Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I love darts, but raising my own fruit flies seems difficult/time consuming. I was wondering if there are any adult darts that can eat 1/8"-1/4" crickets? No petstore around here has darts and I only ever get to see them in person at shows and even then infrequently so I have no firsthand info on their adult size. Any help would be great.

fruit flies are easy. I only spend 10 minutes every two weeks. They also take up very little space. I have 12 frogs and I set up 4 cultures every 10-12 days. I have a how-to article on my site that shows how to setup cultures. I would choose fruit flies over crickets everyday.

That being said, some froggers use pinheads to feed larger frogs such as tincs.
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com

Thanks for the reply Josh. Only pin-heads? I thought for sure as adults tincs (and Luecs and Terriblis) could take 1/8" at least.

Josh I jsut check out your website and the cultruing doesn't sound bad (I like step by step things ), but you said you had the culture for sale in your "For Sale" section and I couldn't find it anywhere. If you aren't selling it, where do you get it from? Thanks for the help.

I agree with pastorjosh that fruit flies are not at all difficult, and they DON'T stink-- at least mine don't. I have over 40 dart frogs and keep cultures of both D. hydei for larger frogs, and D. melanogaster for the smaller ones. I use a "kit mix" I get from Saurian periodically, which includes the media and deli-cups with lids, cut a hole in the top of each lid the size of a quarter and cover the top or the delicup with a high grade paper toweling such as Viva, crunch the lid down onto it after adding the water, a sprinkle of yeast and the flies from an active culture. Recently, I've been saving toilet paper rolls and the cardboard rolls from the paper towels, cut them into lengths that fit upright into the culture, stuff them with some excelsior one can purchase at any artsy craftsy store, stick this down into the middle of the media. This gives the fly larvae more places to pupate and really enhances the production. Sometimes the paper topping will get soggy or the larvae will invade it, in which case, I just stuff it back into the culture along with the pupating larvae, and replace the top with fresh, dry toweling. With as many frogs as I have, I renew cultures about every other day, but this takes only a couple of minutes. They can be cultured in a closed, dark cupboard out of sight, even stacked, but do somewhat better in the open with light.

To feed, I merely tap them into a fresh delicup with a sprinkle of the vitamin powder and/or paprika on the bottom, swirl them around in it and feed from there.

My frogs do love the pinhead crickets and about twice a year, I order them about 1000 of the critters. (They aren't available nearby.) I've never been able to raise enough of them successfully to establish a constant source, however. I also culture springtails for emerging froglets, and in summer collect field plankton with a net. (I live on a ranch with pastures and meadows and we don't use insecticides or weed killer on anything, so this is relatively safe.) They love leaf hoppers, gnats and leaves full of aphids that they devour like a decadent chocolate dessert.
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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

while fruit flies should be the staple, it pays off to develop a cricket hatchery to feed out pinheads. There is no danger of them hurting the frogs as they die quick. (as long as you haven't dumped tons of them in there and the tank is spacious).

Tricolors especially will go after larger prey like this than melangastor, and can work to your advantage if you wish to gut load them so your frogs will color up nice and red.

Pitcherplant7 is right, of course. The larger darts all really go for pinhead crickets if you are successful in raising them yourself, which I have never been. Paprika dusting of fruit flies will also enhance the red and orange colorations. Older frogs may tend to lose their bright orange and red colors with age.
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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 am more of a cricket person than fly.
crickets stay on the ground and flys always climb up the tank walls. and i not to crazy about dusting every time i feed. not to sure if that is good for hem to eat dusted food every single day.
i am lucky that " my local shop" sells crickets of all sizes. so this is why i go the cricket route. you can always buy crickets thru the internet. but the price isn't that cheap. you can also breed your own crickets which takes about 2-3 weeks, sort of like doing the hydea which if i remember is like a month.
about sizes the biggest i would do is 1/4 inch. most of the frogs i have eat the 10 day/3/8 size. my thumbnails eat pinheads, and 7days/1/16 size.
the good thing about flys is it easy to make up cultures, the good thing about crickets is you don't have to make time to make up cultures.
there are sites on how to breed crickets. people say that the crickets stink. i have never been bothered by the smell. fly cultures stink too.
that's my 2¢
walt

Terriblis can easily take crickets in the size you are describing.

Ed