Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i've wanted to own dart frogs for a while now but have been too busy to put proper care towards them til now. I'm looking for any good care sheets, information, or advice possible.

What's the difficulty for caring for them? How long do they live? What's the best age to get them? Are different colors different breeds?

Anything, I know almost nothing about these frogs and want to learn as much as possible before venturing out to get some. Thanks in advance.

I am also looking to get into darts and would suggest you go to your favorite search engine and start searching only because I have seen entire pages explaining the answers to almst every one of your questions Black Jungle was a very interesting sight and had some awsome and helpful links
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Kevin
I am lost w/o spell check
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."-unknown

Caresheets and information:
www.doylesdartden.com
www.saurian.net/htm/dartfrogs1.htm
www.poisondartfrogs.info/keeping.htm
www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/caresheets/poisondartfrog.html

The most difficult part about caring for them, in my oppinion, is simply having a supply of tiny insects on hand. Culturing fruit flies, ordering or breeding crickets and culturing springtails can be over-whelming to someone who is used to just running to the pet store every other week to pick up a few dozen crickets or mealworms. Other than that, their care consists of monitoring enviornmental conditions and the animal's health, removing waste from the cage and feeding just like with any other captive reptile or amphibian. I would recomend practicing culturing fruit flies before getting the frogs so you can find a method that works well for you before you have frogs to feed.

Dart frogs have been documented to live for over 20 years in captivity. It's more common for captive frogs to live somewhere in the 7 to 15 year range. I would recomend that your first frogs be at least 3 months out of the water.

There are an immense amout of different species and different color varients availible, more so than other types of amphibians. Different color varients are not necessarily different species. As you put it, they could simply be "breeds" or color morphs of the same species. One thing that I enjoy about collecting and keeping dart frogs is that the color varients that are availible are naturally occuring and not created by humans who have cross bred different frogs to bring out different color traits. What I have in my terrariums is what occurs in nature. Breeders generally write a price list with the species name first and then the color varient or type (if there are multiple ones for that species) in parenthesis or inside single quotation marks. Example: Dendrobates tinctorius 'Suriname Cobalt' The species name is Dendrobates tinctorius and Suriname Cobalt is the color form.
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Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com

So what kind of dart frog could i buy like 3 or 4 of and not worry about them fighting eachother. I want to buy unsexed and not have to worry if they are males or females.
thanks

Most species of dart frogs are territorial to some extent. D. tinctorius and azureus have a reputation for fighting so it might be best to avoid those two. D. leucomelas, auratus, galactonotus, Phyllobates species and Epipedobates species would be good choices although there is always a chance that of a problem so keep an eye on them. Good luck,
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Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com

In my personal experience, the D. galactonotus get along very well in groups regardless of sex, as do the D. leucomelas. There may be a little intimidation, but no real knock-down-drag-outs. Blue D. auratus females will fight, but it's more like (the perfectly good word for a female dog was bleeped here) slapping, and kind of fun to watch. D. imitator females also do some spectacular bull dogging and head butting, but they don't really seem to hurt each other, although they will eat each other's eggs if breeding in a group. You can purchase a group, then if you have a pair, separate them into a different tank for breeding. I think the D. azureus and tincs have the worst reputations for killer battles, but so far, I have neither of these.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus