Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Currently I am looking for a new friend to get. I have a bearded dragon and a red eared slider. I was looking over possible choices ranging from corn snakes to Uroplatus Geckos. I came to the choice of a Dart Frog. I love their colors and even more so frogs in general. I haven't had much personal experience with frogs, but I have with many other types of reptiles. I am thinking about putting them in maybe a 45-50 gallon tank. First process will be building a VERY nice Vivarium. Something like what is shown at http://www.dekeaffexotics.com/ is what I'm thinking. Not only is it the frogs that interest me, but so will a very nice looking tank. And I want to make it as enjoyable as possible for them.

A little about myself,

I am 18 years old and have had my red eared slider for 2 1/2 years. I've had my bearded dragon for a month, and he currently has parasites so poor guy is in hospital mode right now. And I am also giving daily injections to my turtle because she has a respritory infection. I am moving out of my dad's place soon into a small apartment and taking my dragon with me. He is in a 55gallon tank- I was wondering if having to keep his tank very dry and not humid at all will conflict with having to keep a frog's tank very wet and humid. The tanks will be in the same room, and about 10 feet away from each other. Will having a humid tank and having a dry tank conflict with each other at all?

I have time to spend on them, besides work not much is going on right now. I wouldn't mind a frog that could be handled, but I also don't want to invade their space. Are these frogs able to be handled with success? If not, or you don't recommend it, I have no problem keeping them in their tank.

In the past month I've read up every single detail I an about Bearded Dragons, and if some of you could provide me with some good websites with info about Dart drogs I am prepared to do the same.

Last few questions are- What are some basic things I must remember with these frogs? Can frogs be kept in a pair? If so, how many can live well together in a 50 gallon tank? Also- I have 0 experience with breeding. If the frogs do breed, what do I do?

and Last Question..with everything I have told all of you, do you think these frogs are right for me?

Thanks alot to anyone who helps.

You won't have any problem keeping a humid terrarium tank and a dry tank in the same room, since the humid tank is closed and essentially internally controlled. No, you shouldn't handle darts unless it's absolutely necessary.

For the other questions, there are many good care sheets on the web. Since I get mine from Saurian, one of our sponsors, I recommend that you start there, but there are other responsible, helpful breeders, as well. Nearly every breeder has care sheets for each species, as do some hobbyiests.

Yes, you can keep pairs or even groups of the same species with 50 gallons of space if it's properly set up. The number depends a bit on the size of the frog and its habits. Each is a bit different. Some are more territorial than others.

Breeding habits are different between the various groups, as well. So look on the care sheets, explore all the web sites, learn what you can, then go for it. They are beautiful, great frogs as a whole.

You'll need to have an established food source as well, so explore the endless past posts on fruit flies, springtails and pinhead crickets. If you don't learn more than anyone everwanted to know about this by reading them, I don't know where else you could learn it.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

As Patty already pointed out Patrick at saurian is a really good person to turn to and I would really recommend him for the 1st timer here is his link

http://www.saurian.net/

Some other good people that have both plants and frogs are
www.blackjungle.com
www.fantasticfrogs.com

You sound pretty leveled headed about this so it is my so to answr a few of your questions

1. Not a good ideal to handle them they stress way to easy and they should only be handled when you absolutely have too

2. Keeping them in groups will vary on what you want to keep best bet is to look around at what you like but I will online some of the more common frogs here

D. leucomelas- Can be kept in groups and do rather well in groups usually a bold frog
D. tinctorius- they do fin when they are young but the females tend to fight when their bigger. On the plus side though there is an endless variety of color morphs I now of very few people that don't have at least one tink they like
D. azureus- Nice frog but closely related to the tinctorius so again female tend to fight when their bigger
P.bicolor- A very underrated frog very hardy very bold and do great in groups why they don't get recommended more is beyond me.

3. I also agree with patty that keeping the tank in the room with the dragon will be ok
4. Other Basic things to keep in mind
- You can NEVR EVER have to much food on hand its not possible keeping more fruit fly on hand then you need is a very good idea as they will crash on most people from time to time for no dang reason.
- Temp should ideally be in the mid 70's and the humidity should be at least 85% or better
- Its very tempting to start with some of the more less forgiving species¨ best thing to do is talk to people like Patrick (saurian) or Aj(T&c) or Ricth (black jungle). Start of slow and start of cheep these frogs can be like potato chips some times¡K you cant just have 1
- One more thing then my rant will be over NEVER, NEVER, NEVER
Start with any WC frog you will be just asking for trouble.

....ok I am done now LOL
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Brian Ferriera JR
Plympton, Ma

P. Terribilis (orange)
P.Bicolor (orange)
D. azureus
D. ventrimaculatus
D. tinctorius (Oyapok )
D. Fantasticus
D. leucomelas

Hi,

Thanks alot for the replies. I'm thinking about getting some of the Leucomelas in the future. Would I have to keep the Leucomelas together with their own kind, or can I mix them with other types of Dart? If so, which kind?

I'm gonna check out all those websites and read as much as I can. I have no problem at all with keeping stocks of food, I work at Petco and live 5 minutes away from it. We started carrying those fruit flies too, so it all works out good. I'm thinking about building a 50 gallon frog world for my father for his 51st birthday this October the 10th, but if I don't make it in time with the research/building/finding out which frog is right for me, I can always make it a late birthday gift.

A few other questions I have- With my bearded dragon I have a few problems.

-Leaving crickets in the tank after dark for my beardie- The crickets will attack him if I leave them in there, can they do the same with frogs?

I'm guessing crickets isn't the staple diet for frogs, so how do the fruit flies work? Are they wingless, or do they fly around the tank? And what if they hide in all the little areas of the tank? Or are the frogs that good of a hunter?

Getting very excited about these little froggies, my dad even likes how they look and he doesn't even know he might end up with some of 'em!

Thanks again for all the info!

well i think you might just want to culture your own fruit flys instead of buying them every week. They would be more healthy and they are easy to make. the fruit flys we use are flightless. theres two types of melenogaster (sp?) flightless which crawl more, and wingless which tend to hop around. (that could the the other way around). and Hydie are just big flightles flies.

Mixing is not a good idea unless you are experianced enough with the frogs.

Crickets shouldnt be the staple, but can still be feed from time to time. When you get the frogs you should put a peice of rip fruit in the tank so the flys are attracted to it and the frogs know where to go for feeding time. The flys could hid, if the frogs dont find them they die and become fertilzer for the plants. Its a little ecosystem.

But if there are too many insects they can team up on the animal and thats not wanted.

my link below shows how i built my tank from the acrylic on up.

aj
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Click Here to see my vivarium and steps on how to make a basic vivarium UPDATED 7.18.03 Now complete! All that is needed are some New River Tincs!

kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

Leuks are a great starter frog. Don't mix species. There are simply too many potential problems with this. The list of cons is too long to repeat again here.

As AJ says, grow your own fruit flies--you'll need a lot more than you can afford even with an employee discount, and one of those stingy little cups I've purchased out of desperation at PetCo for $5.00 each won't feed four froglets for one day. Use them as a starter if you want; then grow your own.

Dart frogs eat only the new born 3-4 day old pinhead crickets, so they aren't going to pose a problem or molest your frogs. I get them only occasionally as a treat because they are expensive and I don't want to raise them myself. Fruit flies will be their mainstay, with some springtails, which are easy to raise, and field plankton in season if you have a safe place to collect. An entomologist's net is a good investment, and has been priceless when cultures have crashed.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos