Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, first off-- How long does it usually take for Hydei FF's to cycle? When should u be seeing larvae? D. Melogonaster?
How often does everyone feed their sub-adult to adult frogs?
How often do you dust the food?
Is Sticky Tongue Farm's Miner-All a good supplement??
Also, What are all of the methods to sex Auratus?

Please search the forum, all of these have been brought up before. Look up too, your questions can be answered at those websites. Hydei from what I have read have around a 30 day life cycle, larva at around 11-15 pupae then from 12-20 it depends on conditions. Melanagastor are around the same, if not just search the internet, fruit flies are used in almost every college and university around the world to study genetics and have full reports, life cycles and everything you ever wanted to know on their websites. I feed everyday somedays it is fruit flies, crickets, springtails, or flour beatle larva. This keeps them good and fat. I have no clue about sticky tongue. Auratus, search again, males call, size females larger than males and toe pads, there are other that I probably don't know. Please next time search the forum before you ask! Thanks!
Mark
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my tanks and frogs
.7 Green and Black Costa Rican D. Auratus
.4 D. Azureus
2 Golden Mantella Tadpoles

I would not use Miner-al on my frogs. Dart frogs are prone to overdoses of vitamin A. Use a 50 - 50 mixture of Herptivite & Repcal and that will be perfect for your frogs. Every breeder I know uses this mixture and have been doing so for years.
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Quality Captives

I agree a 50:50 Herpvite to repcal mixture works well. I have been using this mix for over 5 years with dart frogs. I use this mixture at every third feeding and it's worked out great. My experience with melanogasters is that their life cycle is much shorter than hydei's. In regards to feeding schedules- I feed my darts daily regardless of age. However, if they start looking a little obese I feed them every other day, which has worked well for many years. You may not like this advice but i think the best way of sexing auratus's is to listen for calling- it's always worked for me. Hope all of this babble helps!

Justin

D. auratus
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio
D. azureus
D. tinctorius
D. ventrimaculatus
P. aurotaenia
P. bicolor
E. tricolor

Since my auratus are never visible when they call, I've only been able to guess which are the males/females by body habitus. The males are more slender along their entire length, and the females have a rounder, fatter belly and tend to be a bit bigger.

I keep visible food in with the babies at all times and feed the adults daily, unless as someone else said, they appear to be getting obese, then I skip a meal or feed some livlier meadow plankton that they have to chase down.

Each fruit fly culture lasts about 30 days and I begin feeding from them after about 10 to 14 days. The cycle is somewhat temperature dependent and will slow down at cooler temperatures (below 70) as well as higher temperatures (in the 80's).

I use Reptivite(Zoo-med's), 2:0 Carnivorous Reptile Formula (T-Rex),ReptoCal(Tetra, Repta-Vitamin (Flukers) alternating them, with paprika added for the frogs with yellow and red coloration. Reptivite and ReptoCal are much higher in vitamin A, so I use these more sparingly. I always dust the fruit flies and crickets, but feed meadow plankton and springtails without dusting. This is just what has worked well for me.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

Thanks everybody for your info-- it really helped. I'm sure that most of those questions had been answered-- but why spend 3 hours searching for all of it, when i could type up my questions in 5 minutes and be about the rest of my day? Plus I wanted everyone's opinion, especially on that Miner-All stuff. I live near Nashville, and was at the Aquatic Critter, and a guy there that is into darts recommended it to me. I knew what everyone on the forum recommended ( which was rep-cal and herptivite)-- and none of my local pet stores had it, so i was in a fix. So that's why I wanted everyone's opinion. I called around today and Petsmart actually had it, so i hit the interstate. Once again, thanks for all the input. And if someone has a question, even if it has been posted on here before-- feel free to ask. This is a community, and it makes it more worthwhile to talk about stuff than to research for a couple of hours!

Sometimes people might get a little impatient with questions that have been answered over and over, often within the past couple of days, but I do think that when you start out especially, it's nice to get a personal answer. The breeder that you plan to get your frogs from will probably also be helpful. Most breeders also have their own care sheets, as well. Good luck and I know you will enjoy these lovely, entertaining frogs.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

Hydei, about two weeks, melanogaster, about a week. I feed daily, sometimes spreading out the food over two sessions, several hours apart. This is my attempt to mimic how the frogs would come upon food in nature. Also, I skip a day or two about every two weeks, just so the frogs have to exercise a bit to find sufficient food. I dont do this with sub-adults.
I supplement miner-all only a few times a month (maybe twice). After that, the frogs get no supplements for about 3-4 days, to minimize the risk of vit a toxicity. BUT, Im definitely in the minority on this, most others dont use it. I mainly do it to take every precaution that the animals are getting everything in the way of vit/minerals that I can possibly give them. But, as I said, I dont know of too many other froggers that do this, and Im no where near as experienced as some of the others I speak to. It works for me, so I continue to do it, but dont think Ill continue it with my frogs when I run out of this batch.