Poison Dart Frogs

[PeanutbuttER]

Anyone ever kept them? How easy/hard are they to keep? I saw a display about a week ago at a petstore it was one of the coolest things ever. That store always has such beautiful displays. I didn't realize how vibrant the colors actually were. From what I've read captive raised frogs don't produce toxins? Another question, do you have to keep one tank per color of frog or can you mix colors in a tank?

 

[moswen]

you can mix colors, our zoo has a rainforest area, they keep all colors of poison darts together.

i have never kept them, but i seriously looked into them when our pacman frog died. he was technically "my daughter's" pet (and by that i mean i really wanted one but i had to pass it off as kaylynn's so the hubbs wouldn't freak out so much lol) but he was so boring (obviously) that she had more fun gut-loading the krickets than watching fitzwilliam frog burrows! so i thought some nice, active, colorful, tiny little hopping frogs would be much more interesting.

it SEEMS relatively easy, especially for those of us who already have experience keeping humid environments for tropical animals, but reading about keeping them, a lot of people said it was pretty tricky... get a 20 gal, 4 poison darts, put some live plants in, other rocks, logs, or hides, keep a water dish, keep the temps up, don't forget to feed them. the worst part that turned me off of it for the moment is that you have to feed them with flightless gnats and the culture that you have to buy to "grow" the flightless gnats supposedly stinks, and some of the frogs are cheaper than the overnight shipping... but if you have some at your pet store then you wouldn't be dropping $300 on some frogs that may not make it.

the part that seemed the hardest and what everyone complained/cautioned about was getting them to breed. if you do actually get tadpoles out of it you need filtered/running water and a separate tank for the babies and all that...

but they are beautiful, aren't they?!

look into bumblebee toads too, it is claimed that they are easier to keep, but absolutely impossible to breed in captivity. no one has ever done it, but they are beautiful.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

actually i own bumble bee toads and there has been breedings mine are showing signs of breeding now they make a chirplike call its pretty wierd,they are really pretty(black with yellow spots)they sell bot $35 dollars and i have a nice healthy group ive had for a year,THEY ARE FOR SALE after having for a while i was keeping on more of a coco husk thinkin they wanna burrow but i noticed as i put more rocky objects in there cage they were partial to hanging on or under rocks so now i got a really nice set up in a ten gal that goes with em.I was hoping to breed,they are so fun to watch,i raise thtwo other toad species and i have pacific chorus frogs that are fantastic i intend to breed,also i have one star tortoise that im planning on starting a collection of.IM GIVING A REALLY GOOD DEAL ON THESE BUMBLE BEES im jus tired of ordering flies bcus the petstore closest to me carries dead flies all the time.

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The pacific tree frogs i got are more hardy and nice to look at,there like little predators when they eat,also they are alot cheaper,...

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Man, the variety of colors in these dart frogs is amazing. I'm still just floored by how they have these sometimes vibrant, sometimes metallic, sometimes deep colors. Absolutely gorgeous. The thumbnail poison darts seem like they're somewhat difficult to keep, but the other poison dart frogs seem very doable. Getting the plants to grow though is for certain going to be my hardest problem to accomplish, but what I learn there could be turned around and used on improving to some degree my RF enclosure.

Seriously though, these are dang cool. I gotta find a way now to let the wife know I want them without her immediately thinking we already have too many animals...Hmmm...

Pluses:
Require room temperature enclosures. Little to no heating required.
stay small
monogamous (alright, so not technically a plus, but hey it's still pretty cool)
Not poisonous
Don't take up a lot of space
Daytime active

Minuses:
super high humidity requirements, 80-100%
Seems like you need some sort of fogger to get that much constant humidity.
Growing bugs for food (I'd have no problem starting colonies of wingless fruit flies though.)

 

[Marty333]

I went to the zoo today and they had some on display. They are really cute

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Thanks for the tip about dendroboard. I've been lurking there for the past couple days. I like the layout as it feels similar to TFO. I'd love to get a pair of the blue ones you saw at the zoo katerina. They're great and that other one looks nice too. Thanks for the pics.

Yesterday I went around to a couple pet stores to price things out. They had the blue ones, yellow and black ones, green and black ones, and maybe another kind I don't remember. They even had about 4 little froglets at one of the store that were just beautiful. Prices were about 50 a frog (kinda high by tort standards. Pay 100 or so for a tortoise that will be with you for the rest of your life, or 50 for a frog that will live about 5 years). I'd love to find some locally like on craigslist though and spend less while supporting local breeding projects. I also ensure that they're captive bred that way.

First though I gotta get the enclosure, then the plants, then the fly colonies, and then the frogs. It'll probably be a month or two before I get any frogs... but that's okay. I want to set it up in stages and let the enclosure settle/grow in for a bit before adding any frogs to the mix.

 

[LeaCrystal]

Someone i work with has like 50+ different kinds of poison darts and from what he tells me is that sometimes they will kill eachother when put together i just dont remember what species they are....

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Someone i work with has like 50+ different kinds of poison darts and from what he tells me is that sometimes they will kill eachother when put together i just dont remember what species they are....

Holy cow. I've been lurking/posting a bit on dendroboard and I'm amazed at the collections some people have (though I guess it's not any worse really than the tortoise collections people have). I always wonder though with so many animals how they have time to enjoy them 50+, that must have cost a small fortune to set up.

From my readings some species of darts will kill each other if kept in the wrong ratios. Females of some are apparently very aggressive toward each other while the males tend to be the more "calm" of the sexes.

There's actually a fairly strong local froggers community. Who knew right? BTW, next time you see your friend ask him if he's on Dendroboard for me. It'd be great to meet some guys/gals in town who are into it and are willing to share what they've learned.

 

[LeaCrystal]

i believe i close with him tomorrow so i'll deffinately ask him. He's always talking about his poison darts and has a mkillion books on them lol half the time i forget what he said. But i'll ask him...