Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello fellow herpers!!

I am thinking about getting a painted mantella frog. Is eco-earth good for the substrate? If not, what is?

Thank you.

Eco-earth or other safe soil substrate should work fine. Paper towels of sphagnum moss can also be used. Painted mantella frogs are enjoyable to keep. If you haven't already, consider purchasing from a source that offers captive-bred frogs rather than from the local pet store or reptile dealer. Mark Pepper of www.understoryenterprises.com is breeding a number of Mantella species and is located in Canada. Good luck,
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Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com

Eco-Earth is an excellent substrate. But it by itself is pretty Sterile, meaning there are no bacteria or fungi in the soil to breack down nitrogenous waste (feces), so you might have to change the entire substrate every week or every couple weeks. Go to Reptilesmagazine.com and check out their Resources-amphibians then "your own little world". They will show you step by step on how to set up a little microhabitat. It takes some planning but well worth it. Its also fun and easy.

Ive kept mantella baroni, madagascarensis, pulchra, and expectata on coconut fiber for a long time. They bred sporadically and I would see them only about 2 times a day. when I switched to the vivarium setup the results were almost emidiate. The frogs are doing their cricket noises all day, they flirt, intimidate, and squable with each other right infront of me.

Do your research on the species you intend to keep. Several different species are called painted mantellas:
M. baroni, has bright orange legs with black bars
M. madagascarensis, nearly identical to the above but have brown legs with a red flash mark, they also have a golden iris rather than the complete black eyes or baroni
M. pulchra, similar but has a brownish background color and a glowing brown nasal stripe, it also has a reddish pigment on the ventral side of their tush and inner thigh).
Ive recently found long term captives that were also sold as painteds but when I got them they were M. nigricans. All of these have the same care requirements but are indeed different species that are sometimes sold from the same vendor, in the same tank as Painteds even by the best petstores. Keep the species seperate to avoid crossbreeding. We want to keep the lines pure in order to save these ever-rarer jems.

www.zoofederation.org.uk/uploads/mantella husb.pdf

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/amphib_query?query_src=aw_maps_geo-afri&rel-isocc=like&orderbyaw=Family&where-isocc=Madagascar

These websites are to get you started. Find out were they hang-out, were they call, were they eat, were and how they breed. Changes in temperature and humidity relative to the season. Then recreate this in your tank,its not hard even a small 10 gallon can be used. Good times.
Mantellas are one of my favorite frogs. They are small relativly quiet, bold (when conditions are to their standards)and bright. Truly Awesome. Enjoy your frogs.