Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,
Do any of you have photos of your leucomelas enclosures?

n/p

I have six in this one right now. There are a lot of mistakes and I will change it in the future, but the frogs are happy wnough.

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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
4 D. castaneoticus

I used to have one of those, but unfortunantly it died on me. I love the colors on those!! I wish I could find it again but I've not had any luck.
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

1.3 green anoles (Stumpy (M)), and the rest remain nameless.
1.1 green tree frogs (Romeo & Juliet)
1.2 Firebelly toads
3.2.0 D. Tinctorius (Surinam Cobalt)
1.1.6 D. Azureus
0.0.2 D. Leucomelas
0.0.1 Clown Tree Frog
0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake (Popcorn)
0.1 Snow Corn (KandyKorn)
0.2 Amel Corns (KornSilk & KornMuffin)
0.1 Normal Corn (PepperKorn)
1.0 Creamsicle Corn (Kream)
0.0.1 Giant African Millipede
1.0 Betta (Sushi, Charlie)
2.4 Domestic house cats (Bad Boy (m), Bart(m),Sasha(F),Little Bit(F),Spirit(F)
1.0 Rottweiler (Jake)
2.7 Rats (Mouse, Socks, Flower, Squishy, Fox, Lucky, Snow & Tinker)
1.3 Mice (My step-daughter seems to think they are pets)
2.0 Betta (Sushi, Blue)
1.0 Husband (David, who loves all my critters too)

That's a Selaginella, a club moss that I posted it by mistake. I believe that was S. erythropus. Here's another of S. Kraussiana brownii. They are neither a fern nor a moss, but are great in the vivariums.

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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
4 D. castaneoticus

sorry,wrong picture in the previous post.

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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Very nice enclosures, thanks alot. Would you think a 24inch long enclosure would be suitable for 2.4?
Do the frogs find their food alright in these well planted enclosures? Or do you leave a tub of flies in there and they sit around the tub?

Thanks again

I think that 24 inches may be just a bit small for six leucs, but it may be O.K. since they get along together well. I have 6 in this tank (80 gallon), which utilize all the space from top to floor, including the waterway. Believe me, they have no trouble finding food. They'll be right in your face when you feed, which is one of the nice things about them. They aren't too hard to keep track of, even in a rather over-planted vivarium like this one. Mine seem to really like the big bromes and each has chosen particular axils to hang out in.
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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
4 D. castaneoticus

I forgot to add that they also love springtails, which are so tiny, I feed them by putting in the charcoal pieces full of them that I use in the springtail media in stead of scattering them. In this case, they do gather around as if they were at a dining table.
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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Hello,
Thanks for the info. I dont think we have springtails here. Will they be ok on just fruit flies and small crickets?
I do have another tank, but its around 80cm long 70cm heigh and about 40cm deep. I was planning on keeping a few day geckos in that. Do you think it would be ok to keep them all in together?
Also with this tank I would have trouble providing a pool for them as with the smaller one I was having a false bottom in there. Would the frogs be ok with just a large water dish to use as a pool? When I say large waterdish I mean something of the size of a large dog bowl.

I purchased springtails from Ed's Fly Meat and raise them in a plastic container with some charcoal he provides, some water and sprinkle in some yeast and a bit of brown rice on occasion. These are too small to provide sustenance to anything but emerging froglets, so they're more like a treat or dessert for the larger frogs. The main food is fruit flies and pinhead crickets when I can get the latter in season, because I don't raise them successfully and they can't be delivered in winter here. In summer, I collect "field plankton" with a net from our fields that aren't sprayed with pesticides. But essentially, fruit flies are the mainstay. They will sustain your frogs without the rest of it. I just like to goose them up with some variety. A leaf full of aphids is like a decadent dessert to them, and I'm sure it adds to their nutrition more than just dusting fruit flies with vitamins does. But nothing else is really essential.
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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
4 D. castaneoticus

It would not be O.K. to keep the day geckos and dart frogs in the same tank, for a thousand reasons, the main one being that they require different conditions, and the second one being a matter of territory. A water bowl is not essential for keeping dart frogs, as long as the humidity is above 80% and you mist them. A built-in waterway/waterfall feature is nice to have and adds to the decor and I believe it stimulates the frogs, but it is not essential. I have three tanks with no waterways or water bowls of any sort and the frogs not only survive, but are breeding. I do have bromeliads with water-filled axils and some extra damp places under cocoanut huts in those. Darts aren't the same as the toads and frogs that go down to "soak" in a dish, then climb back to bury themselves. They are active fellows that hop around a lot during the day if they are of the bold sort, or hop around whenever you aren't looking if they are of the pathological shy types.
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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Thanks for that. Have you bred leucomelas in enclosures without a water source?
I really don't want to use up such a large tank for only a few small frogs, could I not add a few more species to it at a later date? Or perhaps a few red eyed tree frogs? I was going to make a really naturalistic setup and put some day geckos and frogs in, but it does sound a good idea now. I was thinking of making a nice waterfeature too =)

