Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a group of blue jeans pumilio, two F and one M, the one Female seems to get strange twitches almost like muscle spasms that cause her hind leg to shake.
she isnt as bulky as the others, and although i have seen her feed she doesnt eat as much. Does anyone know what the cause may be or a cure?

the others are fine extreemly bold frogs that are very active, the males call constantly.

Keep the twitchy female separately. Pumilios are extremely territorial and are best kept in mated pairs separately. Obviously, she is not among the chosen.

You are very fortunate to have true blue jeans, as they are hard to come by in the US, so do your best to make your mated pair happy. The other female will get along perfectly well in a separate tank by herself, perhaps better, without the competition.

While there may be another problem involving her general health, separating her into another tank is the first thing you should do about this, as well. Then watch and wait. Do you have herp or amphibian vets in your area?
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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

Patty, I was pretty excited then i found out they were blue jeans! I was searching for blue jeans because i wanted a location based combination of frogs from my travels in costa rica and when i finally gave up and decided to go with what was called "red" but looked like a bri bri in the photograph i recieved an e-mail from the man selling them who asked me to call him and tell him if i wanted the "real strawberry ones with blue legs" or the green ones he had. I almost jumped out of my seat when i read that! as it turned out he only had 4 of the blue jeans and had no idea what was in his posession becuase they were only $80 each! the day they arived they began calling as soon as i opened the box. unfortunately one of the males was missing an eye (this one happens to be the boldest frog). And the man then sent me a green one to replace it! the green one turned out to a be a blue foot green pumilio!
so aside from this one fem everything has worked out super well! though i have not seen any breeding activity =/ nor have i noticed any territorial disputes. right now as i type 3 of the frogs are sitting on a log together sucking up termites.

I envy you-- Enjoy them. It will take the pair some time to breed successfully. It seems that pumilios (at least my Bastimentos) need some time to get the whole ritual right in order to lay fertile eggs. There were a few attempts at unfertilized eggs at first, worth watching, if you can catch it. I once witnessed an impatient male, waiting for the female to "finish it up," root under her with his snout and toss her across the tank so he could "fertilize" before she was finished laying eggs. Even young, anxious dart frogs can have premature ejaculation problems, I guess. Later, they raised a tad and the froglet had SLS-- no front legs, so of course it died. They are currently into another attempt. Patrick told me that quite often young breeding pumilios will produce froglets with SLS, but later ones will be fine. I'm still waiting for the later ones. My pumilio tanks are pretty densely planted, can't see into the bromeliads like I'd like to, so don't know everything that is going on without interferring too much. I'm no expert on pumilios, have just kept some and observed them, and mine have not died or gotten sick yet, and still seem to be "in love," at least once in awhile. Enjoy yours, and let us know how the twitchy female does. But DO separate her from the others, whatever you do.
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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

I dont' know a great deal about darts but have heard that mantellas can twitch if the temperature gets too high. I understand that darts usually live in higher temp conditions, but thought I'd mention this anyway in case it helps at all.

Good luck with your frogs!

Not to totally burst your bubble about your find... but those aren't Costa Rican/Nicaraguan Blue Jeans you've got there, but some of the "farm raised" panama imports... in the last shipment a number of 'Man Creeks' (which originally came in with grey/blue legs) came in with some very bold blue legs... which looks like what you've got pictured - while similar looking VERY different from the Nicaraguan Blue Jeans in the hobby (which are a much rarer, and extremely difficult frog - and the closest relatives to the frogs you saw in Costa Rica which were southern populations of the same frog).

The big clues were the price (a petstore or importer reseller price of the Pamama imports) and that he mentioned the "greens" (chiriqui rivers or the cayo de aguas) which come in with the red and blue 'Man Creeks'. These guys are listed as blue jeans and/or strawberry dart frogs on most wholesaler invoices that I know of, which just adds to the confusion...

twitching can also be caused by lack of calcium, make sure to dust your flies with vitamins and calcium..
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