5 gallons might be all right for a very small dart frog like a couple of Phyllobates lugubris, but even they do better with more room. The general rule of 5 gallons per dart frog is underestimated for some of the more active and the boldest, most entertaining dart frog species. Even the tiniest thumb nails need a lot of space to show off in, and you need more than one to be interesting. You could probably have one dart frog of any of the species sitting in a 5-7 gallon tank, and it wouldn't die, as long as you fed it, but it would be totatlly boring eventually, because it would just sit there, existing and eating, doing nothing else. A group of four or five D. immitators in a 30 gallon tall tank, would provide all sorts of entertainment, especially if it's planted well with lots of bromeliads. They breed, fight, interact, and raise babies all by themselves in bromeliad axils. You just get to watch the show.
You can certainly keep a single frog in a 5 gallon tank, as long as the humidity and temperature requirements are met, and it is fed properly with the live food dusted with vitamin supplements. But if you are getting into this hobby, why not go for broke and truly enjoy it? You are going to have to raise fruit flies and buy vitamin supplements to dust them with, just to keep a single frog alive, so why not make it more efficient and start out with a bigger tank that will hold more than one?
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho
4 D. auratus blue
6 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
6 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
