Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In the past week I have lost two of my dart frogs very unexpectedly. I have had one of them for about six months and the other for about two months. They were in seperate tanks and came from different places. The tinc was in a tank with one other tinc and the azures was in a tank with one other azures, two auratus, and two "singing" dart frogs. The only things that they shared were fruit flies and their water came from the same RO unit. Other than a dominance issue, what could be the problem here??

did you dust the flys? if you had wood was it cleaned with bleach? did they look unhealthy? did they have a problem catching FFs?
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kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

I dust the FFs with Dendrocare and none of the frogs were having any problems eating. The wood in the tank came from a pet store and was supposedly sanitary so no I did not bleach it. They looked a little bit skinny but not malnutritioned.

Wait, did they also spasm and found in odd positions once they died? I had a friend that lost 25 dendros and mantellas due to rhabdias nemetodes. Some guy on frognet was selling medication specifically for parasites. Pancur is also said to be good for nemetode worms. Where did your substrate and plants come from?

Where did all your animals come from? Did you quarantine each animal to make sure its healthy? How big was the tank, and how old were the frogs? Did you know if any of your tincs or azurs were female? Mixing species is a hard thing to do, as well as dangerous. Could it be possible soem pathogens got from one tank to the other? Did you take any plants out and put them in the other tank? There could be several reasons.

I got the azures from a very reputable dealer at a rep show last year and all of the rest came offline from FL (big mistake but that is a story all in itself). All of the plants came from a greenhoue and the substrate is simply eco-earth. The Tincs were supposed to be a breeding pair and i know they are aggressive that is why they were in a tank by themselves. The azures were too young to really tell when I got them so I do not know their sex. Nothing has been moved from one tank to the other so I dont know how anything could have been transmitted.

You don't make any mention of a quarantine period. Did you quarantine them. If so for how long and were they separate?

Dartz

Do you have any other frogs or herps, particularly wild caught animals? Even though my friend made pretty sure he quarantined animals and kept them seperate, he still lost some how 25 dendros and mantellas from the same illness, most likely nemetodes he said.

Losing weight might be a key issue. What is the health state of the other animals? What is the temperature range? How large were these frogs that died relative to the others? P. vittatus, singing dart frogs, are very aggressive feeders. They could have outcompeted the young azureus for food. Your Florida story may very well be the cause, other than dominance or parasites.

Also, you never mentioned the size of your tank. Even young animals can still bully others and get all the food. With up to six dart frogs, 3 different species in one tank, there is bound to be problems if its too small. If the other frogs are doing ok, and its only these youngsters, then it may be more the dominance or the florida story.

Pitcherplant7

All of the others seem to be doing fine. I have been watching them closely while they eat and interact. They are all eating fine and seem to be getting along. The tank that I had the six in is a 35 gallon but it is a strange shape. It is four feet long but it is short. There is plenty of ground space for all of them. I have other animals such as a pacman frog, turtles, a bearded dragon and a dog, but none of them are wild caught. This was a really strange situation but I just hope that it is over. Thanks for your input!!