# Epidobates Tricolor...first dart frogs!



## Guest (Dec 24, 2005)

Hey everyone,

My name's Devon, I'm 17, and live in Alberta, Canada. I've never had dart frogs before, but am getting a pair sometime next week. I've kept tiger salamanders, green tree frogs, whites tree frogs, boreal chorus frogs, red banded rubber frogs, warty newts, and cuban tree frogs, but these will be the first darts. They're Epidobates Tricolor...I'm having trouble finding care sheets for them. I've read that they're very easy to take care of, and that a basic dart frog set up would work, but I'd like to find out more...including the breeding of the species. 

As of right now, I have a 20 gallon set up with large water pan with rocks, bed-a-beast, a large leafy pothos, a cork bark half tube, a small drift wood branch, a UTH, a glass top, and some random clumps of moss. I plan to put in some more cork bark, a coconut hut, and put some cocofibre backing on the back of the tank. Does this sound like a good start? 

Thanks for the help, I'm really excited!


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Devon,

Welcome to the hobby and to the board. Your setup sounds like a reasonable start - anyway to post a photo of it? You might want to take a look at this recent message thread since it contains some info about tricolors. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12102

You may also want to take a look at this site for some tricolor info - 

http://www.poison-frogs.nl/e02.html

You refer to a UTH - I am assuming this means a heating pad? If so that is probably not necessary and could be dangerous to the frogs. Tricolors tend to like their temp a bit cooler than most PDFs.

You also don't make mention of having a bottom layer for drainage - you will find this is highly desirable to avoid have the substrate becoming waterlogged and stagnant. Common drainage layers are gravel or LECA (clay pellets).

Here is a link to a photo of a viv holding 4 adult Santa Isabel tricolors - it's a 25 gallon high and you can see the LECA drainage layer, substrate, plants, etc.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/ ... 6_0688.jpg

Good luck!

Bill

P.S. The scientific name is actually Epipedobates - I am always mispelling this one - must be some kind of mental block on my part :roll: Also Corey (KeroKero on the board) probably has forgotten more about tricolors and their care than I know  so when in doubt, you might want to direct a question her way.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Bill, you're too cute sometimes  Its only fair - I have the info, you have the frogs!

I'm more than happy to answer questions - and honestly my joke of making a "tricolor caresheet" seem to becoming more and more actually necessary. 

The link above is basically paraprasing most of the info I have on tricolor w/o getting into the color and tadpole debate too much. Unfortunately I don't have pics of my set ups from the past, and even if I had the money to set up a new tank right now my 20H is currently on vacation.


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