Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on a few things....

Firstly, the use of stress coat (a dechlorinator for aquarium water, has electrolytes). Has anyone used this for tap water? Is it okay for frogs as well as fish?

Secondly, I heard somewhere that you can dust crix or flies with paprika and it helps promote good color in red/orange frogs. Does anyone know if this is true? Are there any bad effects? I already use Nekton Color and supplements, I was just wondering if this is true.

Thanks,
Steph
Gainesville,FL
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1 Green Cheeked Conure (Pyrrhura molinae)- Zeus
5 Golden Mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)
1 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)- Bebop
1 Rosy Boa (Lichanura trivirgata)- Cosette
1 Italian Greyhound - Louie
1 Cat - KiKi

Hi there:

I can't answer the qs on the water, but I can tell you that the Paprika advise is true. This is what Patrick Saurian of Saurian.com suggest. I've been doing it since I got my first Darts about 4.5 years ago. I've never seen any color fading, however, I've never tried feeding without this either to see if there was a difference. The explanation I read was that there is something missing in their diet in captivity. I always wondered if that same thing is the same thing that causes them to loose their toxicity in captivity. I had Fire belly Toads once and 1 summer I had about 600+ eggs. Everyone that morphed turned out to have yellow bellies instead of red.

What are you going to get for your first Dart?

Maggie

1.3.5 D Imitators
1.2 Leucs
1.2 Pampas Toads

I don't know what kind of darts I'm going to get yet....

So many to choose from. But my mantellas are orange, so I was thinking I might try giving them some paprika if that really works. I like the D.pumilos a lot, the D. reticulatus, D. histrionicus, and the blue phase of D. auratus.

Actually, I'm not even sure if I want to get darts or just more species of mantellas. I just love them. I have Golden mantellas now, but I was thinking of M. cowani or painted mantellas too. And what I'd most of all love to get is the red phase of Golden Mantella. But those are seriously hard to find.

Thanks,
Steph
Gainesville,FL
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1 Green Cheeked Conure (Pyrrhura molinae)- Zeus
5 Golden Mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)
1 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon (Furcifer pardalis)- Bebop
1 Rosy Boa (Lichanura trivirgata)- Cosette
1 Italian Greyhound - Louie
1 Cat - KiKi

Paprika does work for red/orange/yellow coloration, because it contains carotenes, that are either changed into vitamin A (selectively) in the gut, with the excess stored in the lipids in skin cells, or perhaps other specialized cells. It's one of the safest sources of vitamin A there is, because the carotenes cannot be overdoesed or become toxic. I once mixed up the cans and gave my frogs a big dose of cayenne pepper on their fruit flies. They really went for this, and cayenne is just one of the more hot and spicy members of the vast family of peppers, from bell peppers to Anjou, and chili tepini's. While the dart frogs seem oblivious or even more attracted to the chemicals that make a pepper hot, like capsicum, etc., I never repeated this one time mistake as an experiment. My own "hot-pepper" recepticles are much to delicate not to imagine this wouldn't affect a frog's taste in the same way. But they appeared to go wild over it, dusted on the fruit flies. I'm not sure how the fruit flies felt about it, but I don't suppose they welcome a dusting of vitamin powder either, just before they get gobbled up. I don't get very sentimental over the feelings of fruit flies.
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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

For the second question, which I forgot about while answering the first in over-detail, as usual, Stress coat is for fish. It's supposed to enhance their slime layer in an aquatic environment. Dart frogs aren't aquatic, don't have scales, or the same skin secretions as fish, so all they need is the proper humidity and misting.
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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