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Keeping darts together.......

agrrlandherguy Oct 17, 2004 10:55 PM

Just thought I would post a pic of my two darts getting along. So far so good on them being housed together, but I moniter them closely every day.

I am no photographer, but you get the idea!

Replies (3)

slaytonp Oct 18, 2004 11:36 PM

I'm guessing that this is a Dendrobates leucomelas and a D. tinctorius of some kind, (Blue River morph?) You can certainly keep them together if your want to, but it is ultimatly more fun to keep two or more of the same species separately in different tanks. I don't like to mix, because it spoils the fun of watching the interactions of perhaps 4 or more of the same species of darts together.

For show and tell display, mixing has worked for many people. Zoos do it. For my own personal pleasure, I prefer separating the differnt species into separate set-ups and giving them their own territory. Rather than buy one single frog of different species, I'll purchase four of each and hope for a mating and some action.

It just depends upon what you want and how involved you get. I have 13 tanks with 10 species of dart frogs, some separated into mating pairs, plus fish aquariums, including a 200 gallon tank of cichlids. It's hard to go on a vacation when you get this involved.
-----
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
4 D. castaneoticus

agrrlandherguy Oct 18, 2004 11:48 PM

I totally agree!

In the future I have plans on two seperate tanks, one for each species and then adding more of their own kind. For now since the new Leuc just fell into my hands as a "gift", I am sorta stuck with this living arangement. I am working on too many projects right now (new RES enclosure and 2 new ones for my Crested Geckos) and cannot quite start on the new tanks until probably next month. For now I have been lucky that my 2 guys are getting along so well!

Just because I am curious..... since you said you usually have 4 to a tank all of the same species, what do you do with your eggs? Do you let them produce and then destroy the eggs or do you let them hatch? If so do you then sell them? I ask this because this is one of my main concerns with keeping the same species together. I am in no way interested in keeping darts and breeding them but am a little too squeamish to destroy the eggs. I guess that puts me in an odd position doesn't it? Just thought I would ask since I have seen your posts on here a lot and you seem very knowledgable about darts and keeping them and I am sure yours must produce eggs from time to time.

Oh and I don't know what morph my tinc is... it has been questioned time and time again and everybody says something different! LOL

Thanks!

Ellena

slaytonp Oct 19, 2004 12:53 AM

The thumbnail frogs such as D. immitator and pumilios raise they own tadpols pack them to a bromeliad cup, and feed them with infertile eggs from the female, and I don't interfere. If I were into breeding, it would be more efficient to raise the tads on my own, but the frogs manage to get about one froglet out of a dozen eggs to survive. Among my larger frogs, like the D. auratus, D. glactonotus, I have been unlucky or perhaps not, in getting all females. The D. auratus females have laid eggs, which they will do on occasion without a male around. The D. galactonotus just live like happy spinsters. The other thumbnails are still too young to tell what they will do. the pumilios have laid eggs , but the male hasn't figured out how to fertilize them yet. He does all the proper calling and such, then he gets a kind of premature ejaculation syndrome. He's very busy rooting under her while she's trying to lay the eggs, then deposits his sperm down wind from the eggs, so they don't get fertilized. I've been assured that he will eventually get this part of it right.

I'm not into breeding dart frogs. It they do it themselves, that's fine, if they don't, that's equally O.K.
-----
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
4 D. castaneoticus

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