# Just got a dart frog a little help please?



## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Hi i just got a dart i have decided to use paper towels until i know what he is eating and how much. The paper towels are really wet from what i heard this is good and i have a log, plastic plant clippings. From what i readh temps above 80 are bad right? Temps below 65 isnt good either right? Humidity is to be as high as possible right? I was wondering can i take out some of the clippings to better see the dart frog? I also have a things of pin head crickets and i dumped too much in should i be worried or just let him settle in and change the paper towels out in the morning and try to dump less crickets next time? Also its a Green&Black aruatas.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Here's the Auratus care sheet for more info on them:
http://dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19811

Auratus tend to be kinda shy, and prefer more cover to help them feel secure to come out. Leave the plants you have in there, and you may want to add more. If the frogs feels like it has many places to hide, it will be more likely to venture out to the open because it knows finding a hiding spot isn't an issue. However, if you keep the frog in a tank with little cover, it will be stressed out and not likely to leave what cover it does have. 

If the crickets are crawling on the frog, then they should be removed if the trick in the next sentence doesn't work. I suggest putting a small piece food in there for the crickets to go to instead of bugging the frog. Fruit, carrot, and potato all would be good choices.


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## SusannahJoy (Jul 3, 2006)

Alright, well, you need to be doing as much research as possible right now. First of all, no, do not remove the plants. They need them to feel safe and comfortable. Also, remove any excess crickets, those will just it out. Wat kind of container do you have it in right now? Are you planning on setting up a better container? You don't want the paper towels to be "really wet" you want them to be damp enough to keep the humidity up (around 85%). Get a good digital hydrometer to measure the humidity. Keep plastic wrap or something on the top to prevent it from escaping. Crickets are great food, but are kinda difficult (they tend to grow quickly, store bought ones need to be rehydrated and gutloaded first, they're noisy to culture yourself), so most people use fruit flies. Do a search on here in the food section and you'll find out how to culture those. Also, read all the sticky threads at the top of this forum, they go over a lot of the basics that you need to know. And I'm sure (I hope) you know this, but next time, try not to buy an animal without knowing how to take care of it. Good luck!


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Its in a 10 gallon. Wet paper towels with the entire bottom covered in plastic plants. It also has a plastic log thats 1/3 of the tank it can go in and out. It has a plant flourescent light on top. I have a thermo/hygro meter i yet to put in i will do that after this. I will order up some fruit flies as well. He is very small and i think its a baby/juvenile. He is climing the glass as we speak heres a few pics they may be huge sorry.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Also i have researched them i dont buy without some knowlegde and i dont get my info from the petshops either b.c they are just throwing stuff at you to buy other things that are not neccasary or dont even work. I have a 5ft male iguana and (2) 6-7 foot redtails boas. This is my first with amphibians and was suprised how small he was!


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Temps holding steady at 76 and %90 humidity.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

No replies? :?


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Your pictures didn't post, at least not that I could see them. 

Your new frog will probably do just fine with what you have put him in, for the duration, but why plastic plants, when cuttings or pieces of real ones are a part of what the ease of dart keeping is all about? Why use plastic when live is better?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

The pictures are hosted from a forum that requires people to login to see them. You need to host them somewhere the's open. Imageshack.us would be a good site for doing this quickly, as would starting a gallery here.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Ok here's my second try at pics. I also use the fake plants b.c i dont have any live plants at my house.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Looks good so far just make sure to change the paper towel weekly and do not get it too wet.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Thanks. I will be putting down bedabeast once i know how much he/she eats. If all goes well with him i am going to set upt 2 more ten gallons the same way and get 2 different species for each 10 gallon. Id like to get a few different types of posion frogs. By the way this is Tiny Tim!


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

You can get a lot of bacterial growth in 48 hours and wet paper toweling with frog poop and dead ff on it is a perfect growth medium. For this reason, I never recommend keeping frogs on paper towels unless it is only to retrieve a clean fecal. But if you do use them, I actually would recommend changing the toweling every 2 days. I've seen frogs have their feet rotted off by living on paper toweling that was changed less often.

I don't mean to sound alarmist but IMO using paper toweling is not worth the risk. Keeping frogs in a clean environment is much more important than knowing how many flies they will eat. You will get that figured out soon enough regardless of the substrate used.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Does bed a beast sound good? I heard it sticks to them?


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## Josh_Leisenring (Jun 19, 2005)

I'd say the best substrate you can use in a basic beginner's viv is long-fiber sphagnum moss that you can pick up in the gardening section of any hardware store or greenhouse. It retains moisture well, and will often come back to life with good lighting. You'll probably want to put down a drainage layer beneith your substrate if you plan on making this any sort of permanent set-up. There are plenty of threads on making false bottoms, but, for your purposes, it might be easier to just put an inch or two of gravel or leca under your substrate for drainage, preferably separated from the substrate with a piece of screen to prevent particulate material from building up too much in the drainage. Once you have the sphagnum in place, you can also place clippings from a variety of hardy plants, such as pothos and marantas, to provide cover for the frog. You can often simply stick the cut end of the clippings right into the moist sphagnum without any soil, and they'll grow fine. Good luck! 

- Josh


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Just got Eco Earth or Jungle Bedding (brick that goes in water and expands) threw that down on the floor pressed it down so it was flat so not sticking would occur and heavily misted. I have no water dish should i get a small shallow one? The cage looks great and got some fruit flies as well.

