# Finally here! Atelopus hoogmoedi :)



## Jerseylotte (Apr 19, 2008)

Hiya Chaps and Chapettes 

After a painful wait our A. hoogmoedi, Hoogmoed's Harlequin Toads finally came in to roost 

They're even cuter and perfect than I could have imagined, I'm truly in love with these mini Bufonids. They are in suprisingly good condition 

They have a beautiful little trill like call with a few accompanying whistles,
Four boys of course! Perhaps if I do well with these a trip to Dutch Rana sometime in the future to look for a lady (or two in my dreams!!!) will be in order 

Thanks for looking! 
Lotte***


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## dart_king (Mar 2, 2008)

WOW, where are you located? Are these expensive?


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

wow those are so awesome looking! i hope you get some females and get some breeding going!


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## tylototriton (Oct 10, 2008)

Those are some beautiful frogs. I'm assuming you're not in the U.S.? I just saw that a shipment came in over in England.

Good Luck,
Alex


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## JoshH (Feb 13, 2008)

I'm soooo jeolous right now :-( My last couple died out years ago. THey came in very stressed and mostly all the same sex.

But congrats on the toads man!!!!!!!!


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Ah, to live on the other side of the pond!

Good luck with them, and eventually finding some females.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The males are usually easier to keep going then the females so don't necessarily judge the success by how you do with the males. 
A number of the males that came in years ago on this side of the pond are still around but I haven't been able to locate any remaining females including the couple of institutions that had gotten them initially. I still have two bachelors..

If thier life span is similar to A. zeteki or A. varius then expect to lose them before they are 8 and probably by the time they are six (assuming they are one year old). 

Ed


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## 013 (Aug 9, 2006)

Aren't these A.spumarius? They sure look like them. Anyway great frogs, i currently have A.s. barbotini and think they're great.


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## flyingkip (Jan 9, 2005)

Those are A.Spumarius Hoogmoedii if I remember correctly..

Nice frogs, wish I had the room for some!


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## Jerseylotte (Apr 19, 2008)

Thanks for all the comments guys 

First things first, I'm in the UK/British Channel Isles - Jersey. So sorry all you chaps across the pond with envious faces now! 
They're from the second Suriname shipment at DutchRana, luckily the guys there realised a repeat of the first time around wasn't acceptable so these animals have been treated with much more delicacy and as a result look much better than I had been expecting (Silverdene 1% and panic face at the ready there lol!). They cost around 90 Pound Sterling each.

Ed;
While these are admittedly my first Atelopus sp. I've got a bit of practice under my belt that at least arms me with hints and tips and an idea of what the worst case can be with delicate phibs  Any personal experiences you'd be willing to share (and that goes for you others too!?) would be more than welcome 

013 and Flyingkip;
I guess it depends whether you're a grouper or a splitter and how you take your systematics(!!!) Phylogenetic analysis of Guianan Atelopus seems to firmly suggest a species level status for "A. s. hoogmoedi". 
http://www.atelopus.com/pdf/Noonan_Gaucher_05.pdf

A number of publications seem to refer to them as simply A. hoogmoedi these days;
Lotters et al (2002) On The Systematics of the Harlequin frogs... Salamandra, 38, p165-184
(why are there no text formatting tools arg!)
and "Ranas Arlequines" a South American mass authored handbook, published by Conservation International.

I guess you make what you will of it all, makes more sense to me as a full species tho


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## Jerseylotte (Apr 19, 2008)

Few more pics to keep you entertained ;D

Lotte***


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## chesney (Jan 18, 2007)

Very nice frogs!


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## LittleDip (May 20, 2007)

Very cool. I love the color patterns- congrats!! 
It could be just me.. but the first set of pictures you posted sort of bear a resemblance to the Panama golden frog.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

great looking frogs!! best of luck


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Jerseylotte said:


> Ed;
> While these are admittedly my first Atelopus sp. I've got a bit of practice under my belt that at least arms me with hints and tips and an idea of what the worst case can be with delicate phibs  Any personal experiences you'd be willing to share (and that goes for you others too!?) would be more than welcome


Check with MJ.. hopefully he still has a lot of what I've written already. A lot of thier surivial depends on how thier fat bodies are when they arrive (yours at least don't look like they've been run through a cheese grater). All of the ones that I'm aware of having necropsies on this side of the pond had little to no fat bodies making them possible victims of refeeding syndrome so feed them carefully for the first couple of weeks. (About 1/2 of what you would normally feed). 
They are territorial with respect to thier calling perches and sleeping perches. Make sure there are several arboreal perches for night time and that will help reduce stress. Outside of the breeding season, they tend to occupy upland wood habitats and do well with a moist but not wet substrate and can be offered a shallow dish to make sure it doesn't get too dry. If you treat them like they are in a rainy season all the time, seperate them to prevent one from bullying the other. 
Typically they have been collected from the breeding streams so sex ratios are usually between 4 and ten to 1 male to females. This may also be why they have poor fat bodies as they have been calling and staking out territories as opposed to feeding. 

If you get a female be careful as they are known to retain eggs and form adhesions which can kill them when they drop the eggs (I have a picture somewhere of this occuring with a A. zeteki) and even hormonal stimulation won't save the female. Also females are known to prolapse the eggs and die (this is a problem with fresh imports as the females may have been held long enough the have lost condition which can allow then to successfully breed). Females kept with the males may develop sores on thier feet or die from the stress if they are not reproductively ready or cannot access the proper breeding sites. 
There is some anecdotal information over on your side of the pond on this species depositing in small bodies of water like soda bottles but all of the documented information has this species breeding in streams (like other Atelopus) with tadpoles being found there. 
If you get to the point where you are planning breeding let me know. 

I'd have to go back and look but I think I've had mine for more than 4 and maybe 5 years now...

Ed


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## Jerseylotte (Apr 19, 2008)

I guess I got most of your advice by proxy Ed! I was speaking to MJ amongst many others for a good month before receiving these guys 
You may be interested to contact a lady called Martina Luger if you don't know of her already, she provided me with 4 months worth of datalogger info for the Brownsberg park, where she was actually studying hoogmoedi in 2004. 

It's a piece of luck to have them having been in captivity for 3 months already, fat bodies are looking rather good.
I have them in relatively small individual quarantine compartments 

Cheers!
Lotte***


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If you get far enough to breed them, be aware that the tadpoles appear to need clean water and lots of room.. 
I would also suggest setting up open top terraria with a two inch over hanging lip to try and rear the metamorphs. Set those up long before metamorphosis and seed heavily with small isopod species and spring tails (and a calcium bearing substrate). Use some small incandescent UVB producing bulbs to supply the D3 to the toadlets as this should get around a number of the issues seen in other Atelopus species (the few batches of hoogmoedi that I am aware of metamorphing over hear all died shortly after metamorphosis so I would go the same route they did with the Kihansi Spray Toad). 

If I get a chance I will, but I have spoken with a number of other researchers and modeled it based on thier actual field experiences but as it looks incrediably unlikely I will get a female to pair up with my males... 

Ed


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## Jerseylotte (Apr 19, 2008)

All good stuff Ed 

A few more pics, 

The final pic here was one of the chaps all inflatable as I interrupted him in the middle of calling, whoops!

Lotte***


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Hey Lotte,

Any update on your group? 

Cheers,
Ray


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