Bronze or Brown Mantellas?

[deranged chipmunk]

Here is the home for my mantellas. I do not run a heater in my system. I am putting them through natural seasons, so right now they are going through a dry, cold season http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...aludarium.html
As far as feeding, not sure what to tell you. Mine eat fruit flies very freely. What were they eating at the shop you nought them from?

And a majority of mantellas in the pet trade are wc. Very few people breed them.

[Geo]

As irony would have it, it was that very thread that made up my mind what I want to do in regard to habitat setup! Lol. As for what they ate at the pet shop I was told crickets. I asked was it pin head crickets. The young lad said no, just regular size crickets. I said that would be difficult due to the size of the frog. Anyhooooo, I will do the best for them as I have for my other critters. Planning to start the palidarium setup this weekend after the rush of work shifts slows down.

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah, there's no way these guys are eating anything bigger than a pinhead. You can also try a different species of fruit fly if they are available to you.

I'm glad my tank could be of some inspiration for you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Geo]

Thank you for the offered assistance. The Frog Forum is an informative and much needed resource for persons new to amphibian care and husbandry, and experienced persons alike such as yourselves. With the need for conservation and species preservation occurring everywhere across the globe, it well may be in time that people such as ourselves who will be keeping alive certain amphibian species long after their natural habitats have been destroyed due to deforestation, agricultural development and pollution. For some it may be just a hobby while for others it can turn into a noble cause. Hopefully this on-line resource will be around for some time.

[deranged chipmunk]

Very well said!!!!! I couldn't agree more. That's why i hope mine breed. I don't want to make a living breeding frogs, bjt every cb frog that enters the market is one in the wild that has been saved. At least that's how i like to see it. I know it is not reality, but at least i can give it a shot.

[Geo]

Sadly Bill, the whole pet trade is at a point where in some situations it has become or will become an ironic necessary evil. There are species who 30 or 20 years ago were introduced into the pet trade but now exist only in the hobby community. Their natural habitat either no longer exists or has been significantly compromised by human interference. Those who have never cared for animals tend to automatically point to the excessive over harvesting of wild caught creatures and while that may be considered a valid point it sometimes is not an isolated factor. Ie - Deforestation, due to growing agricultural needs, is a major component in the shifting of ecological stability. If someone didn't initially remove a certain species from a region that would be quickly processed for say farming developments, that said species may have simply been wiped off the map and yet another sad entry in the book of extinction. Topics like this sometimes lack a distinct black and white but are a murky gray.

[deranged chipmunk]

and the truly sad thing is that it isn't isolated to frogs. all kinds of species are being wiped out. some to support expanding populations and some for just plain, flat out greed. but luckily for the hobbyist, others have kept species around in the hobby for others to enjoy. if there weren't people like us, our kids and their kids would miss out on some truly spectacular creatures

[Bdimas]

Beautiful frogs! Have you tried feeding springtails or termites? My frogs love springtails.

[Geo]

Termites I have but they don't seem to care for them. Springtails I don't have access to at the moment due to never having cultivated them (my fire belly toads & newts dont require them). Been checking with some local herp folks to see if anyone has some. The mantellas, to be honest, were initially a pet store rescue (sadly most of my pets are). I was not happy with what I saw and heard and wanted to take them into a situation where the options would be better. Having had success taking care of other amphibians I thought it would be an interesting opportunity to learn something new, and it has. I am also in a hurry to get a decent size habitat started for them but work obligations interfere with that. Blah, blah, blah.

[Bdimas]

Lol! I have a whites tree frog due to a pet store rescue.

Springtails are easy. Keep them in a Tupperware or plastic container with charcoal or orchid bark. You can even do a combination of the two. Feed them a bit of uncooked rice or a bit of fish food every now and then and your good to go. Oh and you will want the substrate you choose to be damp.