JoshBA
Member
In the past year, I've had quite a bit of success in raising the phantasmal dart frog. I started out with 4 adults in a 55 gallon vivarium but, like many beginner dart frog hobbyists, didn't anticipate the breeding capacity of this species.
From day one they have been more or less consistently reproducing. After I reached my care limit of several dozen froglets, I stopped pulling the clutches to raise separately in a communal tadpole tank. There is a pool in the main vivarium, and some froglets do occasionally morph out from it, but with limited resources and competition from many other tadpoles, their success rate unassisted is much lower. Otherwise, in the separate rearing tank, the tadpole mortality rate is pretty much zero, even when raised with dozens of other tadpoles in water quality that couldn't possibly be optimum for other aquatic animals.
Anyway, I started this thread to let you people know about this species. I definitely would not recommend this frog as one for people who want to get into dart frog breeding. They are rabbits!!! Essentially, there's nothing special if you succeed in breeding them. Just a proper setup and a water pool (cups even work) is all that is needed. Of course, you can keep them without water and they won't be able to breed (this is what I'm doing now, although they still try).
I do enjoy these little guys for their behavior in captivity, and also the fact that because they are capable of completing their entire life cycle nearly unassisted in a glass container, they are one of the ideal amphibians for captivity.
And pictures! Hopefully...my phone broke, which had the majority of photographs of my collection, although I will try to get some uploaded from my Instagram. Without pics, this thread is already dead!
From day one they have been more or less consistently reproducing. After I reached my care limit of several dozen froglets, I stopped pulling the clutches to raise separately in a communal tadpole tank. There is a pool in the main vivarium, and some froglets do occasionally morph out from it, but with limited resources and competition from many other tadpoles, their success rate unassisted is much lower. Otherwise, in the separate rearing tank, the tadpole mortality rate is pretty much zero, even when raised with dozens of other tadpoles in water quality that couldn't possibly be optimum for other aquatic animals.
Anyway, I started this thread to let you people know about this species. I definitely would not recommend this frog as one for people who want to get into dart frog breeding. They are rabbits!!! Essentially, there's nothing special if you succeed in breeding them. Just a proper setup and a water pool (cups even work) is all that is needed. Of course, you can keep them without water and they won't be able to breed (this is what I'm doing now, although they still try).
I do enjoy these little guys for their behavior in captivity, and also the fact that because they are capable of completing their entire life cycle nearly unassisted in a glass container, they are one of the ideal amphibians for captivity.
And pictures! Hopefully...my phone broke, which had the majority of photographs of my collection, although I will try to get some uploaded from my Instagram. Without pics, this thread is already dead!