Dart frog care?

[into]

So what makes dart frogs more advanced or harder to take care of? I'm not in the market for them, just curious.

[Kurt]

My success in darts is limited, so if there is anyone that is more informed, please feel to drop into the conversation and correct me if so needed.

First, for the most part you do have to raise your own food. That generally means fruit flies. Its easy enough, but the trick is to do it so you have a steady supply to feed out to your frogs. More often than not its a case of feast or famine. It has only been in the last six months that I have managed keep things going the way they should be. You have to know what species of fruit fly you are dealing with and how long it takes for that species to mature for you take make sure this happens.

Second, since you are limiting your frogs diet to foods you can readily supply like fruit flies, it will not have the proper nutrition it needs. So you will have to dust the fruit flies. Not the easiest thing to do. The one mistake I made was the supplements I was using were deficient in Vitamin A and so I lost most of my darts to this deficinecy. They would thin out and die. Since I am making sure that Vitamin A is supplied regularly to my frogs, my one surviving dart is thriving and gaining weight. I wish I knew about this problem before I lost the others.

Also dart frogs are know to drown easily and they can be very territorial. So they will need shallow water sources and lots of room. Thats why I have not run out to get my one surviving dart a buddy. Its funny the smaller the dart frog species the more territorial it seems to be. I know this to be true of Oophaga pumilio, a very expensive species.

Treefrogs seem to be much more forgiving than darts in the previous respects and I have excelled at their care. Darts I am still a little bit shakey, but I believe I am finally on track with the last of my darts, an "azureus".

[Crystal6]

My success in darts is limited, so if there is anyone that is more informed, please feel to drop into the conversation and correct me if so needed.

First, for the most part you do have to raise your own food. That generally means fruit flies. Its easy enough, but the trick is to do it so you have a steady supply to feed out to your frogs. More often than not its a case of feast or famine. It has only been in the last six months that I have managed keep things going the way they should be. You have to know what species of fruit fly you are dealing with and how long it takes for that species to mature for you take make sure this happens.

Second, since you are limiting your frogs diet to foods you can readily supply like fruit flies, it will not have the proper nutrition it needs. So you will have to dust the fruit flies. Not the easiest thing to do. The one mistake I made was the supplements I was using were deficient in Vitamin A and so I lost most of my darts to this deficinecy. They would thin out and die. Since I am making sure that Vitamin A is supplied regularly to my frogs, my one surviving dart is thriving and gaining weight. I wish I knew about this problem before I lost the others.

Also dart frogs are know to drown easily and they can be very territorial. So they will need shallow water sources and lots of room. Thats why I have not run out to get my one surviving dart a buddy. Its funny the smaller the dart frog species the more territorial it seems to be. I know this to be true of Oophaga pumilio, a very expensive species.

Treefrogs seem to be much more forgiving than darts in the previous respects and I have excelled at their care. Darts I am still a little bit shakey, but I believe I am finally on track with the last of my darts, an "azureus".

Could I keep dart frogs alive with small crickets? (I have 2 ten gallons. One uses a 150 watt and the other a 100 watt. Thus I always have a supply of crickets of almost every age.)

[Kurt]

Should be able to, as long as you are gut loading and dusting them. Fruit flies and bean weevils are both easy to culture, so keep that in mind. The more variety you feed to your frogs, the better.

[Crystal6]

Should be able to, as long as you are gut loading and dusting them. Fruit flies and bean weevils are both easy to culture, so keep that in mind. The more variety you feed to your frogs, the better.

My problem is my cricket population is getting kinda huge. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of ten gallon for them. You might think "just put some of them in a bag in the freezer" but... I'm not a fan of killing them. For food at least they're being used as nourishment to keep another creature alive but outside of that I don't like watching one die. (Yeah I know. Don't get sympathetic for the food. I think they're cute just like I think a frog or toad is cute)

Anyways! Poison dart frogs! How many can you keep in a ten gallon? How many can you keep in a twenty gallon?

[Kurt]

Depends on the species. I am no expert on dart frog compatability. I only have the one dart. What species are you interested in getting?

[Crystal6]

Depends on the species. I am no expert on dart frog compatability. I only have the one dart. What species are you interested in getting?

D. auratus or D. leucomelas? *hasn't decided due to being unsure what I will be able to find/care for*

[Kurt]

Those are both easy species to care for, relatively speaking. As far as territorial issues are concerned, I cannot advise you. Perhaps John or Ray (stemcellular) can.

[John]

Firstly, what makes dart frogs challenging is that they are not very forgiving of mistakes. Unless you can maintain very high humidity, a stable temperature window of no lower than 65 F at night (about 18 degrees Celsius) and no higher than about 80 F during the day (about 27 degrees C), don't consider it. Also, you will need almost daily supplies of very small live food. For the vast majority of dart frog enthusiasts this means culturing your own fruit flies.

