Combining ?

[lady6967]

can i put colbalts & duellmanni together?

[Kurt]

I would say no. Dendrobates duelmanni appears to be a "thumbnail" species and would be half of the size of a Dendrobates tinctorius. Besides its not a good idea to mix species. Are D. duelmanni even available?

[Paul Rust]

The proper name for this species is Ranitomeya. uakarii. This is a small thumbnail frog that gets no bigger than about 1". It used to be called Ventrimaculatus or vent. A Tinc would be a giant to this little frog and thumbnail frogs are not for beginners. I have raised dart frogs for years and came home to a dead R. amazonica today, I am very sad not only are they very expensive but beautiful also and I don't want you to have to go through this by mistake. If this is your first dart frog you should look for a D. auratus, D. leucomelas, A. galactonotus, one of the bigger species that are more forgiving. You also should not mix species of dart frogs at all. This may all sound a bit harsh but I want you to start off on the right track. Please keep asking questions.

[Paul Rust]

I would say no. Dendrobates duelmanni appears to be a "thumbnail" species and would be half of the size of a Dendrobates tinctorius. Besides its not a good idea to mix species. Are D. duelmanni even available?

Oops, sorry Kurt. I was typing when you posted, I didn't mean to step on you.

[Kurt]

Its ok, happens to me all the time. No biggie. Sorry about your loss.

[Paul Rust]

Its ok, happens to me all the time. No biggie. Sorry about your loss.

Thank you, really sucks. Lost one of my juvenile A. moreletii from an impaction also. Haven't lost a frog in a very long time. Gonna be a bad week.

[Kurt]

I have lost a few since the year started, one of my male Agalychnis callidryas, my biggest Ambystoma mavortium mavortium, all of my Eurycea lucifuga, one of my female Dyscophus guineti, and two of my Bombina orientalis. Every time it happens I feel like a failure. Now one of my Ollotis alvaria is sick and so is my Anaxyrus debilis insidior and is another D. guineti. The ones that died did so suddenly, but thankfully I was able to bring the last three to a vet tonight. They are all now on antibiotics.
I had a troubling conversation with the vet tonight about metabolic bone disease in captive amphibians across the board. He says he sees it about 99% of amphibians in private collections and in zoos. Most captive frogs' skeletal structures do not appear on radiographs He said that the frogs I brought tonight had it. He thinks that vitamin D3 in not beneficial to amphibians and that we are missing the form of the vitamin that they need. More research needs to be done.

[Paul Rust]

That is terrible to hear, I'm sorry. I feel like a heel complaining about 2 frog deaths compared to that. Do you dust calcium and vitamins separately? I do with my darts but I feed the crickets the mix and don't dust with my leaf frogs. What is the best thing to do in your opinion for the moreletii, I really don't want to lose another one and I know that metabolic bone disease is a big problem with this species.

[Kurt]

I dust with vitamins and calcium at the same time, and I dust every time I feed. As far as the moreletti are concerned, I am not sure how you want me to advise you. I am raising up a whole bunch of callidryas at the moment, I dust and feed them just before lights out. So far so good, but will their bones show up on a radiograph?

[John]

I hardly ever supplement tree frogs so I'm not the right person to answer this. However, Paul asked for my opinion. Are you sure it was MBD that killed the one that died? Are the others showing any signs?

[Paul Rust]

MBD did not kill it. Kurt just got me thinking. When I lose one i go back to the basics and double check everything to make sure I didn't do something wrong or forget something. Thanks for responding guys.

[Socrates]

Sorry about to both of you guys for your lost amphibians. When it comes to nutrition I always try to give a varied diet of different annelids and arthropods. Most of the time (true in human health/nutrition as well), giving straight vitamins such as a supplement (as in dusting crickets or a human taking a pill) does not absorb very well or not at all. The best method for vitamin absorption is through an animal (or person) consuming food. That's what is cool about nutrition and what needs further study, is how the interaction of certain food(s) allow for proper vitamin absorption.