Hello my friends,

The dendrobatids are a group of animals that have come to captivate my attention since many years ago, but I've never felt prepared before to mantain some by many reasons: difficulty in finding food, difficulty in recreate a tropical climate into the terrarium and lack of knowledge.

For a couple of weeks I've been searching, reading and learning more about dendrobates, and this aroused on me a great desire to keep these animals.
I have to say that my experience in keeping any type of amphibians is absolutely none!
On the other hand, I've been keeping reptiles (snakes) and arthropods for many years, some of them tropicals (Corallus hortulanus, Centruroides margaritatus, Babycurus jacksoni), and that gave me experience to deal with temperatures, humidity, ventilation and the basic parameters that are necessary for the proper establishment of a microclimate in a terrarium.

I took to myself that if I entered the amazing world of Dendrobates species would have to be with that I really liked, and so all would have to be a well-defined project with a plan for captive propagation respecting absolutely the genetic lineages found in the wild.

The species I really like belong to the genus Ranitomeya, and here start the problems. All the online literature that I've read (already completely devoured this fantastic article about imitators http://www.frogforum.net/dart-frog-m...-breeding.html) says that this genus is composed by very very tiny frogs that you experts call by thumbnails and because of that are not suitable for a begginer!

Well, the question is: Can I start with species belonging to the genus Ranitomeya (imitator, one of my favourite) without having necessarily to pass through Dendrobates sp. to gain experience?

I consider myself a responsible person, I allways read ton's of articles and collect opinions for more experienced persons before even thinking about buying any animal.

Sorry about that big text but I think that is necessary to you understant my situation!

Best regards
Pedro