# Midnight Aruatus



## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I've seen this ad from Underground reptiles advertizing "Midnight Auratus" for $150 a piece!!! Just wondering if anyone else has any opinions as to the background of this frog.

Richard.


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

No real info here but I would guess someone has line bred a melanistic morph and slapped a sexy name and a 500% mark up on it


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## jubjub47 (Sep 9, 2008)

Black auratus have been around for a while. I'm not sure of the locale of the morph, but there are a few board members who have them.


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

jubjub47 said:


> Black auratus have been around for a while. I'm not sure of the locale of the morph, but there are a few board members who have them.


Is that what this is? I've only seen pics of black auratus once and from the pics they seemed solid black. Maybe the pic was deceptive, or my memory defective. These seem just like muddy auratus to me.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

These are WC from Panama. They are black he is trying to jazz up as a new morph. I have a group of WC that are producing. I have been trying to talk with this guy, he is looking for pure profit telling people to pair up with spotted auratus. They are way over priced. I priced my CB's similarly, but they are CB that I ended up trading.


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## edwing206 (Apr 9, 2008)

From what I have seen black auratus have color but it's almost like the color is hidden behind an opaque black layer(if that makes any sense).
Though I'm wondering if the frogs that Richard posted are in fact true black auratus or like boondoggle said a line bred melanistic auratus.


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I know that Underground buys a lot of wc animals and these don't look very healthy at all. So I would go with the "morph" idea rather than melanistics. Just an opinion, though, as D. Auratus are not my "area".

Richard.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

There are usually several of these when Strictly does their imports, they look black under low light but have quite a bit of subtle green, some more than others. These are definately WC frogs that have recently been imported and sold to Underground fr $25/30 a piece or thereabouts. Very shy morph.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

markpulawski said:


> There are usually several of these when Strictly does their imports, they look black under low light but have quite a bit of subtle green, some more than others. These are definately WC frogs that have recently been imported and sold to Underground fr $25/30 a piece or thereabouts. Very shy morph.


Mark is right. These are a commonly occurring aruatus morph that they are trying to juice up and trick people into beliving that they are a "special" or rare frog.

They are not.

These frogs are worth $25.00 each.....not a penny more.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Philsuma said:


> These frogs are worth $25.00 each.....not a penny more.


Commonly occurring? There where about 4-5 years of no steady amount of these guys coming in. I have spoken with importers and far few of these arrive than the other morphs available. 

Worth is what some one is willing to pay. I have sold, traded, and purchased these for far more than $25. There are other board members who have spent much more than $25. These are worth more like $65-75 each.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

JJuchems said:


> Commonly occurring? There where about 4-5 years of no steady amount of these guys coming in. I have spoken with importers and far few of these arrive than the other morphs available.
> 
> Worth is what some one is willing to pay. I have sold, traded, and purchased these for far more than $25. There are other board members who have spent much more than $25. These are worth more like $65-75 each.


They are worth what folks are willing to pay.


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

I think his post was more to discourage the buying of wild caughts with questionable health and local information that we all know were bought for much less than they are being sold for in this case


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

Here is one i sold about a year ago, had a prob pair for about 3 years with no breeding.


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## mongo77 (Apr 28, 2008)

Julio said:


> Here is one i sold about a year ago, had a prob pair for about 3 years with no breeding.


That frog looks jet black!!


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

yeah, they both were, i thought i had more pics, but that is the only one i can find.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

I have found that plastic storage totes work best to breed. I had them in an aquarium with no action for a few years. I place them in a tank you can not see through and got results.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

stemcellular said:


> They are worth what folks are willing to pay.


Any frog is only worth what people are willing to pay.


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Midnight auratus? I've got some "Strawberries & Cream" anthonyi I'd like to move...not to mention some "Lemonhead" lamasi and "Variegated" summersi (they look like the original, but I swear the orange lines are slightly thinner).

Not all black auratus are created equal. There is the form found near Chorrera that is usually near pitch black, but the younger frogs can have faint green markings on them. I have also seen near black frogs (such as the ones pictured) that came in imports of frogs collected from the Campana/Capira region. Picture a really dark "Camo" frog (which comes from this big bag of diversity) and I think you probably have it pretty close. The below frogs all came in the same shipment (the dark ones looked nearly completely black under normal light, but their markings appear with the flash):






































But, without any info, it's pretty much impossible to tell. I personally wouldn't mix/breed frogs from different importations without knowing for sure where they came from.


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

skylsdale said:


> Midnight auratus? I've got some "Strawberries & Cream" anthonyi I'd like to move...not to mention some "Lemonhead" lamasi and "Variegated" summersi (they look like the original, but I swear the orange lines are slightly thinner).


That reminds me, I will be releasing a limited number of both "Sunshine" and "Pumpkin" leucs this summer.


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Boondoggle said:


> That reminds me, I will be releasing a limited number of both "Sunshine" and "Pumpkin" leucs this summer.


Let me know when they are available: they will be a nice compliment to the "Ocre Toe" and "Mustard Nose" leucomelas I am producing.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Boondoggle said:


> That reminds me, I will be releasing a limited number of both "Sunshine" and "Pumpkin" leucs this summer.





skylsdale said:


> Let me know when they are available: they will be a nice compliment to the "Ocre Toe" and "Mustard Nose" leucomelas I am producing.


I've never been a huge fan of Luecs but WOW! Those sound sensational! I've got to have them!
Doug


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## jbherpin (Oct 16, 2009)

Woodsman said:


> ...these don't look very healthy at all.
> Richard.


I agree with this.

JBear


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

You know what I find particularly disturbing is the notion that this dealer is basically attempting to start a new morph the way he is marketing these. I think we should be very proactive as a community and let vendors know that is unacceptable to us. Man it is like this guy just tries to mess with the hobby community on purpose  What is this the 3rd, 4th time he has gotten us into a tizzy? Who is up for another round of angry emails being fired off to this guy? (My guess is that has started already).


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Julio said:


> Here is one i sold about a year ago, had a prob pair for about 3 years with no breeding.


That is a beautiful frog, Julio!!! It's a shame they didn't breed for you.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks, they are in pretty good hands with a a few more black Auratus so hopefully the person who has them now has gotten some breeding out of them.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

I believe there are different populations here, there may be a truely black Auratus and they may be the ones Jason has, there are degrees of color. I have seen solid black ones years ago but I don't know if they start as frogs with wisps of green undertones or not. 
Another troublesome group of frogs when it comes to IDing obscure morphs.


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