# MANTELLAS VS. DART FROGS



## CanadianAmphibian (Jul 27, 2006)

Alot of people are saying to me that if I have Mantellas then I wouldn' t have problems keeping dart frogs. 

I' m thinking of getting D. Azureus soon. 

Guys, which one is easier to keep for a beginner? D. Azureus or D. Tinctorius "Cobalts"?


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## hoyta (Jan 18, 2006)

*hey*

hey bro, they are about the same when it comes to husbandry. azureus were my first darts, and now i spend every extra dollar i have on darts/supplies! LOL! 
good luck either way!


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Mantellas have similar food size and general rainforest habitat requirements (tho very different breeding requirements, and PDFs tend to be easier to breed). Both azureus and cobalts are excellent beginner PDFs, and their care is the same, its pretty much up to which you like the looks of better. Either way, buy the oldest frogs you can afford, these frogs can be tricky when young, and frogs around 1 inch/2.5 cm or larger are best for beginners, as they are past their "tricky" stage in life.


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## CanadianAmphibian (Jul 27, 2006)

Thanks for the advice guys.


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## SusannahJoy (Jul 3, 2006)

it's been my somewhat limited experience that mantellas are harder than darts to keep happy (and WAY more complicated to get them to breed), so if you can keep mantellas you'll be fine with darts. as for which ones, either of those are considered beginner frogs. either way, good luck and have fun!!


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## PickingRice484 (Sep 21, 2005)

From what i remember...mantellas like it at about 65-70 degrees where at darts like it around 70-75 and pumilio 80-84


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Really depends on the mantella, especially temperature wise, some are montane, while others are kept the same as PDFs. Some species just seem to adapt to captivity better. Then you have to take into consideration that the majority of mantellas in the hobby are WC, and WCs are always trickier than CB. I'd put CB care for a mantella species with similar temperature requirements about par with a CB PDF. Breeding a mantella will always be trickier due to their seasonal breeding schedule, having to induce their breeding, rather than the majority of the PDFs in the hobby which are year around breeders.


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## CanadianAmphibian (Jul 27, 2006)

PickingRice484 said:


> From what i remember...mantellas like it at about 65-70 degrees where at darts like it around 70-75 and pumilio 80-84


Yeah, it' s true about the temperature. Two of my Mantellas died this summer for I don' t have airconditioning.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Again I want to stress the Mantella SPECIES here... when it comes to the Genus _Mantella_ you can't really generalize on temps - I'm working with 3 types of mantellas that are doing just fine around 70-74, which is what most of my PDFs are at. Those temps would cook other mantella species... the ones I have in these conditions are M. expectata, M. viridis, and M. sp. 'Blushing'.


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