# Froglets?



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Hey I'm Nick, I just signed up to learn more about caring for my new baby darts. I have 2 Costa Rican green's and a blue azureus that are housed in a large Exo Terra tank. I set it all up myself with 7 live plants, a black jungle kit, and created a false bottom with a fogger and a waterfall effect from an underwater filter/pump.

My question is, these little guys are not eating. I read online about keeping them in a small (maybe 5g or so) and did it. I set it up today with some substrate, a cocoa fiber semi circle hut for them to hide, some moss, and a small water dish. I loaded it with fruit flies AND pinheads. Now I've seen them all eat 2 or 3 insects, but that seems to be it. I'm worried about them not getting the nutrition they need. Should I put them back in the vivarium and keep feeding them or are they better in the tupperware?


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

I've taken a bunch of pictures from my phone, I'll attach them when I recieve the email and upload them


----------



## jdart16 (Jun 5, 2008)

Welcome to Dendroboard :mrgreen: 

First off mixing is a subject that is VERRRRYYYY sensitive here. I would seperate the azureus from the auratus. The azureus could be placed in a 10 gallon ($10.99) and set it up like your exo 5 gallons is really to small for anything but froglets and even then they should be fine in the exo.(By the way do you have the demensions of that)

Don't worry if you don't see them eating they most likely are and you just don't see them. Along with that you should become concerned if they start to become skinny. Try not to "load" your tank with to much food this overabundace could stress out your frogs.

My final concern would be you fogger, if you got it at a big chain pet store (petrsmart,Petco) there is a risk of shock if anything comes into contact with the water it is placed in whether it is your hand or your frog :shock: 

Justin


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Well the Exo is 18x18x24 (That's around 30gal I believe), the 5 gal I just put in place to raise the froglets. I bought the frogs at a specialty reptile shop called Regal, it's very popular here in RI. It's the only place you can actually buy PDF's and fly cultures. The worker there has been raising them and said as long as the tank was as big as mine then they could be mixed. He said the females stress eachother when the tank is too small. Even with the big tank, I notice that they like to stay together all the time.


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Here you can see I took the light and tipped it a bit to let a bit of light into the tupperware (it's not as bright as it looks in the picture)









Here's little Artemis in his tupperware (again it looks a lot brighter than it is)









The vivarium

























I've been doing more reading and didn't realize how important it is for them to be able to have privacy. I've been checking on them nonstop for 2 days now. I'll have to let them be and mist and feed once a day from now on so that I don't stress them out.


----------



## SMenigoz (Feb 17, 2004)

NARossi said:


> I've been doing more reading and didn't realize how important it is for them to be able to have privacy. I've been checking on them nonstop for 2 days now. I'll have to let them be and mist and feed once a day from now on so that I don't stress them out.


Nick,
I thing you're already on to the solution-- new frogs want to be quiet and stress-free...offer them plenty of leaf litter to hide underneath and maybe turn off the fogger until you see signs of weight gain and more activity.
Best of luck,
Scott


----------



## tkromer (Dec 20, 2007)

I think you may be annoying them to the point of causing stress, and as was mentioned above mixing the azereus with the auratus is probably not a good idea. The tank looks beautiful, and aside from adding some leaf litter and perhaps a couple other spots to hide, I think it's setup quite well. I would say leave the pair of auratus in the larger tank, house the azureus in your 5G tank, and start making him a "permanent" home as soon as you can. Get them some cover, leave them alone, feed them once a day (maybe 20 flies each, less if you still see leftovers the next day), and in a matter of a few days or a week I bet they're out and about


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

I aggree, don't stress em' out. For babies, I do a 190 oz. bin (1 per bin) or a group of froglets (same species, same morph/locale) in a 10 gallon. The furnishings in both consist of 3-5 inches of leaf litter above about an inch of spahgnum moss or coco fiber. I mist it every 3-5 days and feed springtails and melano's. The little guys really love sprigs. I try not to disturb them, the tincs usually don't get too scared when I open the lid, but auratus are much shier and will get very stressed (so will the tincs) if their cage is constantly being changed or they are being moved.


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Sounds like a plan. The only thing that really concerns me now is the bins that I'm keeping the froglets in. In the picture you can see it, it's a rubbermaid one. It's the biggest one that I could find. I'm sure it's large enough, but it's airtight. They won't suffocate if I open it once or twice a day max, will they? I doubt they produce enough CO2 for that, but I see those little throats always moving.


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Also I was quite concerned with mixing the two breeds. However, I was reading this article off of saurian.net and it stated that it was a fairly safe mix:

"Both situations are possible, but while this can be done, it should be done with care. As you may have already read here on my site or elsewhere, the Dendrobates tinctorius and D. azureus dart frogs usually do not do well in groups, as adult frogs, primarily females, may attack, or otherwise harass to death other females in the tank. (See the caresheet on D. azureus and D. tinctorius for more on this) However they generally only bother females of their own species, so keeping two azureus with some D. auratus shouldn't cause a problem. (Remember though that in this regard D. tinctorius and D. azureus should be considered the same species, as they will fight and interbreed just as if they were all the same species"

Of course I'll keep a close eye on them to see if any bullying occurs, but so far they seem to be rather friendly.


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

I really wouldn't suggest mixing, you can't start off reading the articles bias. If there is one article that gives it an ok, people seem to just listen to that one because it's the one they want to hear. Look at the sticky for "articles for beginners" and you'll see a huge debate about mixing, just make sure you know the risks. and I promise you, both species are plenty entertaining to keep by themselves, so why mix? especially because tincs are super territorial and auratus will probably get bullied sometime along the road...


----------



## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

Raising baby frogs of different species together is no big deal except if they are from different breeders you run the risk of exposing them to something. Young frogs of the Tinc type do not seem to have issues being raised together (Leucs, Auratus, Azureus and the like). Once they start to get beyond 6 months and start to take on adult characteristics is when you want to look at setting them up in what hopefully will be their permanent home.
Mixing adult animals that can potentially breed together is what everyone has issues with. And everyone is right about stressing baby frogs, give them tons of cover and don't go poking around.
Mark


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

Yes, I wasn't clear about mixing froglets, most of the time thats fine. As long as they are from the same source, but the problems arise when they are older.


----------



## NARossi (Aug 8, 2008)

Well that gives me some time to set up another viv for the blue guy. So far they've been eating, I only found 1 fly in the tank left this morning when I went to check on them. I also bought a few new cultures of flies and another of springtails.

Now I want to breed the springtails in my vivarium. Since I have a month or so of the froglets being in the tupperware, can I just dump the culture into the viv.? I don't need to include the charcoal, do I?


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

Thats what I do for my little guys, the cultures will not last too long though (in my experience). The frogs will eat most of them up before they get a chance to reproduce. You can seed the tank though (the new one) and that population will last a while.


----------