Anyways! Poison dart frogs! How many can you keep in a ten gallon? How many can you keep in a twenty gallon?

It's not that simple. There are many different kinds of dart frog and some require large areas to move around (some examples: Golden Poison Dart Frogs - Phyllobates terribilis, also Dyeing Poison Dart Frogs - Dendrobates tinctorious) , some are arboreal (most thumbnail species like the Imitating Dart Frog - Dendrobates/Ranitomeya imitator), some are extremely territorial (Dyeing Poison Dart Frog is the best example - females literally kill each other), or a mixture of all of the above.

Probably the most forgiving to start off with would be one of the races/morphs of Dyeing Poison Dart Frog, Dendrobates tinctorious. You could keep a pair in a 10g tank if it's landscaped correctly, but never more than 1 female unless you have a huge tank like a 75g. Since we currently don't have any dart frog care articles, I recommend you read Devin Edmond's excellent beginners guide.

[Crystal6]

Firstly, what makes dart frogs challenging is that they are not very forgiving of mistakes. Unless you can maintain very high humidity, a stable temperature window of no lower than 65 F at night (about 18 degrees Celsius) and no higher than about 80 F during the day (about 27 degrees C), don't consider it. Also, you will need almost daily supplies of very small live food. For the vast majority of dart frog enthusiasts this means culturing your own fruit flies.


It's not that simple. There are many different kinds of dart frog and some require large areas to move around (some examples: Golden Poison Dart Frogs - Phyllobates terribilis, also Dyeing Poison Dart Frogs - Dendrobates tinctorious) , some are arboreal (most thumbnail species like the Imitating Dart Frog - Dendrobates/Ranitomeya imitator), some are extremely territorial (Dyeing Poison Dart Frog is the best example - females literally kill each other), or a mixture of all of the above.

Probably the most forgiving to start off with would be one of the races/morphs of Dyeing Poison Dart Frog, Dendrobates tinctorious. You could keep a pair in a 10g tank if it's landscaped correctly, but never more than 1 female unless you have a huge tank like a 75g. Since we currently don't have any dart frog care articles, I recommend you read Devin Edmond's excellent beginners guide.

O_O Ah. Ty. So these eat a lot more frequently then White's Treefrogs?

[Kurt]

Yes, they do. They are also diurnal.

[Crystal6]

Yes, they do. They are also diurnal.

Nice. My white's eats about 5-7 a week. (usually in one sitting)

Do these eat several a day? Or...? (I need to know so I don't get too many and wipe out my cricket population rather then just keeping it from growing out of control.)

[Kurt]

Mine eat many in a typical feeding. Like I said before you could be raise fruit flies and bean weevils to make sure there is enough food.

[John]

Crickets are not a viable food for most dartfrogs (too big and not consistent enough in supply). One of the larger morphs of tinctorious will easily down 30 or 40 Drosophila hydei in one sitting (that's the larger kind of flightless fruit fly cultured in captivity). Mine will eat that many each per day.

[John]

I would like to add that, once you get the hang of it, dart frogs are relatively easy to look after, and certainly the easiest frogs to breed, but "getting the hang of it", particularly for people who don't do a lot of research beforehand, usually involves killing frogs along the way. So please do that research first and understand that you're going to have to culture fruit flies - there's no way around it.

[Crystal6]

Crickets are not a viable food for most dartfrogs (too big and not consistent enough in supply). One of the larger morphs of tinctorious will easily down 30 or 40 Drosophila hydei in one sitting (that's the larger kind of flightless fruit fly cultured in captivity). Mine will eat that many each per day.

30 or 40 daily per frog?

[Crystal6]

I would like to add that, once you get the hang of it, dart frogs are relatively easy to look after, and certainly the easiest frogs to breed, but "getting the hang of it", particularly for people who don't do a lot of research beforehand, usually involves killing frogs along the way. So please do that research first and understand that you're going to have to culture fruit flies - there's no way around it.

Ah, so I CAN'T keep them alive on very young crickets then. Okay.

[John]

You could but it would be a nightmare, and what happens when the cricket culture crashes?

[Crystal6]

You could but it would be a nightmare, and what happens when the cricket culture crashes?

Cricket culture(s) crash more easily then fruit flies? (If they crash I need to run down to my neighbor's and buy some of theirs I guess. I hope they dont' crash considering I have 2 seperate aquariums. I had to make several trips down state for strange reasons so I kept getting large/small crickets from petco. This was about 5 month ago. I now have a bunch of adult, teenages, and newborn crickets growing at varying rates. It's crazy. I'm going to be in trouble in a few years unless a cricket consuming plague hits both aquariums.)

[John]

If you have the time and space for culturing crickets, then by all means do that. I would advise you to go with fruit flies though. At least a fruit fly won't take a bite out of your $100 frog if it's hungry.