# D. pumilio "Darklands"



## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

I have recently stumbled across an offer for darklands pumilio. Now of course these are some of the most wanted frogs at the time and there is no way I am going to F this up. I have been doing extensive research on pumilios and feel confident to get them. If any of you want to offer closer secrets on breeding pumilios drop me a pm, but otherwise i am looking for constructive criticism but I dont " I wouldnt get them they are really hard to care for and breed". Also the breeder wishes to remain confident sorry guys and girls.


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

I have heard a lot of people are having trouble breeding them, but Rich has had great luck in a huge vivarium (see http://www.dartden.com under "huge amounts of great stuff").


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

booboo said:


> ... Also the breeder wishes to remain confident sorry guys and girls.


I'm sure he's quite confident.

He may want to remain confidential as well.

s


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

haha yah confidential sorry i was in a rush at the end there.


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## Filip (Jan 12, 2006)

Why would Darklands be more difficult to breed than other Pumilio? 

The only difference with other Pumilio-morphs in my opinion is the difficulty to sex them: there is almost no visible difference between male and female. And in my experience, the male hardly ever shouts: i have seen my male with a blown up chin a few times but i never heard a decent call...
But as these Darklands are my only Pumilio-morph, it's hard to compare...


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Filip said:


> Why would Darklands be more difficult to breed than other Pumilio?
> 
> ...


Look at it this way...take into consideration how many blue jeans pumilio were imported back in the day...how many CB blue jeans do you see now?

To compare, "man creek" pumilio have only been around for a couple of years, and some people are already offering CB offspring...some people who are working with pumilio for the first time are having success.

I know this says nothing about darklands, but is an example how two morphs of the same species can be quite different.


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## PAULSCHUMANN (Apr 20, 2005)

Yes Blue Jeans were imported heavily back in the day, but no one atempted breeding them when they could buy them in 25 lots for 6$ a piece wholesale, I used to sell them for 20$ each in a pet shop I used to manage. 

Look at leopard geckos, they came into the country cheap, then they hit limited import quantities, everyone realized they were easy to breed and sold tons of them, then the getting price fell to 5$ each for cb babies since there were so many, everyone quit breeding them...and now the price is back up to what it once was...

7 years ago I wouldn't have thought in a million years that pumilio would go for 100$ each, then again I never thought we would see any other morphs than blue jeans.


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## bobzarry (Mar 2, 2005)

Thats the problem when people breed for profit, rather then to further the hobby and insure a healthy domestic stock.


Bob


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Definitely speak with Rich Frye, his have been doing very well.


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

Thanks for the info, keep it coming!


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## Jace King (May 5, 2004)

hello
congrats, i hope someday to have darklands and i wouldnt even dream of trying to talk you out of them. 
In my opinion the most important factor in pumilio is food. There not going to live happily on D. melonogastor in my opinion. First person i would call is not rich, but someone with all the springtail varities. I would buy up every culture and variety of springtail possible. Spend alot of money right out the gate on springtails and their medium. maybe search out a couple of other foods. like parasitic wasps, pinhead crickets.
There are a million ways to feed these guys to frogs.

other items of importance to me. Leaf litter and great broms. its like smart frogs choose the best broms. I sometimes look in and think, yeah that would be my axil.

Eventually though i would give Rich a holler, that is of course if its not him your getting them from. (just to be a prick)

Larger the better on viv. Nothing smaller than 10 gal per frog.


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## twisner (Jul 7, 2005)

Dancing frogs said:


> Filip said:
> 
> 
> > Why would Darklands be more difficult to breed than other Pumilio?
> ...


I am not positive, but i believe darklands were first brought into the hobby very recently, i think i heard spring 2005. 
This explains their rarity, because even if they were prolific, it still would take a while to get htem established in the hobby.


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

No, they have been in the hobby longer than that. They are supposedly one of the most dificult pumilio species to safely acclimate to captivity and keep alive as adults, the breeding is not necessarily the most difficult part.


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## NCSUdart (Oct 1, 2004)

How much is your "source" asking for them. I know fruitflies.net had 2 available last week at 300 each when i bought my bribri pair from them.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

crap i've never seen that site, i thought i'd found every site selling darts. if anyone knows some others not on the dendroboard link list let me know


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## NCSUdart (Oct 1, 2004)

i never knew he bred pumilio till last week. i was looking for some new cultures and i noticed he had a dart link. Had 2 darklands for sale, the bribri pair i purchased, i think 2 colon, and maybe a solarte.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Damn, I certainly would have picked up those darklands or the colon.


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

thanks for the link! I will look them up.


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## aneides (Apr 12, 2005)

*General advice*

In general your success with any dart will be greatly impacted by the condition it is in when you receive it. Frogs that have to go through a rough trip to the states, then have to be transported again to their final destination are going to be less likely to thrive. 

If the animals are wild caught it is likely that they have been subjected to stress in transport and will have parasite loads. Treatment with flagyl and panacure may be necessary, another reason to call Rich.

Assuming that your frogs are the picture of health then I would try a large viv. This is not because of the size but because of the various microclimates that will be provided. At this point you know what the frogs want in general because of the research you have done. However, providing a wide variety of microclimates within the enclosure will allow the frogs to pick the one they like best for oviposition, calling etc. 

If they are not well acclimated I would start with a smaller viv and get them acclimated before putting them in the big one. Acclimation periods would be longer for wild caught animals. You want to be able to observe subtle changes in the animals and respond appropriately. 

All the pumilio morphs have different selective pressures in the wild so they are not all the same. What makes a quasi-highland costa rican form tick may not be the same thing hits the buttons for a solarte. I would talk to anyone who would talk to me that has more experience than me with what I was working with. 

I know, pretty general but knowing where the frog is from, a little about its life history and starting with a healthy frog have produced good results for me.

Brian


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

aneides that is exactly the kind of answers i wanted! Thanks

Yes they are c/b specimens so i am not too worried about infection but i still think it will be best to have some meds on hand.

I was thinking an 18-30 only for the reason that i will be able to observe them and make sure they are healthy and eating. Ideally i would like to keep them in a 50 but then viewing issues may be a bit of a problem and i want to keep track of them, all my tanks are very heavily planted.

I really like the idea of microclimates and have pondered this issue many times for smaller tanks.They will have their very own marty mistking mister along with my supplemental mistings where i think the tank will need it. Also i plan on havng a springtail culture at the floor of the tank (just extremley seeded not a culture itself). A 2 inch layer of leaf litter adequate ventilation. etc then a couple little tricks i have picked up from various breeders


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