We're back to the old mixing controversy. I'm a non-mixer, although others have mixed selected species of darts successfully. However, Red-eyed tree frogs require different conditions and are a different genus, entirely. Even though leucs aren't supposed to be arboreal, they will use the top areas of your tank a lot, so there would still be territorial competition. I'd advise starting out with your 6 leucs in the larger tank, with or without a water-way, whichever you chose. They do like to hop around and hunt in shallow waterways, and these add humidity, as well as keeping the frogs well hydrated otherwise. The majority of darts don't lay their eggs in the water, but on leaves overhanging water, so the emerging tads will drop into it, or next to very shallow leaves and sources that collect water. They don't take care of their young or feed them as the egg-feeder thumbnails do, so most people remove the eggs and raise them separately. If later on, you want to add another dart specie-- after studying your leucs' behavior, you can make a more informed decision about this.

I have been thinking of trying my first attempt at mixing with D. imitators with my D. galactonotus. The galacs are in a 6 foot long, 135 gallon palludarium--fish tank/land combination. They are quite mature at three years old now, all females, so aren't breeding, of course. When they were young, they used some of the bromeliads, but now that they are heavy and mature, they are strictly ground dwellers and rarely climb. My imitators are rarely on the ground--in fact, after the introductory explorations, I've seen them on the ground only once when a couple of females took their fight from the bromeliads to the moss "arena." I'll see how the newest tads morph out, let them mature a bit and perhaps add them to the galac tank and see what happens.

I've repeated this so much it should be a cliche' by now, but the different levels of a terrarium tank, measured in inches or centimeters are far different from the levels in a rain forest, measured in meters or feet--or acres of space. We forget this difference when we consider mixing arboreal and terrestrial frogs. In a relatively small enclosure, there really is no difference.
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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Thanks for the post, I will stick to the 6 leucs as you recommend. I wont be able to setup my large tank as I would like to until well after I get the frogs as I plan to use cocopanels for background and plant it well. Its around 80x70x40cm. So until then do you think they will be ok in 60x40x40cm?
Also one other thing is that I planned on putting these in my bedroom. I know these frogs can be quite "vocal" at time and I heard what leucs sound like the other day. I just want to know, Will they be making that "rackett" at nighttime too? I really need to sleep haaha

They won't make a lot of noise all night long, or at any other time. They are diurnal and are active only during the day, never call at night. Even during the day, you will be lucky if you hear them call at all. The call of the leucs is a musical whistle-whirr, and it isn't persistent. They aren't like living next to a swamp of chorus frogs. In the four years I've kept my darts, I've only heard them call when I'm right next to the tank when they are feeling particularly sexy. I have 40+ of various dart frogs all over the house and have never heard them during the night, and only rarely detect a call during the day.

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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Thanks again =)
One more question. Do the frogs need special lighting? I know if I put any plants that need it in I will need it but until I setup my big tank the frogs will be placed in a smaller one which Im not going to bother with live plants.

Also what is the best posion frogs caresheet online?

Patrick Nabors has some good care sheets, although there are others. Almost any breeder will provide care sheets, and all those I've read are very good, and clearly written. Check the Saurian link below to get Patrick's.

The frogs don't need any special lighting as long as you are dusting the fruit flies or other food with calcium/D3 supplement on a regular basis. (Opinions differ on how often.) It may be worth your while to search back among past posts where Ed K discusses the UVB/A lighting issue.
Saurian

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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
4 D. castaneoticus

Is Miner-all ok for supplementing the food?
How often do you recommend supplementing their food?

I'm not familiar with Miner-all (sp?) I use T-Rex tree frog dust along with some paprika, which enhances the yellow and red colorations with the carotenes it contains. I dust every feeding. My rationale here is that the flies actively remove the dust and it also wears off in the time it takes for the frogs to hunt them down, so the frogs aren't getting 100% dusted flies. Also the tree frog dust is relatively low in vitaim A, which is a fat soluable vitamin and can be overdosed. While the carotenes can also be converted to vitamin A, there is a selective feed-back mechanism which prevents over-conversion. (This is simplified reasoning, I admit. My own familiarity with the conversion of carotenes to vitamin A is based on human physiology, but does occur to a different extent in other mammals, as well as frogs.) That's just what I do, and I've had no obvious problems in the past three years. The calcium dust is more important in developing frogs than in mature frogs, so you might want to use less as your froglets mature.

Many breeders recommend a combination of something like Herptivite and Rep-Cal alternating, and this worked fine when I used it during the first year. Some people dust every feeding and others dust only every other feeding, or perhaps less with mature frogs. I don't think a fool-proof formula has actually been worked out for hobbyists. You should probably go with whatever the breeder you obtain your frogs from recommends. There is a lot of research going on, and hopefully one day we will have the perfect dart frog dust with exacting instructions.

One of the less scientific reasons that I dust every feeding is that it subdues the fruit flies and keeps them from climbing out of the feeding cup before I can deliver them into the individual tanks. This is the only reason I dust wild caught insects at all. The field plankton insects have a greater variety of food and probably have more inherent vitamins than fruit flies (or crickets) raised on carbohydrates and yeast.

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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
4 D. castaneoticus