You might try to separate them with a relatively deep, (about 9 inches) open waterway surrounding two islands of land areas. You could put some small fish in the "aquarium" portion. This is no guarantee that they won't either fall in the water, get out on the wrong side, or deliberately swim to the other island, climb across on the glass, etc., but it's about the only thing I can think of. Then again, if you put in aquatic plants, the frogs might just hop across on the floating leaves. I actually built something like this from a 180 gallon tank, only it had a more or less solid background with a drip wall of fern bark panel in the middle back ground, intending to put some yellow galacts on one side and some Ancon Hill auratus on the other, before deciding to use it for Vietnamese mossies (and fish) instead.

Nearly all darts are rather efficient glass climbers, but some are less likely to do it than others. In my experience the Phyllobates terribilis are unlikely to hike themselves up the glass, especially if they are well fed, and don't go leaping into waterways. Adult Dendrobates leucomelas rarely climb glass as adults, but may go into water readily. It would also probably be relatively safe to mix these two, as they will not interbreed and are generally peaceful and relatively unterritorial. (I say "relatively," because they do seem to get along fairly well in groups of their own species.)

I've also thought of mixing something like Dendrobates imitator in an area with a lot of epiphytic bromeliads and something like an azureus pair with a large bottom "footprint," which they prefer. In a large enough tank, they may simply avoid each other if the azureus are given some nice large leaves to lay eggs on and a bit of climbing space, as well. It's been my experience that the imitators prefer staying at the top if they have plenty of background and bromeliad cups, while the azureus, although they do climb some, mostly hang out lower down. While the azureus are territorial among themselves, they may not recognize imitators as a threat, or even be somewhat intimidated to stay away from them.

If you try anything like this, just be sure to keep a close eye on them and remove any animals that appear to have a problem, and have a convenient tank set up to separate them into if this occurs. Mixing has been done successfully, mostly in relatively large tanks, especially in Europe. Zoos do it a lot, but they have more resources than most hobbyists.

This is pure speculation on my part. I've never actually mixed dart species of any sort, although some very well known and reliable breeders aren't always against it.

Having a lot of visual barriers, not crowding, lots of space, seems to be the answer to most mixes. In mixing two different genera of Dendrobatidae, you don't have to worry about interbreeding and producing unwanted hybrids that might be introduced into the hobby as something they are not. The main ethical concern with this is mixing different populations of the same species and creating hybrids that can't be traced to the original source, or creating "designer frogs" from the various color morphs and closely related species that might interbreed successfully.

Other than a clear glass barrier down the middle, siliconed to both sides, I can't think of a single way to absolutely separate them under all circumstances.

Let us know what you come up with.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

Dendrobates: auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, tinctorius azureus, leucomelas. Phyllobates: vittatus, terribilis, lugubris. Epipedobates: anthonyi tricolor pasaje. Ranitomeya fantastica, imitator, reticulata. Adelphobates castaneoticus, galactonotus. Oophagia pumilio Bastimentos. (updated systematic nomenclature)

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