# Multi-species 56 gallon: phyllobates and tree frogs?



## FiddleSticks268 (Apr 6, 2015)

Hi! I'm trying to figure out if I can safely do a multi-species frog tank in a 56 gallon tank (30" x 18" x 24"). I'd like some dart frogs (maybe 4) and some tree frogs (4?). I'm wondering if I can possibly do two species of tree frogs. So far I'm leaning toward phyllobates for dart frogs because they can be kept communally and I like the sound of their personalities, although I'm not opposed to dendrobates if anyone can give me some that would work together. I know its frowned upon to keep different species together in case they hybridize, but I'm not planning on selling them... Whatever happens in my tank happens and I'll keep them until they die many years down the road, so I'm not too concerned with hybrids.

I'd also like to have some tree frogs. I really like clowns and milks, big eyes, and my favorite is a red-eyed tree frog but I think that I would prefer less finicky species right now as I'm still relatively new to frog keeping. I know I will need to go by size, so I'm assuming milks are out of the question. So I guess I'm stuck on clowns right now but whatever else you would recommend would be helpful.

So my main question is: can I have phyllobates with at least one species of tree frog without them showing interspecies aggression, and if so, what can I get?

My second question is: are there any other combos anyone has had success with and would like to recommend?

Thanks for the help!


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## AZimm (Nov 9, 2013)

Yes, you are correct that what you want to do is generally frowned upon. I believe the main reasons are because of different species mating/hybridization and also that many frogs eat anything smaller than they are. My red eyes will occasionally sort of "harass" each other too. All males. But one will jump onto the other males and chirp a bunch and follow them all over the tank. I would be concerned about different species stressing each other out. Many frogs are pretty sensitive and can even die from stress. Another issue, you would want to make sure whatever you feed all the species is the same size. Too small for one species means they won't eat it. Too large can be dangerous if the smaller species does try to eat it. I advise against what you are thinking about doing, but am interested to see what others have to say too..


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## JPccusa (Mar 10, 2009)

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beginner-discussion/173258-multispecies-reference-page.html


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## m_grieco (Nov 7, 2013)

I currently have a couple of red eyed tree frogs housed with a couple of tincs ("Patricia") in a display vivarium. I have seen no ill effects with either frogs as the tincs are active in the daytime hours (always visible and out foraging) and the red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal (mine usually don't wake up until about an hour or so after the lights go out (roughly 9 o'clock) so they don't have any interactions with each other. My Patricia's are actually a trio (2 females and 1 male) and even with two females in the enclosure, I have only seen one instance of aggression between them (the two females) and it was right after I returned one to the larger vivarium following a period of quarantine (they kind of "fought it out" for about 30 seconds) and parted ways...now they appear amicable with each other. I've even gotten eggs from this tank on two separate occasions (had the tincs roughly a year and a half) so they don't seem to be stressed by the sleeping red-eyes. Just make sure you have ample ground dwelling for you dart frogs and enough height for your tree frogs. I wouldn't suggest mixing more than one morph of dart frog or more than one type of tree frog...the tree frogs will end up competing and one may ultimately die (had this happen when I put a clown tree frog with a red eye tree frog, the red eye out competed the clown for food, red eye grew much faster and the clown tree frog sadly died (the only frog I've lost to this point). And obviously as you said with mixing of the darts you could have hybridization, bottom line (my two cents) is if you do mix species, pick one type of tree frog and one type of dart frog and set up and appropriately sized vivarium for them to be paired together.


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