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Thread: Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

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    Question Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

    Ok so I have a great method for culturing for fruit flies, but what else can I feed my Azureus. I know they eat the springtails that we put in the viv to take care of mold and I know they will eat the isopods that I intend to start keeping once I can order them from Josh's Frogs. I know they will eat pinhead crickets but I can't seem to get ones that are small enough in my area and with only 1 frog a lot of five hundred would not all be eaten. I do plan to try them when I have more frogs. (I plan to get 4 more Azureus in the near future once my latest viv is done. The new viv is 18"x24"x36" so 5 together should be fine if I give them enough places to climb and hide.)

    My question is what else is good for a dart frog to eat.

    I know that Josh's Frogs sells rice beetles which the larvae are good for a dart frog, but I am fairly sure I will run into the same allergy issue with their beetle batter media as I do with commercial fruit fly media. (For anyone who has not read about Old time frogger power media mix it gives more boom than Rapashy Super Fly without containing Papprika, which Causes me to go into aniphilatic shock. Though since you are making it from real fruit and oatmeal in a blender it is a little more complicated.) I know that wax worms are more or less junk food, though it's good for a female that has been laying eggs to eat a few.

    I want to try Phoenix Worms, but I would like to know if anyone else on the board uses them.

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    Default Re: Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

    If your allergy is paprika, then I would ask Josh's Frog if their rice flour batter contains it.
    As alternative you can use these as guides:
    Flour Beetles-Doyle's Dart Den
    Rice Flour Beetles

    Some people have allergies to the beetles, and frogs don't seem to like the adult beetles as well as the juvenile beetles.

    On Frog Forum How - To :
    Frog Forum - Culturing Livefood for your Dartfrogs

    This gives several options.

    Fruitflies are the best option as a single food item, but several others can be also added in to the rotation.

    Beetles should never be the sole source as they can cause digestive issues / impaction.

    If your allergy is solely paprika, then almost any fruit fly media recipe can be made without it...as well as any insect food.
    Also make sure you don't use Repashy SuperPig as it contains paprika.

    Nothing will be as easy to raise as fruitflies (and perhaps bean beetles), and these two are used by many.
    The smaller isopods such as tropical whites and purples will be eaten as they are small even as adults so these are good ones to add to the tank on an ongoing basis.

    Another option not listed or contained above is parasitic wasps (Nasonia). They don't sting despite the name and only prey on certain fly species. Saurian sells them as a feeder for dart frogs, and you can continue to raise your own if you buy the fly pupae for culturing them in from Ward's Scientific, others, etc.

    https://saurian.net/Feeder-Wasps/
    https://www.wardsci.com/store/catalo..._number=876355

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    Default Re: Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

    I was mainly thinking of occasional suppliments to the diet of other tasty critters. I have already talked to Josh himself about the paprika in commercial fruit Fly media I am sure I can ask about the beetle batter, but one sight that listed ingredients had it in the list. I do know that you only want to give the lave of the rice flour beetles. I was planing on getting dwarf white isopods to help keep the viv clean and to supplement the diet.

    I welcome any advice...

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    Default Re: Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

    I've used bean beetles for years and never have had an impaction problem. Their exoskeleton is not real hard. They can be use as a staple food for larger dart frogs. Flour beetles are another story. They have a hard shell. With flour beetles sifted larvae are normally used as the frog food. Bean beetles hatch out of the bean and the beetle is used as the food. My wife "outlawed" flour beetles in our house because the flour is to messy.

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    Default Re: Dart frogs and alternatives to fruit flies...

    thanks for the tip I know bean beetles can be obtained from Josh's and cultured in mason jars or plastic cups with proper lids and they live off of dried beans and peas so are cheap to feed. I also know that before disposing of the unused part of the culture it is wise to put it in the freezer for a few days so that they do not spread from the trash. I will suggest them to my husband since we need to keep five mouths fed now and we had a catastrophic fly culture crash. thankfully we can get cultures of flies from local pet stores, but a back up food supply would be very helpful.

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