Absolutely incredible video, the pace and layout with the level of detail was extremely insightful. Keeping personal and anecdotal experience separate was also extremely helpful.
What do you think is the best beginner dart frog? And to those of you who don't have dart frogs yet, which species are you leaning on starting with? Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of your frogs for this video! This video is so much more interesting when it showcases 51 different species/localities rather than just the 7 it would've been if it only featured frogs from my collection. A list of instagram accounts and names of the contributors is in the description.
@@Pewpro The waiting times have been shorter than ever during the second half of this summer, but it’s about to start getting a lot longer again now unfortunately :)
Great content as always! I created my tank with the intention of housing a group of R. Variabilis/amazonica in the future, but recently I also fell in love with some of the D. Auratus morphs. Fortunately the tank still has to grow in for a couple of months so I have some time to decide on it. On a side note: the leucomelas tank looks absolutely stunning. I really love the vibe of it!
For most beginners, I would recommend Dendrobates tinctorius as an ideal choice. They are bold, relatively hardy, and grow to an impressive size, plus they come in a range of beautiful locality-specific color morphs. Additionally, males of this species have a quieter call, which is a bonus. However, with proper research, any dart frog species can be suitable for beginners. Each species has its unique characteristics, much like people, making the world of dart frogs both diverse and fascinating.
@@ToxicTerrariums I totally see the argument for placing tincs or terribilis at the number one spot due to their extreme boldness. You simply can’t possibly be unhappy with them
My three Leucamelas get more bold as time goes on. I wouldn’t be without them now. Great video as always; your videos are the ones I watch several times.
Phyllobates aurotaenia is the smallest in the genus with 15mm and also the third most poisonous after bicolor and terrabilis. Phyllobates lugubris size is up to 24mm almost the smallest but not quite. Like your videos a lot! 💪☝️
Aurotaenia get far bigger than 15 mm. Every source I can find (besides Wikipedia, which claims they are the smallest in the genus citing a 1976 source) says they are somewhere in the range of 26-35mm, and when I last saw an adult in person, I remember it being around the same size as my vittatus
Fantastic video. Currently have 4 Epi Antonyi and a pair of Tinc Cobalts. But looking for my 3rd viv. Definitely a bigger taller viv and stepping into more relevant planting, but still in the planning stages. Probably thumbnails as want a nice group. Thinking of some of the oomphaga though for this one
@Tropical_Tutorials I've had to set back my first paldarium for frogs due to an unexpected major car motor malfunction (rids are better suited inside the engine block) so I've been watching a lot of these videos, yours and others, to determine a first frog. I'm leaning towards Epipedobates anthonyi or Dendrobates leucomelas. And yes, I had to look those names up because I am no where near remembering all these proper names.
I started with 5 Banded Leucomelas, and they are a little more shy than I was hoping for, especially for the first year. I see them out and about a lot more now, probably ~50% of the time I look in on them, but rarely more than 2-3 at a time. Then I got a pair of Blue Sipaliwini Tinc's and they're much bolder. In retrospect, I should have started with them. I got the Leuc's because I wanted a good group frog, but I think it's better starting out to have a pair of frogs you always see, than a group of frogs that hide all the time. Variabilis Southern are next on my list, or maybe Varadero's.
I had the exact same story. I started with a pair of banded leucs and got some Azureus eight months later, but wished I would've gotten them in the opposite order. Now, the leucs have grown in numbers and they are really fun to look at, but the first months when they were my only frogs and always hid weren't too interesting
Personally My Dream Frogs are Ranitomeya Variabilis, Vanzonilii, Sirensis and Imitator (I like falcutive egg feeders, and group friendly frogs). I also wouldn’t mind Getting a Dendrobates Leucomelas Banded or blue foot Cerro Autana, or Auratus Capurgana, or Trunctus Blue. If they were quieter id be interested in Epipedobates and Phyllobates (the smaller species) but I’ve given up on that idea a long time ago since my whole family often sleeps during the day.
The call of vittatus (and probably the other smaller Phyllobates) is sounds similar, but is much quieter than that of Epipedobates and larger Phyllobates. It's very comparable to all the Ranitomeyas you mention (except variabilis which is almost quiet). I sleep less than a meter away from my anthonyi tank and I have no problem sleeping through them in the morning as you quickly get used to them (it's like if you live next to a train track, and stop noticing the train sound after a while). First night when the anthonyi were calling (nightly calls are rare, but they do happen when they get excited), I slept like a baby in the same room while my dad was woken up by them two closed doors away :)
The only way we knew our Ranitomeya sp. were still alive, was by hearing them calling daily. Although after 6 months or so they didnt hide as much. They were still barely visible though...
