Bronze or Brown Mantellas?

[helm96]

I agree with you about the minor league. There just are not enough televised. I liked that during the lockout the NHL channel filled their lineup with the minor league games. Amazing hockey, the stick work, passing and teamwork is so fun to watch. You just do not see that in the NHL like you should, everybody is always trying to make themselves look better for contract time! I agree the game is not what it used to be but out of all the sports out there Hockey and Football are the only ones I watch.

[Geo]

Observations:

- The croton plants aren't coping very well with the environmental needs of the mantellas. The leaves have started to fall off. Been cutting them up and making debris with them. The Mantellas liked hanging out in the plants for some reason. The schefflera plants are doing very well but the mantellas don't appear to have any interest in them. Going to introduce a few other small tropical plants. The ivy that I introduced 2 weeks ago is doing well and the mantellas retreat to them whenever I am working on habitat maintenance. I may take a few cuttings and spread the ivy around more.

- The Mantellas seem to like to burrow. One in particular will move around the moss / leaf bits and make a small cave to back up into. I haven't seen that type of behaviour in any of my other frogs / toads. I haven't noticed any territorial stance yet which suggests that they both may be female. They more or less hang out together in the left side of the habitat near the largest clump of ivy.

- I, at this point, assume that they are females as I have heard no calling at all and have seen no territorial related behaviour. I haven't excluded the fact that I have only had them about a month, that I may not have introduced the correct dry / wet or light cycles in their habitat to trigger the mating, or maybe they are simply settling in still.

- They seem to be doing ok on the larder beetle grubs and the periodic tiny meal worm. They have continued to ignore the pinhead crickets. I can't wait until a couple of more months when I can wild forage small bugs from my backyard. It is against the law here in Cape Breton to use any type of chemicals on our lawns so I know the pollution level is absent.

[deranged chipmunk]

yeah, croton plants are tempermental when it comes to humidity. some like it, some don't. don't you just love how they burrow?? i have a nice sized coconut hide in my brown's temp enclosure and they would rather burrow under it than hang out inside it. go figure...LOL you are probably right on the money as far as no calling. if they aren't getting the proper climate changes, they will be silent. they only call when their rainy season starts. from what i understand, they are not the easiest to breed.

i am really surprised that yours don't eat fruit flies. mine eat about 250 per sitting. granted, there are 8 mantellas in there, but still. that many fruit flies and they are gone within about 3 minutes. ravenous little buggers....LOL definitely some of the coolest creatures i have had the pleasure to own. folks can have the new world darts, i'm totally hooked on the old world ones

[Geo]

I am intending to try a few more plants to see if I can find the right combo for the terrarium, the climate needed and the mantella's interest level.

Yeah, their eating habits are a bit unusual according to the norms. I am happy to see that they munch on the grubs but I am not certain if they are too fatty or not enough nutrition for them. If they are wild caught, which at present I am lead to believe they are, then they should eat whatever I would think as no preferential training has been in place regarding their diet.

lol I do indeed find the burrowing interesting. I also had a small coconut hut in there but that was ignored. I made a few small caves out of slate but that too was ignored. They seemed to prefer moss and leaf debris so moss and leaf debris it will be.

I have ordered two more mantellas which I am hoping will arrive within the next week or so. The pet store that I got the first two at indicated that they weren't available but they were tracking some down. I may try breeding springtails and introducing that into their diet as well.

[deranged chipmunk]

i know there is very little captive breeding for mantellas, with the exception of the golden mantella, so the likelihood of our mantellas being wild caught is high. you should try contacting understory enterprises. they are in the land of the canuck. i hear they have mantella captive breeding programs. although, i am not sure what species they breed.

springtails are a good idea. for some reason, i thought you said you tried 'tails with them, hence the reason i never mentioned them.

[Geo]

I contacted Understory and the frogs were cheap but to ship the frogs costed over $100. Outside my price league right at the moment as I am planning habitat upgrades for my tree frogs, fire belly newts and firebelly toads.

I got a limited supply of springtails from someone else in the area and ran out in my attempt to introduce them to the mantella diet. I will be starting that shortly. Busy, busy, busy.

[deranged chipmunk]

wow, that's ridiculous for shipping!! i guess they ship from the U.S.

you sound as busy as i am....lol after the 125 is finished in a few weeks, i have a 40 breeder project i am building into a carnivorous plant paludarium and i have to build a paludarium for some sort of reptile in my wife's 55g. after that, if the mood strikes me, i am considering converting my 75g from a planted tank into a mossy tree frog paludarium, themed as the swamps of dagobah from star wars. busy busy busy here too.....LOL