# New Ranitomeya Imitator "Chazuta" (UE) [Pics+Video]



## DartFrogs415 (Jul 24, 2010)

Here are my new Ranitomeya Imitator "Chazuta" that arrived this morning from Understory Enterprises. (excuse the poor quality of the pics, those lil guys are fast!)



















(nothing to be concerned about, just a little sphagnum stuck to the body)



























































































I arrived 15 minutes before the UPS opened and was first in line to receive the package. When i got home and opened the box, I hit the outside of the package with a temp gun and it read 70.3 degrees (F). Inside the box, underneath the gel packs where the imis were resting the temperature registered at 75.3 degrees! It was very professionally packed and the color on the frogs is fantastic!  (Thanks Mark and Elaine!)

I have successfully raised several clutches of Tinc "azureus" and "powder blue" eggs from tadpole to juvenile, so i decided to try imitators. I was absolutely blown away by their size and colors. They are a fantastic metallic orange and gray/green.

Upon releasing them to the viv, within five minutes, one began to call. I've only heard the soft buzzing tones that Tincs produce, so imagine my surprise to hear these imitators call, producing a pleasant bird-like sound which is quite loud for such a tiny frog. I now hear calling (even from another room) maybe every 4-5 minutes.

I sat and stared at the tank for 30 minutes and after the automated mister went off, they gradually began to emerge and feed on a batch of springtails I released into the viv. I captured and edited a video for your enjoyment:

Ranitomeya Imitator 'Chazuta' feeding on springtails - YouTube

4 R. Fantastica 'lowland' arriving from Understory in Nov! Can't wait!


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

That's awesome, love those frogs.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

LOVE the red color on the one pic. NICE!!!

I got mine from Mark the last time around. Didn't take long for them to start breeding.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Love those frogs. Hope you can pump out some froglets for us!


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

Sweet dude, they look awesome! Are these F1? Nice to have someone in the area with Chazuta. Breed them so I can buy the morphs from you!

Justin


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

My god are those ever nice. Love their variability! I'll be sending you a message in a few months asking you how bold they are. 2 local friends have these and NEVER see them.

If anyone else has these feel free to pm me about it


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## DartFrogs415 (Jul 24, 2010)

konton said:


> Sweet dude, they look awesome! Are these F1? Nice to have someone in the area with Chazuta. Breed them so I can buy the morphs from you!
> 
> Justin


thanks man. i think they're F1, let me email the people at understory to find out. Working on breeding them, i've also got some fantastica 'lowland' coming in nov. i've seen your tanks, plants and frogs... i forsee some awesome trades in the future.


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## DartFrogs415 (Jul 24, 2010)

Mitch said:


> Love those frogs. Hope you can pump out some froglets for us!


thanks man! working on it!


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## DartFrogs415 (Jul 24, 2010)

GRIMM said:


> My god are those ever nice. Love their variability! I'll be sending you a message in a few months asking you how bold they are. 2 local friends have these and NEVER see them.
> 
> If anyone else has these feel free to pm me about it


thanks! i know it's too early to tell since i just got them, but i've seen all 4 all day. im beginning to easily recognize which is which and have seen the male hopping about and calling all day.

right now most of them are hiding in shaded areas of the tank and the leaf litter, but periodically throughout the day i have seen the male climb up to the top of the viv and scout around the broms while calling.

i can hear one calling quite often and when i go into the room to look, i see them out and about, but within less than a minute they're all hiding again. 

I guess they're feeling comfortable, since they are a whole lot fatter now compared to when they first arrived. they have been gorging on microfauna all day. 

time will tell if they embolden any further. i'll keep you updated.


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## dendrothusiast (Sep 16, 2010)

GRIMM said:


> My god are those ever nice. Love their variability! I'll be sending you a message in a few months asking you how bold they are. 2 local friends have these and NEVER see them.
> 
> If anyone else has these feel free to pm me about it


I love my chazutas. I've never had imitators but for some reason their colors and patterns drew me to them (so diverse!) and I knew inside they'de be a great frog. I've always had pums and nothing else and they were my jump into imitators.

They've been bolder than most frogs I've ever had and are ALWAYS out and about calling or eating non stop. Highly recommended species of thumbnail.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

great looking frogs, I gotta say when we went on the trip with UE the variation on the Chazuta imis was incredible!!


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## Coppertop (Aug 13, 2011)

gorgeous frogs! I had my heart set on varaderos as my first eventual thumbnails, but your little chazutas are making me think twice!


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## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

Absolutely stunning !