Ok now on to the frog. He seems lethargic will only jump around if touched? He moved to hide by himself and is their now. Will he ever come out? I have the clippings down like before so its all coverd over with many places to hide. He is also really skinny and doesnt care for pinheads or fruit flies doesnt want to eat? Any help?


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## titan501x (Dec 7, 2006)

shallonw water is best, but it is not nessecary. I've only had my frog for a months, and when i got him i barly ever saw him. If the frog is not very active, then the tempature and/or humidity is not right. 

Do you have temp and humidity gauges?


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Yes i do 77 degrees farenheit and %95 humidity was what it was before i shut the flourescent light off (digital meter was on the ground). Are they active at night? He moved some since the light has gone off (used a little flashlight to look in every hour or so). The water dish is not needed but can be used without any ill efects?


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## titan501x (Dec 7, 2006)

play around with the temp. Thats what i did, now my frog is very active.
The only problem with water is the fruitflies drowning. But the water needs to be extremely shallow


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Yes ill give him a few days to settle in at these temps. If he doesnt become active then i will play with them a bit. The fruit flies can fly but they can do magic! They climb the walls and disappear i think they just are at the top. They arnt getting out yet b.c i havent seen one. Should i put a water dish or no? Is a preference thing or do they use it sometimes?


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

And do use live plants, or live plant cuttings, rather than plastic. 

I agree with Josh, that the long brown sphagnum is great to have, either alone or mixed with other organic substrates, or coconut fiber. It has a kind of antibiotic quality that discourages rot fungi, and does indeed occasionally "come alive," whether through spores or other means, and it's a great moss to have when alive. In the past, I've used milled brown sphagnum mixed with sand to grow many rare, difficult seeds successfully, including things like the very rare and "impossible to grow" seeds of several species of tiny cacti, Frailia sp. collected in the dry, nearly lifeless areas of Peru and Chile by the Ritter expedition--way back in the 50's. It totally prevented "damping off." These cacti are small enough to grow in a thimble, and have a bloom about twice the size of the plant. The only water they get in nature is from fog drifting in off the ocean. They never get rain in that coastal band, or maybe a 1/4 inch every 10 years. So getting them to germinate and grow was problematic. Too much moisture would rot them, and not enough, wouldn't allow them to germinate, which under their natural conditions, would be only about every 10 years. The milled sphagnum along with the sharp sand drainage took care of the rot problem. So I was able to germinate the seed and grow them without duplicating their exacting, nearly impossible natural conditions. They sprouted up with the ease of petunias, and later bloomed in thimble sized containers. I think I germinated all 7 species of Frailias from the Ritter expedition seeds they sent me, at about 90% success. Using dried brown sphagnum, seemed to be the trick to balancing out the otherwise picky requirements of germinating and then growing various difficult and exacting seeds. 

Since then, it's been my own favorite media to grow anything in, from mixing with sand for cacti, to tropical dart frog vivariums, either alone or 
mixed with other organic substrates. The coconut fiber won't stick to the frogs for long, once it's damp. It breaks down slowly, so never turns into mush. 

Sphagnum moss, the long brown kind, should not be confused with the dark brown peat" moss of gardening fame one can purchase at nurseries in bales or sacks. While peat moss is fine in a garden, for acidifying the soil, and providing organic matter, it doesn't hold up very well in a close terrarium/vivarium set up. It is simply not the same thing.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Thank you for that i read it all! But just to clarify and im not trying to bash this site or nothing but im not looking to begin a living terrarium..Its not my thing with plants i will gladly just use plastics and clean out the substrate once a month or as needed (we will see). It looks great and if Potho's will take root in Coco Fiber then i will try those as i did by a special uv light a while ago and now am putting it to use.


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Yungair23 said:


> Thank you for that i read it all! But just to clarify and im not trying to bash this site or nothing but im not looking to begin a living terrarium..Its not my thing with plants i will gladly just use plastics and clean out the substrate once a month or as needed (we will see). It looks great and if Potho's will take root in Coco Fiber then i will try those as i did by a special uv light a while ago and now am putting it to use.


If you don't want to deal with plants, pothos is just as easy as plastic - seriously. Except the tank will grow in and the frog will appreciate it.


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## Yungair23 (Nov 16, 2006)

Thank you i will cut some potho leaves and root them in the eco earth. Will they grow and how often should i change the substrate? Its only 1 frog with another one of the same species D.Aruatus coming along shortly. I wont put more than 2 to that cage. Can i put a different colored? I wont be breeding them.


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

You do not need to change the substrate with live plants, as they will recycle the frog wastes, maybe just top-dress it every so often, add leaf litter, etc.


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## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

IMO, (and most others on this board) *It is never a good idea to put two different morphes or species together...* even if they are the same species, but different morphes, they might stress each other out to the point of *death!*

I agree with the pothos idea too...

Good luck!![/b]


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## DizzyD (Sep 19, 2006)

Like everyone said Pothos is very, very easy. Just cut from main plant and stick in substrate, water/mist, and in no time, or a very short time it will take over that viv of yours. But, again; the more hiding spots a shy little guy like that has the better. He will be happier and healthier.


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

There are other easy plants, too. You can stick in cuttings of Ficus pumilia varieties, Peperomia, Pilea species, Even common ivy vines, like the Hedera Helix of many varieties the plastic plants attempt to duplicate, are alive and doing a job. They aren't hard to grow, and all you really have to do is toss them in a humid vivarium and they will grow. Anything alive is better than plastic plants.


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