Unpacking for a frog

My tropical isopods and Stumpie's springtails both arrived dead and frozen. Not like it's any surprise, but I'm just a liiitle concerned that the mailman would shove a box labeled "LIVE ANIMALS" on it into the mailbox without a care. He knows whatever is in there is going to freeze to death if it sits there overnight, and it doesn't bother him one bit. Thank goodness most of the reptile community refuses to use USPS, imagine if it was a frog...

So here's the scoop. First let's establish that my parents don't like reptiles and amphibians. With Sprout's passing, I signed up for a restock alert on Ceratophrys ornata on Josh's Frogs. I just don't trust Ceratophrys cranwelli anymore. They're inbred to death to make mutant morphs. I'm scared I'll have another feeding issue with a new cranwelli. My ornata (Mike Matson's in 2017) was also a beast. The most aggressively hangry frog I've ever seen. Cranwelli pacman frogs come in regular morphs, albino morphs, mutant morphs.... Ornatas come in three regular morphs: green, green and red, and red. That's it. Their genetics have been only minimally fucked with. So yeah, that's what I'm aiming to get, a nice red ornata.

The restock alert came and I was overjoyed! I'm going to order a baby frog! Well, turns out that's not what my parents had in mind. Let's go back to last year. I had Sprout and Stumpie, which I saw as two "pet slots." When our house sold my dad exclaimed, "I'M SO HAPPY, YOU KNOW WHAT, YOU CAN GET A NEW PET!" I told him I wanted White's tree frogs, but they really do best with a buddy. (Yes, they can live alone, but apparently they're more active and interactive when they have a tankmate. They like to climb all over each other and often stack up.) My dad of course asked "isn't there any... non-frog pet you want?" and I said "blue-tongued skink" and he immediately said "OK, TWO FROGS." (He hates reptiles more than amphibians.) I was under the impression that the two White's would count as one pet slot, meaning I'd have three pet slots. However, when I informed them that I was going to order a new pacman, my parents were like "uh no, where did you get the idea you can have another frog?" Turns out that they expected Sprout to die, which would leave me with Stumpie, and two tree frogs. Two pet slots. Of course this was something I adamantly argued against, and we finally decided to negotiate. My dad said I could order a new pacman, but not until... I unpacked everything in my room. 

My room is a fucking mess. I have boxes everywhere and haven't bothered to unpack much because I just haven't needed the things inside yet. Plus ADHD, procrastination, executive dysfunction, "it's not a big deal," yada yada. This is going to be a huge undertaking, one that I actually started tonight because I had an unusual burst of energy tonight. 

I started with the easiest box, which was the tech/wires box. All I really had to do was untangle and sort a bunch of wires in the top drawer of my 4-drawer dresser. Old tech went into the second drawer. (I'm pretty sure I have a charger for almost everything ever.) One box down. Next I took my winter boots out of its box and put it into my bathroom/closet. Two boxes down. Random empty box? Three boxes down. I then got distracted by a delivery bag, which I decided to open. My citrus lights and an asexual flag pin were in there, score! I put the pin on my schoolbag, and with my newly found USB charger outlets I wrapped the lights around my video game shelf. I didn't really do a great job. 

Once that was done with, I realized I hadn't shut off the lights in the reptile room. I have a ceramic heat emitter for each enclosure that runs 24/7, on the frog enclosure I have a timer for the UVB and the daylight bulb. (Still debating whether to keep using the daylight bulb because it's kind of redundant.) That leaves Stumpie's UVB, her basking light, and the grow-light for the frog enclosure. Those all have to be manually turned on and off. Stumpie's enclosure was super dry, so I got the watering can, filled it up, and watered all the plants inside. (The damn mealworm beetles killed both my spider plants, ughhhh.) The humidity in the frog tank was way too low as well, so back to the sink to fill the watering can. I watered the plants and just poured water into the soil. I have a completely dry drainage layer. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that way. I also sprayed down the bottom of the tank to get the humidity higher. Before I left I checked the dirt I had poured from the isopod cup, and I saw a bunch crawling around in there! Yes my little ones, make babies! The springtails are already doing great too.

I procrastinated a bit again, but went back to dealing with my boxes. Box that only had a bottle of glaze in it? Fourth box down. Big box that only had art on the bottom? Fifth down. Uhh... sixteen to go. I got distracted, this time by my stomach. I went upstairs and ended up getting my meds and the new mealworm bin my mom set up. I then went through the very painstaking process of picking baby mealworms out of the old beetle bin. The mealworms in the "current" mealworm bin are all near their pupa life stage, so I'm worried that they'll turn into beetles before the babies in the new bin grow big enough for Stumpie. Thankfully Stumpie loves pupae. 

At this point I did my nightly ritual of responding to messages on dating apps/sites, and being fairly disappointed. Then I went to bed.