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i read that the prices of Mantellas are going to go up because they arent going to be able to me imported or someting. Has anyoed else heard about this?

There is a particular person making this claim in his classified ads to sell his Mantellas. There is an article on the CITES website that states that they were proposing to place all Mantella species on CITES appendix 2, but this was back in 2000, and so far has not affected the imports this year. Mantellas were available in large quantities and cheap for most of last year, but are now starting to disappear from wholesaler's lists. I know that their habitats in Madagascar are being rapidly destroyed. I am hoping that people will snatch up Mantellas and start captive breeding them. I have a colony of Painted and Green mantellas and I am acclimating them so they will hopefully breed for me. If anyone else has some input on this it would be greatly appreciated.

I am setting up a new vivarium for mantellas but it is been -8 around here so i dont want to order any fearing that they would die or get sick in transit and i plan on waiting to pick them up at the WHITE PLAINS EXPO in April so i can pick them out my self. So now im worried that there wont be alot available and they will me more expensive.

I emailed the dealer that posted an ad in the classifieds with that message. Apparently he heard that CITES is cracking down on Madagascar through "a very reputible gecko breeder" Supposedly Madagascar will fully stop exporting all live animals sometime within the next 18 months, but thats according to a dealer who heard it through another dealer/breeder who probably heard it through a wholesaler who wanted to make a few extra bucks. I went to the CITES website to try to find something out about this but could not find a single thing besides a list of animals native to Madagascar that were listed on CITES.

I talked to Reid at captive bred specialties about this last week. He said that over the next few years its likely that more restrictions will be put on the amounts of animals that are exported from Madagascar but he laughed when I told him that I had heard that Madagascar was going to close down all together. Right now mantella frogs sell for the same amount as they did 6 months ago to dealers ($4-$8 a frog). Dealers that have higher prices are merely making more money off of us, they are not (well as far as I know) getting charged more. I would assume that in the future there will be many more restrictions placed on live animals from Madagascar and many mantella frogs will probably become rare in the pet trade (when was the last time you saw bernhardi or cowani offered for sale?) but they probably won't vanish all together for a while. Then again, I can't predict the future and everything I wrote right now is just based on assumptions, rumors and pet trade patterns that I've seen. Talk to you later,
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.0 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

Can you post a picture of your Mantella crocea, I have seen so many different pictures of mantellas labeled as mantella crocea, I want to see what your's look like. I agree that they need to do something about mantella imports. They have had too many shipments this year of the mantellas and uroplatus geckos that it is ridiculous. The collectors are raping Madagascar this year. I am hoping some more wil com ein thoguh now, since I have finally conviced my husband that I am capable of keeping them alive. He had soem bad experiences with them working in a pet store and told me they wouldn't last a month, but now it has been several months and they have already survived some bad temperature fluctuations and leaving them for Christmas vacation with my parents. I have 12 total, but I am dying for some M. crocea and M. aurentica.

Mantella crocea comes in many different color forms, some might even be new species. This year I saw three different types at reptile shows, the bronze/tan, the white and the yellow. Mine are the bronze, pretty little frogs. Their behavior is a lot like that of the goldens but my female crocea seems to be very shy compared to my female aurantiaca. The first picture is of my male, the next few urls are just pictures that I collected of other color forms.

http://amphibiancare.com/online_images/crocea02.jpg - white
http://amphibiancare.com/online_images/crocea01 - little green
http://amphibiancare.com/online_images/crocea03 - tan
http://amphibiancare.com/online_images/crocea_blackmask.jpg - black mask
http://amphibiancare.com/online_images/crocea_greenforest.jpg - green forest

Talk to you later,

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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.0 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis