poison dart frogs info

[giaindell]

im gaining a new interest in dart frogs and i have acouple questions.

how should their habitat be? deeply planted or few plants here and there?

i know humidity should be high. ive read about 80
temperatures should be 70's as ive read.
lighting yes or no? if yes what kind of bulb?
you should have no more then 2 in a 10 gallon true or false?

what is the best breed to work with?
what is the smallest breed?

if you have any other well worked with websites besides joshs frogs?

thank you any answers are appreciated

 

[Marty]

try dartfrogz.com & dendroboard.com you'll get lots of into there

here's few pics of my setup when it was pretty mossy. now it's much more covered with leaf litter

 

[giaindell]

wow that is very nice...are you supposed to have the water?

 

[Marty]

No, no need for the water. This is a 90gal so I put one there.

 

[giaindell]

oh okay where did you buy your frogs local store or online?

 

[Marty]

usually I pre-arrange the sale and pick them up at reptile shows

 

[MATT2504]

That's one nice setup you got there Marty

 

[fluxlizard]

wow! beautiful tank!

I've bred arautus, tincs, tricolors and leucs.

10g for a pair works OK. Some breeders use that. Isn't nearly as fun to look at as the tank in this thread. LOL

I think a 29 gallon is a good size for many species- you can enjoy them moving about a nice landscape in a tank that size.

Lighting isn't critical- just some kind of florescent tube.

I liked plants and stuff in mine. I used a small pump to make a little waterfall and had a little pool in one corner. If you place your pump at the opposite end as the pool you can use your gravel base as a giant biological filter. I still siphoned water out and changed it every couple weeks though.

I think any of the species I worked with are easy. Leucomelas were toughest for me to get to breed. The other 3 are very easy. Once started, auratus breed like clockwork.

My big secret for breeding- limit your ventilation. A lot. As in very very little ventilation, 90+% of the top completely covered. If the glass has a slight water haze on it, humidity is correct for breeding.

And never ever skip feeding when trying to breed.

 

[giaindell]

wow! beautiful tank!

I've bred arautus, tincs, tricolors and leucs.

10g for a pair works OK. Some breeders use that. Isn't nearly as fun to look at as the tank in this thread. LOL

I think a 29 gallon is a good size for many species- you can enjoy them moving about a nice landscape in a tank that size.

Lighting isn't critical- just some kind of florescent tube.

I liked plants and stuff in mine. I used a small pump to make a little waterfall and had a little pool in one corner. If you place your pump at the opposite end as the pool you can use your gravel base as a giant biological filter. I still siphoned water out and changed it every couple weeks though.

I think any of the species I worked with are easy. Leucomelas were toughest for me to get to breed. The other 3 are very easy. Once started, auratus breed like clockwork.

My big secret for breeding- limit your ventilation. A lot. As in very very little ventilation, 90+% of the top completely covered. If the glass has a slight water haze on it, humidity is correct for breeding.

And never ever skip feeding when trying to breed.

thank you! i plan on downsizing my chameleon collection because i do not have the space for their enclosures atm. but there is other things i need to focus on before starting a new animal proj

 

[ijmccollum]

Nice tank Marty. What kind of mass were you using? I haven't been able to fine one that works for me. They are green for awhile and then go brown.

 

[ataraxia]

beautiful tank!

that kind of moss is hard to keep that green unless you have some powerful lights and a misting system. i redid a couple of my tanks thinkin the stuff would be ok under t5's in a 29g...nope. mine turned dark green and some brown in like 2 months. if you decide to get that kind of moss. when you dust your feeder be sure not get the excess powder on the moss. it will turn it brown even with great lighting and moisture. it usually does great in shallow tanks like a 10g. where the lighting is more intense.

lighting is very key with your plants. you have to be careful not to heat your tank though in the process. i like using actinic bulb in combination with 6800k bulb for the plants. dont listen to me though i cant grow a god da@! bromeliad for the life of me.

ive only kept Phyllobates bicolor and Dendrobates auratus, Kahlua. so i cant say which frog would be the best as there are many.

i dont know if this guy has a website but he breeds many many darts. i bought some blue back reeds off of him. [email protected]

 

[Trundy]

Dendroboard has a lot of good info... I've been keeping for a good few years ... I second what Marty said.. pre arrange a deal and pick up locally.. Or just find a few keepers or a local group and go that route. It will allow you to see other set ups and have a consistent source for questions..... and fruit flys in case of emergency... As far as frogs to get going.. I allways recomend Leucs first... But Azureus and Auratus are also fantastic starters... All of those are reasobably priced , but even better very hardy and easy to take care of ... Welcome to the addiction =0)

 

[giaindell]

thank you for the help everyone! it is well appreciated!

 

[ijmccollum]

Can't believe I wrote "mass" instead of "moss". Thanks for reading past that ataraxia. Guess I will have to live vicariously thru other people's moss since I don't want to heat the tanks.

I go with a local guy that a friend qued me in on, he was a former student of hers and I ran into him at the SLC expo. I started with leucs and azules but am thinking of going for thumbs next. Like chams, darts are an addiction.