My Red Eyes didn't get the memo

Tony C

Tony C

Wayward Frogger
Messages
3,899
Location
Columbia, SC
that they are supposed to be strictly nocturnal. :D Several males in my established group consistently wake up and start calling about an hour before lights-out.

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M_surinamensis

M_surinamensis

Shillelagh Law
Messages
1,165
Ever mess around with the behavioral effects of variable light intensity?

In the mid-late nineties I was having a hell of a time getting my P. bicolor to breed and was running control groups with a single variable altered at a time; temperature, diet, the properties of the water they were misted with, barometric pressure... and light durations and intensities.

Using a rheostat run through a PC, using Windows 3.1, back when it was easy to write scripts, I'd give them a very gradual dawn and dusk effects. I was using a set of reef aquarium lamps at the time because there weren't a lot of high quality UVB bulbs marketed for herps. So I could lengthen and shorten the photoperiod and then supply changes from light to dark over the course of about ninety minutes each way.

Used against a control group that had static seasonal cycling, this substantially increased the amount of calling and subsequent breeding behaviors. I isolated a bunch of individual changes between the different groups, combined all the methods into a single set of cyclical triggers and had eggs everywhere in no time. RETFs aren't usually as tricky to get going, but if you're looking to increase production at all, it's something that may be worth looking in to- especially if they are showing behaviors that are cutting the corners of their normal daily activity patterns.
 
prettyinpink

prettyinpink

New Member
Messages
1,838
Location
Austin, Texas
Hm...I just looked at the pic again and it doesn't look so cute. Looks like if you scare him his eyes will pop out! :freak: Do they look like that in person?
 
M_surinamensis

M_surinamensis

Shillelagh Law
Messages
1,165
Tony C said:
I haven't, but I have always been curious. Incandescent bulbs put off too much heat, but now that dimmable fluorescent ballasts are somewhat affordable I may have to play around with it.
Click to expand...

I used seven bulbs, arranged in an arc over the enclosures with a different spectrum for their output. The timer would warm up on one end, increasing the amount of electricity to the bulb at five minute intervals, then lighting up the next one as the first reached full intensity. The three at the top would be on for the majority of the day, then it would go down the other side, reducing the intensity until they were finally off. I could adjust the total duration of the photoperiod pretty easily and control the duration of each individual phase of it- sunrise, mid-day, sunset.

The activity of the animals fell right into line as I made (subtle, very subtle for tropical species) adjustments to the length of the day and the intensity of the light. If you haven't already got one, UV meters are not that expensive anymore either,* then you can fiddle with things as you see fit before adding the animals to the enclosure you've got wired up. Make changes over the course of a couple weeks, in conjunction with the other seasonal indicators, and you can pretty well put amphibians into breeding condition regardless of the actual season.

*I got mine from Apogee Instruments at the time, it's been an excellent product for the last fifteen years. Micromoles of photons per square meter second for UVA, UVB and UVC bands. Which also lets me test the efficiency of my UV sterilizers.
 
Tony C

Tony C

Wayward Frogger
Messages
3,899
Location
Columbia, SC
M_surinamensis said:
I used seven bulbs, arranged in an arc over the enclosures with a different spectrum for their output. The timer would warm up on one end, increasing the amount of electricity to the bulb at five minute intervals, then lighting up the next one as the first reached full intensity. The three at the top would be on for the majority of the day, then it would go down the other side, reducing the intensity until they were finally off. I could adjust the total duration of the photoperiod pretty easily and control the duration of each individual phase of it- sunrise, mid-day, sunset.

The activity of the animals fell right into line as I made (subtle, very subtle for tropical species) adjustments to the length of the day and the intensity of the light. If you haven't already got one, UV meters are not that expensive anymore either,* then you can fiddle with things as you see fit before adding the animals to the enclosure you've got wired up. Make changes over the course of a couple weeks, in conjunction with the other seasonal indicators, and you can pretty well put amphibians into breeding condition regardless of the actual season.

*I got mine from Apogee Instruments at the time, it's been an excellent product for the last fifteen years. Micromoles of photons per square meter second for UVA, UVB and UVC bands. Which also lets me test the efficiency of my UV sterilizers.
Click to expand...

Very cool, what kind of lights did you use?
 
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