Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am interested in getting a few dart frogs and or mantellas for display/pet purposes only. I am wondering what would be the easiest to care for and which are non toxic.
So here are my questions...

1. Are all Mantellas non-toxic?
2. Are all dart frogs non toxic if captive bred?
3. Can the frogs be kept alone?
4. What is the deep blue frog with black and is it hard to care for?
5. Which of these would you recommend? Blue Legged Mantella, Cowan's Mantella, Painted Mantella, or any other recomendations.
Thanks for your time!
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2. All dart frogs are non-poisonous when bred in captivity.

4. D. Azeurus - No, they're pretty hardy from what I understand. It has been offered as a beginner frog again and again.

3. Darts can be kept alone with no problem. They don't get "lonely."

4. The D. azureus are still rather expensive, but are quite easy to keep, either one frog, a mated pair or a couple of males. The females are quite territorial and will fight, so if you have more than one, you need a lot of space. The same is true with any of the tinctorius group. Another blue and black frog is the D. auratus blue morph. This is easy to keep, gets along in groups, but in my experience, it's very shy and will hide a lot--not too good for "display" purposes.

Hopefully, someone else will help you with the Mantella questions.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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

1. Any captive bred mantellas will be non-toxic, or any long term captives.

5. Which of these would you recommend? Blue Legged Mantella, Cowan's Mantella, Painted Mantella, or any other recomendations.

Blue leg and painted mantella are relatively hardy frogs, but most that you will find are wild caught. If these are your first mantellas, which it sounds like they are, I would reccomend trying for captive bred since they will be more likely to be disease free and more adjusted to captivity. Any mantellas you find require slightly more specialized care and cooler temperatures than darts, and if you want to breed them it will require more effort and seasonal variations than darts.

You will not find Cowan's mantella available, and if you ever did I would reccomend leaving it to someone with lots of mantella experience. Captive breeding has occured with these frogs, but it is rare and the young are difficult to keep alive. They are also not imported any more, so any captive specimens left should be kept with intention to breed.

It sounds kind of daunting to keep mantellas, but it is really worth it in my opinion. They are great frogs, and do very well when given proper conditions.

Hope that helps.

Stephanie

Stephanie, thank you for coming on with the answers to the January questions no one ever answered. It seems that there aren't many mantella folk around here to answer questions, even though they have been grouped with the dart frogs on this forum.

Would you consider taking just a bit of time and introducing the Mantellas to us with some comparisons to darts? They are on the same forum only because they are both regarded as "poisonous" frogs, but are actually totally unrelated genetically. I see them as evolving in a parallel, much as the Cacti evolved, isolated completely to the western hemisphere, and the Euphorbias evolved almost identical forms in the Eastern hemisphere, under similar conditions, albeit totally unrelated.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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

Patty, I believe you are correct. Dart frogs and mantellas, as far as I know are completely unrelated, and are a case of convergent evolution. Mantellas are endemic to Madagascar, and were recently placed in their own family due to genetic evidence that they are not closely related to Ranids, the family they were in previously.

As far as the very basic care, mantellas are similar to darts. High humidity, about 12 hour light cycles, they eat similar prey items.

If you want to breed them, however, the care is much more specific. They need a drying out period of several weeks to months, also with decreased feeding, and then a wet season, with lots of moisture, and I think offering more prey items and season specific prey items helps encourage breeding activity. They don't do as well when only offered fruit flies....they seem to need more variation in food in my experience. From what I've observed they seem to need a high male to female ratio in order to acheive fertilization of clutches. I'll get eggs from them when I cycle them, but unless there are competing males they don't seem to fertilize the eggs.

They don't tolerate high temperatures as well as darts seem to, but I've had the tanks up close to 80 degrees without ill effect, but only for a short period of time. They definately don't seem to thrive when it is too warm, and I don't believe they would breed, but I haven't experimented much with this.

From what I have experienced with M. aurantiaca and M. madagascariensis they are bold to the point of almost seeming aggressive. When I look in the tanks some males often hop out toward my hand and call at me. M. betsileo and M. viridis seem shyer, but not reclusive. M. expectata is in between, seeming bold, but hiding if I'm doing tank maintenance.

They seem to do better in groups of 3-5, with not as much activity in pairs. The males fight and wrestle, but none seem to lose weight or get intimidated and hide. I haven't observed much female interaction, since I've tried to get male heavy ratios for breeding purposes.

I have not yet successfully raised tadpoles, because the only fertile clutch I have gotten so far unfortunately molded in the tank before I found it. I am bringing them out of a dry cycle now, so I am hopeful that I may get fertile eggs this year.

M. viridis does not seem to do as well for me as the other species, so it may have different requirements that I am not meeting.

I can't think of anything else, but I'd be happy to try and answer any other questions to the best of my ability if you have any.

Stephanie

That was a very thorough reply. Please let us know how the breeding attempts go, and keep us updated with photos if you can do this. I've wanted to try Mantellas, but have been concerned about the issue of heat, as I don't have air conditioning and the summers appear to be getting hotter, even here in SE Idaho at 5,000 feet.

I know this issue has been beaten to death, but do you have any special ways of keeping them on the cooler side? I've used only "emergency measures" for the darts, such as fans and ice in waterways, etc.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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

I use compact flourescent lighting, which is supposed to have less heat output than other types. I also mount the lighting above the glass so some heat disperses, instead of having the bulbs right next to the glass top. If it is really hot you can do reverse light cycles and have the lights on at night when it's cooler. Also, I find that the solid glass tops hold in more heat, so if temps are getting high I'll switch to half screen half glass top to let some heat out and circulate more air with fans. To make up for the humidity drop I'll also mist more, which I think also helps keep temps down by evaporative cooling.

I've heard a lot of people use a window unit in the room where their mantellas are, but I haven't had cause to use this yet. My house does have AC (I live in Florida....AC isn't optional here....it gets HOT)but I don't usually run it too low.

Stephanie