Theres a small swampland area about a mile from our home that used to be a protected area since it’s a breeding ground for the African “Pyxie” Bullfrog. Our local govt council have decided to allow land developers in and they’re slowly destroying it to build matchbox sized cluster homes.

In Feb this year we found 8 of these adorable little critters hopping around amongst the squished remains of their siblings in a busy car park next to the swamp. 4 were given to a friend with a large pond on his farm and the other 4 have been enjoying a predator free stay in a spare tank we’ve kitted out for them.

We decided to build them a new poly-concrete home. Heres the build log…

Raw Materials

The usual suspects…

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• Fibre flyscreen
• Concrete / Quickcrete / Buildcrete
• Pool filter sand
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• 1 Large tube of marine grade silicon sealant
• A small powerhead/water pump/internal powered filter
• 50 or 75 watt submersible aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing Read More »
  
  Posted in DIY Projects 4 Comments »

Mom-in-law recently donated an old burnt out 2 foot chipboard vivarium to our cause. It used to house her baby bearded dragon who unfortunately died from natural causes about 8 months ago. We decided that it would not only make a perfect home for a pair of baby corn snakes (Which Chelsey has been nagging us to get for months!), but also to serve as the perfect “hands on” solo project.

Here’s a couple of in progress photo’s…

[Show as slideshow]

Chelsey’s snakey cage features a 3D granite style rock background with removable cave & matching water dish. The granite colour along with the antique green varnish stain used on the woodwork was chosen to contrast the reds and yellows of the corn snakes she wants to get.

Still quite a bit of work to be done and a couple of items to be purchased such as the heater pad, substrate, glass door panels and of course, the SNAKES!

Looking mighty good! Not bad for a 13 year old chicky!

Version 2.0 of our “Betta Betta” tank was intended to be an improvement on our original 1.0 design but brought a whole lot of new challenges with it! A couple of new ideas were incorporated:

• Using a hard plastic container shell for the base to minimise leaks
• Increasing the water capacity to 10 litres
• Placing the heater in upright position to improve heat dissipation
• Including a “built in wet/dry filter” compartment on the back of the waterfall

Heres a run down on the construction…

Raw Materials

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• 10 litre plastic basin/container
• Concrete / Quickcrete / Buildcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• Sheet of 4mm thick window glass
• 2 Large tubes of marine grade silicon sealant
• 500ml Powertex Hobby sealant
  (A trial sample of which was kindly donated to our cause by Bobby from Powertex’s local distributor)
• A small powerhead/water pump
• 50 or 75 watt aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing

Read More »

The “Betta Betta” tank started out as a unique gift idea for a close friend who loves the sound of running water in and around her house. Since I promised her a while back that she’d be the proud owner one of the “first born” Siamese Fighters from our first attempt at breeding them we decided on combining a running water feature with a small cosy fish tank, and the Betta Betta Tank was born.

Version 1 proved to be a huge learning curve and a major challenge to boot. Heres a run down on the construction…

Raw Materials

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• Concrete / Quickcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• Sheet of 4mm thick window glass
• 2 Large tubes of marine grade silicon sealant
• 2 cans of matt finish lacquer varnish spraypaint
• A plastic pickle bottle
• A small powerhead/water pump
• 50 or 75 watt aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing

Read More »

Spent some time over the Xmas holidays creating a new Paludarium home for our mudskipper “colony” out of some old polystyrene packaging and a bag of cement…

Raw Materials

• Snoop around in your neighbours garbage for bits of polystyrene packaging (a couple of days after xmas or payday is a really good time for this!). You could buy sheets of it too if you want to waste money!
• Concrete / Quickcrete
• Playpen sand
• Coarse Salt
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)

Read More »

Mom has just finished having an extension built on to her house and suddenly had some garden space available that was previously walled off. We decided to build her a small pond to give it a bit of “character.”

Before & After Photos

Construction Details

(Click to enlarge images) Read More »

Stumbled across a recipe for DIY fish food and decided to add a few extra ingredients and give it a go…

Ingredients:

• Frozen peas
• Cucumber
• Baby marrow
• Garlic cloves
• Shrimp (Sea Cockroaches)
• Broccoli
• Pure Spirulina powder

Preparation: Slice and dice some frozen peas, cucumber, baby marrow, garlic, shrimp and broccoli. Add the pure spirulina powder. Chuck the foul smelling green goo into a pot of boiling water and gelatine, then stir plenty! Whilst holding your nose, pour green goo into flat tupperware containers and refrigerate until set. Cut into little blocks and freeze.

Application: Thaw blocks about an hour before feeding time

Result: Feeding frenzy! Guppies become like piranha’s…

Disclaimer: The smell of this vile concoction is guaranteed to irritate your family members! Do not try this at home. If you really must try it then do it at a neighbours house!