You are right, Trinian, our responses were indeed negative. I made my comments on the information that was given, and still have not read the article myself. The author does have some experience with various herps, and has written articles on some of them, as well as having over 30 years experience building vivariums. You can see his web site on the link posted below. They are indeed beautiful.

However, this does not make the mixing of so many diverse animals in that space a viable choice. I am mostly concerned with the darts because I do have about 10 years of experience keeping 12 different species of them in separate living vivariums, and have done a lot of homework on each. I've also probably read about all that has been written on the various forums about the mixing issue. While a lot of the negative opinions are simply repetitious, most are well founded from people much more experienced than I. Those knowledgeable people with years of experience, who do any kind of mixing, do so with extreme caution. Some zoo displays do mix different species of compatible darts and selected tree frogs temporarily.

I'm not sure of the difference between argument and debate, but I suppose my comment that mixing some 100 different animals including 10 species of dart frogs is irresponsible is considered an "argument."

1. The various genera and species of dart frogs are distributed throughout the rain forests and savanas from Central America and the Islands, into Northern and Central South America. They are separated into large niches. I personally can't think of 10 different species that would be compatible with each other, although there are two or three that might not have problems with each other given plenty of space.

2. The intimidation factor is important, sometimes even between individuals of the more group-oriented species, let alone among those that are extremely territorial.

3. With all of the other herps utilizing space, some of which would not respect dart territories and niches, there is bound to be invasions and stress.

4. Possible transmission of parasites and diseases between the frogs and other herps, as well as the exacerbation of existing parasites due to the population pressure is a concern. (Many darts do carry low levels of potentially pathogenic parasites that their immune systems normally keep under control. When the immune system is compromised by traumatic or stressful situations, these can become pathogenic.)

5. Food availability. How would it be feasible to provide a proper live food diet for each of these animals in the same cage without running into problems? Large crickets meant for lizards or geckos, invading, or even attacking the dart frogs, distributing dusted fruit flies and other small live foods and monitoring consumption by the frogs would not be easy problems to solve.

6. Hybridization among the darts. I doubt that much breeding would be taking place in this type of environment, but this is a concern to many conservationists and hobbyists who are concerned with keeping the various color morphs and species as close to the original as possible.

7. Over-all my main objection is that this has been set up as a kind of ideal dream tank that most beginners in the dart hobby seem to desire. (I was no exception to this when I started out.) My fear is that they will attempt to emulate this before becoming more familiar with the dart species. I wonder how many of these frogs will be bold enough to ever come out in the open under these circumstances? Even with single species tanks, there are those that are shy and seldom seen.

I have confined these comments to my concern over the welfare of dart frogs, as I have very little to no experience with any of the other herps mentioned.
Secret Environments


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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

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