I have a small group of them originally purchased from a reliable breeder many years ago. I don't know if they are now considered "legal or not," but I'm not about to dump them into the toilet just because I have a few of them and may get in trouble for it if the Idaho Fish and Game is alerted, cares enough, and catches me with them, and goes to a lot of trouble over it, which they won't. The castaneoticus have not bred or laid fertile eggs in the habitats where I keep them. I've tried a couple of different tanks. But they have lived for over 6 or so years with only one loss. I rarely see them, as they hide and skitter away with any disturbance, although I've read that other people have more positive bold experiences with them.

You have probably read about the initial "legality" issue. Apparently a zoo in Brazil sent some of them to a zoo in the US with the admonition that this zoo could not distribute them. The zoo apparently bred them successfully and sold some into the hobby, or distributed them otherwise, which was against the original contract. This is what makes them illegal, which I personally think is just a bit ridiculous, because it has nothing to do with the welfare or endangered status of the frogs in Brazil.

I wouldn't covet them much for the best darts in the pet hobby, because at least in my own experience, they are generally extremely shy, not very colorful, and the only thing you can show off to anyone is the tank where only on your own say-so, they are lurking under stuff, rarely to be seen. They are there all right. I once took down an entire tank, a 30 gallon with water falls, etc., after I had not seen these guys for months, so thought they were dead and long gone. The last minute, as I ripped off a background, they showed up, alive and well. There were four of them. I put them in a different tank, added two more, and they are still doing the same thing. Once a month I may see one, but it quickly disappears. I do hear them calling once in a while. They have Brazil nut husks, leaf litter, and as much as I know to give them, dump in the dusted fruit flies, etc. which they apparently eat up when I'm not looking.

I'm not sure what I've done wrong, but I obviously haven't figured out how to make this particular species comfortable enough to show off and view themselves, or breed. If anyone ever invades my house to confiscate them in the name of illegality, they will first have to find them, which I can't even do myself, except for pointing out the vivarium they ostensibly still in.

This is just my own experience with a particular line of them purchased 6-7 years ago from a breeder. When the controversy came up about them being "illegal," I found they had a really stupid reason for illegality. It has nothing to do with their potentially "threatened" status in Brazil, which has nothing to do about illegally collecting and exporting them for the pet trade, or their habitat destruction. It had everything to do with perpetuating them from one original import to a zoo in the US and into a hobby from there. There is no threat at all to the original population in Brazil by keeping them as hobbyists in the US from the original imports.





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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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