Some pics of my PDF's (poison dart frogs)

First for those who don't know.. dart frogs are not poisonous in captivity

Here are my favorite poison dart frogs. They are chazuta imitators. Started with 1.2 and now have many growing up in the grow up tank. These are considered a thumbnail species because they are so small. Full grown they are between 1/2 to 3/4 inch.

newly morphed chazuta with a sub-adult

male on the left and female on the right

she was my favorite dart frog. She escaped her viv and I didn't see it happen found her dead on the floor all dried up. I wanted to cry. She was gorgeous

daddy chazuta carrying one of his newly hatched tadpoles into the water



A pic of their vivarium after it was just set up.

These are my super blue auratus poison dart frogs. They are a much bigger species, around 2.5" . But they are extremely shy. I usually only see them at feeding time. No breeding from these girls yet. This species runs extremely female heavy so finding a male is hard and on top of that, they're extremely hard to sex. I think the only way I'll find a male is if I buy about 5 and grow them up and hope for 1 to be a male.






another view of the super blue viv. I love those flowers






I love this pic of her. It really shows the colors


Here are my dendrobates bakhuis. I believe I have one to be a female still not sure about the other 2. But I'm hopeful

excuse the blurriness.



this is the one I'm pretty sure is a female- she has that big boney arch on her back.

you talkin to me? Lol

again this is the one I believe to be a female. Females have a very pronounced arch.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed the pics. My frogs are my hobby. Steel is my obsession

Wow that is awesome! I love this forum so many interesting things get shared.

My daughter wants to know why they are not poisonous in captivity?

Tell your daughter that's a great question

There are different ideas on this but the main one I think rings true is in their natural habitat there are lots of plants that have poisons and chemical compounds. The bugs eat those plants. Those poisons and chemicals mix with the bugs own body chemicals. So when the frogs ear those wild bugs it has the make up to help the frogs create their toxins.

Also did you know that every amphibian has some forms of toxicity? Most are very very mild and go un-unnoticed but yup. It's true

WOW gorgeous!!
How did you get started with frogs of this type?

very interesting, thanks for sharing!

DBA, you're very welcome

Jeannie, I got into them just from seeing photos. I grew up in VT and was dying for them. But there they are highly illegal. Which is stupid because of some moron let them loose, they wouldn't make it thru a new England winter at all. Up until a few years ago they were also illegal in maine and here in CT. Anyway I moved to CT and Googled the legalities. How happy I was when I saw I could have them!

Did an extensive amount of research, off and on for about a year. Once I was ready I jumped in. Bought the vivarium supplies. Seeded the tank with microfauna (with isopods and springtails) let them get established along with letting the plants establish some roots. Then I was lucky and found the frogs I wanted. I still read and read about them.

They are more enjoyable and relaxing to me than a fish tank. Especially the little chazutas. They are extremely bold. Rarely ever hide. But they are lightning fast! So when I do open my viv, I always have another set of eyes making sure no one hops out. Had it happen to my favorite female. She was my prettiest dart I was so mad at myself. I know it had happened the night before I found her. I saw a leaf move while I was misting the viv. I looked around but didn't see one. So I assumed a frog had jumped safely towards the back.

The next day. I keep looking and looking for the 3 of them (my original breeding tro) couldn't find her at all. All day I kept hoping to see her. I finally moved all the plants and leaves.. nothing. Checked the floor... she was found less than 2 feet from her viv. I didn't care that I paid 85 for each frog.. she was my favorite! I was upset at my mistake knowing she suffered while drying out on the rug. So yeah.. I always open that viv with another pair of eyes! Lesson learned

The hardest part about dart frogs is their vivarium. If it's not set up correctly and gets too mushy, it can causes deadly gasses from the substrate and leaves breaking down at a very fast rate. But once set up correctly and you start with healthy frogs, they are a very easy to care for pet. Feed them wingless fruit flies dusted in calcium at almost every feeding, once or twice a month dust fruit flies with vitamin A(breeding frogs get vit A 2x a month). Mist when needed.. that's basically it. Clean the glass once in a while or add new leaves or remove dead plants or trim the plants.. but that's not that often.

My chazutas call is so cute. They sound like crickets! You know it's definitely a male dart when you see them calling.

__________ Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:29 pm __________

Forgot to say the microfauna are tank cleaners. Eating decaying matter, mold and even frog poop and they also double as food when the frogs find them <br /><br /> __________ Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:47 pm __________ <br /><br /> Here is a very short video of my male and female. He is trying to woo her and she decides she had to go to the bathroom lmaoop

Chazuta imitator darts calling & female poops lmao: http://youtu.be/DvltsVgUogc

Super blue dendrobates auratus dart frogs eating: http://youtu.be/YiqjQ5Z2d68 what's cool about when the super blues eat, if you're very careful not to scare them off while their eating and you open the top to their vivarium and listen closely you can hear their little tongues as they catch their ff's! (Fruit flies)

I've had many critters. (Mice even a rare spiney Egyptian mouse, rats, hamsters, gerbils, chinchillas, parakeets, cockatiels, even a blue and gold macaw (omg so loud don't ever get one lol), sugar gliders- cute but smelly.., a Grey squirrel a red squirrel. Ferrets- smelly, lots of ball pythons.

My favorites are my frogs! Then the squirrels but they are illegal so once they were big enough I set them free. And my ferrets. I had 6 ferrets at once and loved it but even litter box cleaning 2x a at didn't keep the smell down.

Someday I truly hope I have land. I want a horse!!!!!

Thanks!
Really enjoyed the information and the videos were fabulous

Bumping for Michaels4gardens...

that was cool. will be showing my lad tomorrow.

ipoGSD":mzlo1g3v said:

Bumping for Michaels4gardens...

Click to expand...

thanks--- beautiful

my lad is ever so curious as to how you set up a good viv.

and where you find them to buy them.... he's SO curious. He's a lover of all toads and frogs.