Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering if these are ever available and a for what cost. Also if you have any other information on these awesome frogs please feel free to say what ever you know about them. Also, how hard are they to keep?

thanks for any responses

Hi,

I know of one person in the US that produces this frog. He says that they are not that different from a large pumilio. It is highly unlikley that you will ever see them for sale, and if you really want some you should breed a frog of equal trade value. (mystereosus or vanzolinii)

It is possible more people in the US still have these frogs but if they do they are not telling anyone.

Alexander Stubbs

mystereosus and vanzolinii seem like they'd be just as hard to aquire... is this so? thanks for the help

Hi,

While those frogs are difficult to find they can be imported from Germany. Speciosus was not exported to Germany in numbers and I believe that only a few ever came into the US (if they had been in Germany they would not be so rare.) Another difference is how many young are produced. Mysteriosus lays large clutches that are easy to rear while a pair of speciosus produces only a few frogs a year. Unless you know someone well, your chances of getting any of these frogs are not that great.

Alexander

Just so you know mysteriousus are illegal,
Peru and the USFW are hunting them down in the US and in oversea collections at this time.

I thought if they were raised in captivity they were not illegal.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

No permits were issued for these frogs to ever leave Peru. So all frogs, tadpoles, eggs, ect are illegal.
Some of the frogs that are in the grey area, aka casti., azureus,
have been exported legal, but have another circumstance surrounding the legality.

Ben

Hi,

While it used to be the case that mysteriosus was totally illegal some countries are issuing CITES paperwork for them. This makes them legal. I know that below water has gotton some of these frogs legally and there are about 3 people in the US that have them with paperwork.

I belive that Germany will not issue paperwork for their export, but the swiss will. After you can prove the frogs were bred in captivity for at least 3 generations some countries will issue paperwork. I am not aware of any arrests in the USA regatding this frog.

Alexander Stubbs

When did Peru issue export papers?
I know a breeder in the US that got some in with paper work, and the frogs were being held. Some countries may be exporting them with CITES paperwork, but unless Peru has issued export papers then all the frogs are illegal. I was told about the frogs being held by the USFW about 2 months ago, so if anything has changed please let me know.

Thanks,
Benjamin

Alexandar please email me: bgreen@thechocohut.com

Hopefully all this will come to an end soon. Some zoo friends of mine have told me that Peru is talking about opening up their borders in the next 6 months. This should put an end to the problems and help bolster the gene pool of those few animals that are in this country.

If and when this happens, anyone who gets these frogs needs to maintain them so that they are not so rare and hard to come buy. I hope that this doesn't become another designer thing where everyone gets them, but once the newness wears off then they are sold to the highest bidding highschool kid. I am deeply disturbed by the fact that it is very hard to find frogs that just a couple of years ago were so plentiful. There was a time where E. tricolor were so common that you were almost embarrased to give the froglets away, now I know only a few people who still keep them. This has happened with other species too, how many tinc morphs are everywhere one day, and then a year later when the price has fallen, no one has them.

This hobby is not for your average person. We need to all make a concerted effort to maintain bloodlines as well as morphs of every frog we desire. If a specific morph or species becomes too rare in collections, and the small chunk of rainforest it lives in gets turned into a resort, then we will lose that species even though we had the chance of preserving it. I would like to see a database created which catalogs what is being produced and by whom, so that we can all work together and preserve the animals we all enjoy so much.
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2.4.0 D. azureus
0.0.7 P. bicolor
0.0.7 D. auratus (polka-dot)
0.0.3 D. auratus (blue)
0.0.3 D. auratus (kahlua and cream)
0.0.3 D. auratus (El Cope aka Giant Turquoise)
0.0.5 D. tinctorius (Interalanis)

Shannon