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## DartFrogs415 (Jul 24, 2010)

Hi everyone,
it's been a while since I updated everyone on my chazutas. I got really busy with work, but had been visiting dendroboard here and there to search for plants and saw a recently active thread about chazuta vs intermedius that inspired me to update everyone. [warning: graphic intensive]

first... a FTS (if you look carefully in the lower right corner, you'll see some good news!)










plant list:

Anthurium Scandens 
Araeococcus parviflorus 'Red Form'
Begonia "angel wing hybrid"
Ficus sp. "Panama" (lance-leaf)
Neoregelia sp 'June Night'
Neoregelia sp 'Petit Minou'
Sinningia muscicola 'Rios Das Piedras' (growing out on a patch of spaghnum and clay in the middle of the tank.)


and the story of that little froglet is even more amazing. Of the original 4 Chazuta's i purchased from UE, 2 paired off instantly and I separated that pair into their own tank. Here is (unfortunately), the best pic i have so far of this pair that i have been able to get through the moisture on the glass.










The other two were sold to a fellow DB member, 1 of them was for certain a male because calling was heard, the other not so sure, but no mating was ever observed, just calling from 1. Recently, a video featuring one of my sold chazutas feeding on springtails (to reggae music) was linked in a thread describing it as "intermedius" looking. That particular frog and the other frog that was "intermedius" looking were sold.

While i was preparing to sell the chazutas, i decided to break a large offset of my "June Night" bromeliad in a tank that was formerly housing the chazuta pair i decided to keep. The tank had been sitting empty (plants only) for over a month. I clumsily tried to break the offset off with my hands when i should've used a clean tool and accidentally tipped the mother bromeliad over. As i was pulling out the offset and shutting the front glass, i noticed something squirming on the glass.

Much to my surprise it was a rather plump tadpole! Apparently it had been living on dead fruit fly scum and algae inside one of the brom's leaf axils! i immediately filled a 16oz cup with tadpole tea and oak leaves and VERY gently coerced the tadpole into the water (and believe me, i mean VERY gently. I removed the whole glass panel and used a eye dropper filled with water and gently dripped it on the tadpole.)

I fed the rapidly growing tadpole a varied diet ranging from springtails, fruit flies, tadpole bites, green water and a sera micron/powdered cyclop-eeze blend. I really wish I would've taken a picture earlier, but it didnt dawn on me to document the metamorphosis until i started seeing little limbs on the tadpole. In this pic, the frog already has tiny rear legs and if you look carefully, you can see the fore legs forming. Pics taken March 13th, 2012.



















Here's another pic from March 13th, 2012 where you can see that metallic orange coloration come in.










and thirteen days later on March 26th...  (you can really see that fore leg developing)



















April 11th, 2012. Forelegs and rear legs have popped! I was getting worried for a bit because one fore leg came out before the other, but it looks like everything is fine!



















April 19th, 2012. I wake up to find the froglet hanging out of the water for the first time!



















My amateur attempt to take a close-up of the froglet (please excuse the mess of the tank on the right, it looks horrible i know. it was torn down and is now being used as a plant cutting grow out tank. Prominently featuring one of my least favorite plants [for a viv] dischidia ovata quietly thriving on the floor)










April 20th, 2012. (the enticing smell in the air, inspired the froglet to aim high and take a few steps forward)

Taking life to the edge!









retreating to the comfort of water.









April 23rd, 2012

Quite full and ready to venture into a grow out tank.









and that's it!

Since April 24th. My first Ranitomeya Imitator "Chazuta" froglet has been comfortably living it it's own 20 gallon vert, heavily seeded with microfauna and feeding on fruit flies dusted with repashy vitamin a, calcium +ICB and super pig.

My pair still call every morning right before lights on, about an hour after they've been on and again after lights out. I know where they are, they prefer to hide out in a Araeococcus parviflorus 'Red Form', emerging from it daily, but i have yet to see more tadpoles. :/

I have installed about 35 black and white film canisters w/ suction cups at various angles in the tank, but have not seen eggs. The pair are very plump and bounce around daily. Am i doing something wrong here? Why have they stopped producing? I suspect that there may already be tadpoles in the tank, should i leave them alone or attempt to pull them?


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

DartFrogs415 said:


> I have installed about 35 black and white film canisters w/ suction cups at various angles in the tank, but have not seen eggs. The pair are very plump and bounce around daily. Am i doing something wrong here? Why have they stopped producing? I suspect that there may already be tadpoles in the tank, should i leave them alone or attempt to pull them?


Love the frogs! Very nice looking. I would just leave any tadpoles you find alone and let the parents take care of things. They know what they are doing. They are also good at hiding tadpoles 

You could try putting them through a dry cycle. Mist less and feed less, then in a month or so crank the misting back up and start feeding a little everyday. That should get them going!

EDIT: forgot to mention that if they were taking care of that little guy that's probably why they weren't breeding for a while. And since they still aren't, they may be taking care of tadpoles right now!


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