Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey guys im prolly going to start my first dartfrog tank. its going to be a 20gal high im getting the deluxe dartfrog starter kit for a 20gal high from www.blackjungle.com any suggestion for some cool darts for begginers .. could i keep a red eyed treefrog or a cashew frog with them?
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Hey-welcome to the wonderful world of Darts! I've been doing Darts for about 4.5 years now and Amphibs for about 8, but still consider myself quite a beginner(there's so much to learn about each type). However, I could give you some of my thoughts as you think through what you'd like to do. Short end of the story is that I did keep a mixed species tank at one time, and while it seemed to be a more interesting idea initially, it actually really wasn't. I found that I could better observe each frog in the most optimal way(as they flourished better in their own habitats, with their needs being better met)then in a mixed tank with each being a bit more stressed and the conditions not quite optimal for each. The only frogs that produced well in a mixed tank was an Asian Fire Belly. But its roommates would suffer greatly. Now that I have D. Imitators doing a bang up job in their own tanks(laying eggs weekly, tadpoles metamorphizing, and being active and out all the time), I feel I know each type of frog better and their behaviors. Knowing them in a more detailed way is always more interesting(thats why I wanted to keep them instead of looking at them in a picture-its totally awesome to watch a tadpole being carried by the male to a Bromilad leaf bract to be deposited right in your own livingroom!) Anyways, I'm sure you will be much happier with several tanks for several species and not one big tank with a few together. By the way, Darts are more interesting to watch then Red Eyes since RE are nocturnal.

Goodluck, your bound for some really fun times ahead!

Maggie

hey! thanks for the info about darts! i cant wait to set my tank up! i was thinking about having a stream running down the side of it into a pool or mybe a single pool bye itsself

Streams and pools are great, but not essential to darts. As Maggie says, and I reiterate less gently, don't even consider mixing darts with other genera, different families of amphibians, or even their own different Dendrobatidae genera and species. They are worth enjoying on their own, for all of the reasons Maggie gave, and a hundred more why mixing them just won't work out well. Zoos may do it for a temporary public display, but we hobbyists don't have the same faculties as a zoo. Even mixing different species of darts with the same requirements is fraught with problems, some of them ethical considerations of possible interbreeding, creating hybrids we try to avoid and keep pure, but most of them pertaining to the fact that we simply cannot provide enough territory to mix them together. We are putting a few frogs from a rain forest measuring in miles and at the least, meters up and down of their territory, into a tank measuring in inches.

You might consider it on the human side. What if a lot of other people just moved into your house, and you had to share your personal territory with strangers?
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

Hi:

No prob. Making the tank is half the fun. The water feature will make the tank come to life!! Check out some of the links on the site for stream making cement. Its soooo cool the way you can shape it and form it. I think its quality captives that sell it. A slow moving fall/stream might be more appropriate then a deep water hole for some of the types of Darts that have been known to drown(more due to fighting rather then poor swimming). Have fun, take some pics and show us your masterpiece!

Maggie