# Phyllobates terribilis mint other species



## stevendart14 (Feb 21, 2005)

I never had any Terrblis and now I am thinking of keeping a pair or small group. I have heard of adult terribilis being able to eat adult crickets is this true. And Terribilis seem perfect for my mixed species tank.
Day gecko,amazon milk frog, some other small gecko or mantella. There size make me think they will be perfect to not be eaten by any of these other herps. Not sure about mantella in tank though.


----------



## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

:roll:


----------



## mindcrash (Mar 3, 2004)

You said it Dane. 

Steven,

It is generally frowned upon to put multiple species in the same tank. Hell, it's even frowned upon to put multiple species of darts in the same tank.

Do a search on it in the forum and you'll see plenty of threads about it.


----------



## Guest (Mar 18, 2005)

Nice effort dane. 

Steve, you are new to the whole dart thing so i would suggest against it at this piont in time. If you want to keep a tank with different speices in it go right ahead, but only when u get more seasoned with this hobbie. Keep a simple enclosure at first and work from there. If eggs are produced by two different spieces plz dispose of them humainly. But if you want a nice display tank with multiple speices such as the ones at the Baltimore Aquarium go for it. Just get better at what ur gonna do first. 

Adult crickets maybe a bit difficult for any PDF usually the smaller ones will do better for them.


----------



## stevendart14 (Feb 21, 2005)

Thanx,
Since I am new to these frogs I won't try a mixed species tank right now. I don't think I would mix any darts anytime soon either. I just heard of day geckos as being something good to house with larger darts.


----------



## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

GodJockey said:


> Adult crickets maybe a bit difficult for any PDF usually the smaller ones will do better for them.


P. bicolor will cram down adult crickets and vittatus can take full sized waxworms. Phyllobates generally cram anything they can get down their gullet. I haven't kept terribs but I'm certain they can handle an adult cricket. However, medium sized crickets would probably be a better staple.


----------



## rompida (Mar 15, 2004)

Stay away from the adult crickets. Just because they can eat them doesn't mean they should. Terribilis are overzealous eaters. Mine try to eat my finger when I put my hand in their tank. Too large prey items can cause a gastric overload, and the food can start to rot in their gut faster than they can digest it. When that happens, the animal usually dies. I'd say 1/2 inch crickets would be a good way to go. Good luck, and I'd also recommend staying away from a mixed species tank for now.


----------



## dpotter1 (Feb 29, 2004)

I had a pair of Bicolors which are very similar to the Terribilis you are talking about. They were eating "pet shop" size crickets, with no problem. The only things to remember is that crickets are not always the healthiest for the frogs. Substituting in some other food sources would be a good idea. I do think how ever that the Terribilis or Bicolors would be a great frog to start with.


----------



## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

dpotter1 said:


> The only things to remember is that crickets are not always the healthiest for the frogs.


I'm curious why you think crickets are not that healthy? The reason I ask is because they actually have a much higher protein content than ff and can be gutloaded in many different ways to provide variety. NAIB and many top private breeders use crickets as their main staple for PDF.


----------



## dpotter1 (Feb 29, 2004)

I did not mean to say that they were not healthy. What I was try to imply, was that if you are just making the weekly run to the pet shop and not growing your own crickets gut loaded crickets the nutrition may be a little less then if you you are breeding and hatching them yourself. Many of us do not have the time in our lives to run a dart set up and a cricket set up.

If you are buying your crickets from either a grower or the local pet shop you really have little control into what goes into that insect. Some standard cricket farm feed staples are chicken feed and fish flakes high in vitamin A not necessarily harmful to some reptiles but may be to darts and some other herps. (Depends on what you read and believe)

Besides I don't see anything wrong with mixing up the diet a little, I would get bored if I ate the same thing everyday. When I have the chance I try to mix something in that's a little different. Moths, Mayfly, wax worms, ect.

I hope this does not upset anyone too greatly this is just what I do.


----------



## stevendart14 (Feb 21, 2005)

Thanks for yall input, 
Now I decided to feed them a staple of fruit flies with maybe a cricket everynow and then. I really don't like the noise and all the problems that come with keeping cricket. What about terribilis eating small silkworm, some say more nutritious than cricket. They don't smell and is easy to raise from eggs. Just want to add some variety to there diet.


----------



## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

dpotter1 said:


> I did not mean to say that they were not healthy. What I was try to imply, was that if you are just making the weekly run to the pet shop and not growing your own crickets gut loaded crickets the nutrition may be a little less then if you you are breeding and hatching them yourself. Many of us do not have the time in our lives to run a dart set up and a cricket set up.
> 
> If you are buying your crickets from either a grower or the local pet shop you really have little control into what goes into that insect. Some standard cricket farm feed staples are chicken feed and fish flakes high in vitamin A not necessarily harmful to some reptiles but may be to darts and some other herps. (Depends on what you read and believe)
> 
> ...


Ah, yes, now I see what your are getting at. Agreed. The standard practice for feeding crickets is to provide a nutritious food and clean water for at least 48 hours (preferably a little longer) before feeding.

And I agree that crickets are a real pain in the arse to raise. I've often heard people say that crickets don't stink if you clean our their container every two days. To me that is just another way of saying that crickets REALLY stink. But, I do like to order a couple thousand pinhead to week old crickets every couple of months to throw some variety into the diet. Some people breeding a lot of frogs find it worthwhile to reverse this process and feed mainly crickets and use ff for variety. That's not all that practical for us average guys.


----------



## Guest (Mar 19, 2005)

If crickets are kept dry , and cleaned DAILY they dont smell much , a friend breeds them in very large amounts and he is extremely clean and all you smell is the feed he uses. I find they smell better then 60 jars of fermenting FF cultures.


----------



## stevendart14 (Feb 21, 2005)

I have heard of people putting crickets in large rubbermaid containers or trash cans and there was few escapes and the smell went down. Since I will only have a few terribilis I will just use crickets to supplement their meals. Now what would be better a 10 gallon or 20 for a pair or trio of terribilis.


----------



## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

zoso said:


> If crickets are kept dry , and cleaned DAILY they dont smell much , a friend breeds them in very large amounts and he is extremely clean and all you smell is the feed he uses. I find they smell better then 60 jars of fermenting FF cultures.


Like I said, this is just another way of saying THEY STINK. If I scrubbed a dog turd down everyday with Clorox it might not smell either. :wink:


----------



## Dunner97074 (Sep 19, 2004)

:lol: perfect response :lol:


----------

