# Auratus Illness



## Guest (Sep 11, 2005)

We had the fortunate experience of purchasing three D. auratus at a recent reptile show in Utah. Everything was going wonderul, the frogs were eating just fine and interacting with each other fine (no aggression of any sort) Then after about a month, one by one, each frog became lethargic and stopped eating and within about a week to a week and a half would be dead. 

We don't know what is going on with them. We have one left (in very poor condition) and have started a pedialite soak with it. Although it hasn't eaten anything it does act more perky after it soaks in the liquid.

We also noticed as the frog was soaking in the pedialite it appeared that it was shedding its skin. I don't know if that is an important piece of info or not, just an observation.

It appears that they die of starvation even though they are surrounded by food. We have reason to believe that it is probably a parasite of some sort, but since we are fairly new to raising dart frogs, this experience is very new to us.

Is there any advice anyone can give to us it will be greatly appreciated. What should we do with the tank? (disinfect, replace?)
What could we have done to prevent the frog deaths?
What can we do to prevent it from happening again?
Should we fear this is something that can spread to other frogs in other terrariums?


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## asydabass (Jul 12, 2005)

Find a local vet, and have a fecal done on your remaining frogs.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

JandJdartfrogs said:


> Is there any advice anyone can give to us it will be greatly appreciated. What should we do with the tank? (disinfect, replace?)
> What could we have done to prevent the frog deaths?
> What can we do to prevent it from happening again?
> Should we fear this is something that can spread to other frogs in other terrariums?


Your experience is very unfortunate. First off, I would recommend contacting the breeder that you obtained the frogs from to let he/she know what happened with them. Secondly, were you dusting the FFs with vitamin/mineral supplements?

In terms of your question about the viv, i'm always of the opinion that in the face of a potential problem, be proactive. So before using that viv again, I would suggest trashing the contents and using a solution containing bleach to disinfect it.

Getting fecals done on new frogs is probably the only way to detect diseased animals early on...some people advocate going that route and others do not. 

Good husbandry including quarantine periods help prevent problems from becoming even bigger problems. 

Good luck and hope your future PDF experience is more positive.

Bill


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## dmatychuk (Apr 20, 2005)

Were you able to see parasites? White or black ones? Where the frogs sitting in a water feature on their own 3-4 days prior to death? And when you say you suspected parasites are you talking about mites size(tiny) or something different? Did they show any itchy behavior? Did you notice any stressful behavior to the first frog that died prior to the problem? i.e. a second female wrestling with it for dominance.

Guess:
Stress - Stopped Eating - Black Mites - Sit in Water - 3 more Days Dead 
next one followed same pattern.

I am curious how close I am.........just a shot in the dark. Plus talk about your tank a little. Was a new tank, heavily planted, where did you get your materials, any from the back yard(especially wood), did it have a water feature(was it circulating or a bowl),


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2005)

*Follow up*

Double post....sorry


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2005)

*Follow up*

We weren't able to see any external parasites, we were suspecting internal parasites of some sort. But that was just a guess. We didn't notice any itchy or stressful behavior at all. All the frogs were getting along just fine, no dominace behavior was being expressed.

Water feature: We do have a water dish in the viv that we keep filled with spring water and a petri dish under a coconut that stays fairly moist. They would often be seen in the water from time to time but not for long periods of time.

Yes the tank was brand new, and pretty heavily planted. We put a layer of gravel mixed with a little bit of charcoal in the bottom for drainage. Then on top of that we added a layer of sterilized potting mix that did not contain any additives of any sort. On top of that we have a layer of moss covering the entire floor. We collected the moss from the Oregon coast forest. (We have the same moss in other tanks and aren't having any problems in either of those tanks). We have plants planted throughout the tank (ivy, bromeliad, philodendron), a coconut half, water dish, and film canisters. We mist the tank a few times a day with purified spring water. 

Thank you everyone for your responses, if there is any other info you need just ask. We are pretty distressed about this and are open to any suggestions.


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## dmatychuk (Apr 20, 2005)

Probably without a fecal you are playing a guessing game. If you don't want to or can do a fecal I would change its location and put it in a ten gallon with wet paper towel this will add stress but then you can see the results of any eating at all while you maybe are watching or dark and you can observe the fecal matter for maybe obvious issues that will shed light. It could be so many things. Ask the dealer that you purchased them from it they ever de-wormed. Good luck sorry I am of no help.


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## VTHokie (Jun 28, 2005)

What was the temperature and humidity in the viv sometimes high temps or low humidity can cause frogs to not eat.


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2005)

*Last Frog*

Unfortunately we lost our last frog today. It did seem a little better each time we gave it a pedialite bath, but it would still not eat. To answer the last question, our tank's humidity is always relatively high (approx 85% or higher) and the temperature ranges from 75 nights - to approx 80 in the day.

So I suppose now we'll discard everything in the tank and disinfect the glass with chlorox and start over in a few weeks.

Is there anything dart frog owners should always keep on hand incase of sick frogs?

We want to thank everyone for their help and input in our unfortunate situation. It is great knowing that there are others out there willing to help us out.

Thank You

JD and Jason


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## dmatychuk (Apr 20, 2005)

As terrible as this is I would encourage you to still get a fecal done(if you can) and find out what you are dealing with. Or do some other testing. The last thing you want is some how this to migrated to other tanks and frogs. This has happened to me and let me tell you if this is contagious the nightmare can get worse. I would contact Dr. Frye Sorry again for your loss.


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