellow spots on sandy substrate. Yellow spots Blue-and-white dart frog on a leaf with cork and moss. A quiet moment Dart frog among moss, cork, and fern-like plants. Half hidden Dart frog on bark surrounded by green leaves. Framed by leaves Juvenile dart frog hunting springtails among moss and ferns. Springtail snacks Several juvenile dart frogs gathered on a light dish among moss. Group meeting Dyeing dart frog among ferns and a bromeliad near a water dish. The plant experiment Dark blue dart frog on a red-tinged bromeliad leaf. On a bromeliad Black-and-yellow dart frog on a moss-covered cork branch. Late-2019 regular

May 2020: the build

Building the real thing, one taped seam at a time.

3 photos

By spring 2020 I wanted two things: to prove I could design a tank completely from scratch, and to fix the one thing that always bugged me about the Exo Terra, which is that there is no drain in the bottom glass. There is an unreasonable amount of blue painter's tape in these photos. That is what holds everything square while the silicone cures. The full story, from cardboard mockups to the Sherman vent, is on the Vivarium Build page.

Empty glass tank with blue tape marking panel positions. Marking the panels Glass aquarium under construction with blue tape and orange air tubing. Shop day Glass tank dry-fit with an egg-crate false bottom and cork. Test-fitting the false bottom

June & July 2020

Planting it, then watching it take over.

6 photos

Once the glass was done, the fun started: a cork background, moss, ferns, bromeliads, and a misting line across the top on a timer. It filled in a lot faster than I expected. The frogs approved. Most of these are them poking around the new place.

Planted vivarium with dense moss, bromeliads, ferns, an overhead misting manifold, and a central PVC support. Grown in Dart frog in the newly planted custom tank with young moss and ferns. Moving in Yellow-and-blue dart frog at a plastic side-mount feeding dish. The feeding dish Cork bark background with a healthy moss carpet and foliage. Moss on cork Yellow-headed dart frog on a stone among delicate ferns. Posing on a rock Black-and-yellow dart frog looking into a cork round hideaway. The cork round

Two tanks & monitoring

Two tanks, and finally some numbers.

10 photos

These start back at the Exo Terra and the shelf of gear that supports it, then pick up after the second tank joined the room. Two tanks meant twice the guessing about temperature and humidity, so I stopped guessing and built a climate monitor: an ESP32, a couple of sensors per tank, and an LCD that reads out both at once. That little board is what feeds the live environmental data on the rest of this site.

Planted Exo Terra tank under LED grow lights on a shelf. The Exo Terra, dialed in Planted vivarium with climate hardware, pumps, and storage beneath. The setup behind it Shelf with springtail and isopod cultures and carnivorous plants under LED grow lights. The cleanup crew corner Right front corner of the Exo Terra tank under purple night lighting, with dart frogs and a water dish. Night check Custom tank with a temporary plastic front sheet, a decorative expanded-clay band at the front, and digital sensor displays on top. First sensors on Two planted vivaria on a rack with monitoring hardware and jugs of deionized water between them. The frog room Established tank with LED lighting, controllers, sensors, wiring, and a carnivorous plant. Wired up SHT31-D temperature and humidity sensor taped to the inside glass near cork and moss. The humidity sensor LCD screen showing temperature, humidity, and soil readings for Tank 1 and Tank 2. Both tanks, at a glance Custom electronics module with perfboard, wiring, sensors, and an ESP32. The brains

January 2021 to May 2026

From a newly morphed froglet to the adults.

17 photos · 2 videos

This sequence starts with silent footage from January 3, 2021, showing one of the four offspring moving with four legs and a long tail. A January 5 video and still photograph give a closer look at the transition, and three photographs from January 8 show the first days after morphing. The July photograph is a different part of the story: three of the original parents together in Tank 1. The remaining portraits continue the family timeline through the years. Every date in this chapter comes from embedded capture metadata rather than the filename.

January 3, 2021 · The morph in motionRecorded two days before the still photograph, this silent video shows the developing froglet moving with all four legs while the tail is still long and active.
Newly morphed dart froglet in a small water container with its tail still visible. The tadpole-to-frog transition
January 5, 2021 · A closer look at the transitionRecorded about two minutes after the January 5 still photograph, this silent video gives a closer view of the froglet and its remaining tail.
Tiny newly morphed dart froglet on damp substrate in a grow-out container. First days after morphing Tiny dart froglet beside leaves in a damp grow-out container. Learning the new terrain Close view of a newly morphed dart froglet on damp substrate. A closer first-week portrait Young dart frog in a planted enclosure among leaf litter and green foliage. Growing into the enclosure Three adult Dendrobates tinctorius Cobalt frogs together in the planted Tank 1 vivarium. Three of the Tank 1 parents Young yellow, black, and blue dart frog in an established planted enclosure. An established young frog Yellow and blue dart frog climbing a green moss-covered vivarium background. Climbing the moss wall Dart frog resting among bromeliad leaves and moss. Among the bromeliads Male yellow, black, and blue dart frog peeking into the entrance of a coconut hut in the planted vivarium. Peeking into the coconut hut Three dart frogs gathered around a shallow water dish. Three at the water dish Dart frog sitting inside a green frog-shaped dish. The frog dish Two dart frogs visible at different heights in a planted vivarium. Two levels of the enclosure Two dart frogs facing one another among moss and leaves. A close encounter Dart frog among brown leaf litter and green plants. Among the leaf litter Close view of a yellow, black, and blue dart frog climbing vivarium glass. Climbing the glass Two adult dart frogs together among moss and foliage in an established vivarium. The most recent portrait
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Start Here connects species research, enclosure planning, construction, grow-in, feeding, care, and observation in order.

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