I wanted to add the advice for beginners not to start with froglets that are too young. Better to invest a little more money and get a proven pair, an adult group or stable subadults. Don't buy anything less than 6 months old as a rule of thumb. If you are buying froglets or subadult frogs, buy at least 4 to minimize your chance of ending up with zero females in the end. It can be surprisingly hard to get hold of a species, or locale, again in your area. And if you are starting out with an adult pair, you could even start with Oophaga pumilio as your first species. Adults especially of the bigger locales are super hardy and robust, probably more so than most Ranitomeya species. They are bold, long lived, have an awesome call, and take care of their young. You probably shouldn't start with Dendrobates or Phyllobates if you are actually specifically into Oophaga.
this might be a weird question, but seeing as most of them say “can be kept in groups” (minus the few you said prefer it) would it be fine to house some of them solo?
So are there specific species that are fine to Co-hab with other dart species in like a large bioactive terrarium? Like will most of them do well with different types if they have a healthy amount of space?
@@Dubo-wabo I have a whole video dedicated to this topic. Generally, mixing species (or different locales of the same species) is never recommended to beginners, and a good rule of thumb is that if you have to ask about it, you probably shouldn’t attempt it, but in my video about mixing species, I get into the nuances more since there are cases where it can work
I was referring to reticulata, which I should probably have clarified, but I didn’t want to make the video too long. Mainly because of their very small size (I think it’s the smallest Ranitomeya), but also because I find them to be very uneager to eat. I know many experienced keepers who have struggled a lot with them, experiencing random deaths, high mortality in froglets etc., and I have personally lost three adults prematurely (it’s the only species of which I’ve had a significant amount of deaths that weren’t age based, one was a stupid mistake on my part because it got stuck, but the others are mysterious). The other Ranitomeyas I keep are variabilis French Guiana (which, as I said, is among the easiest thumbnails) and sirensis Contamana (which is generally a hardy and easy thumbnail species, but there’s a significant risk that they’ll be very shy, especially for the first few years)
It varies a bit, and it all goes in waves. If you don't want to listen to it all the time, the key is to not have too many males. Epipedobates anthonyi are probably the most frequent callers (if you have a few males, you'll usually hear them several times per day, each time they keep going for maybe 10-25 minutes), leucomelas and vittatus are a bit less frequent but they'll still have "happy days" from time to time where they will call a lot, but then they can shut up for a week sometimes. Normally, I think the call is very nice and the amount of it is pretty tolerable, but right now, I have about 12 anthonyi males (since I haven't sold the froglets from this year yet, and they have started calling now at around 6 months old) which i think is a bit much once they start calling in the mornings
I definitely don't recommend it. I have a whole video about mixing species (focusing mostly on keeping different dart frogs together, but also touching on the subject of mixing dart frogs with lizards etc.), and in that video, you'll find several reasons this combination will most likely not be that successful. The main problems are the vastly different temperature requirements of the dart frogs vs the green anole (this requires a massive vivarium to provide enough space for each species in each temperature range) and the predation risk (many tree frogs, unlike dart frogs, can eat very large prey items compared to their own body size, and the anoles can also be problematic depending on what dart frog you go for). In general, mixing is never recommended to beginners, and a good rule of thumb is that "if you have to ask, you do not have the experience necessary to try to mix species safely". The only animals out of those that I would condone mixing during normal circumstances (though a REALLY experienced expert keeper might be able to attempt some other combinations) are the dart frogs with the mourning geckos. Two species in a tank is more than enough and more than that is usually not a good idea. However, even then, the choice of dart frog species is crucial to get right (avoid thumbnail frogs, as they can get hurt by the geckos, and large Phyllobates species, as they can eat the geckos), but Dendrobates species always tend to do well with mourning geckos. I wouldn't keep mourning geckos with dart frogs in anything smaller than 24x18x24'', and for any other cohabs (which you really shouldn't attempt as a beginner), I'd like something far larger.
Nearly every single dart frog in the hobby is captive bred and has been for generations. In my country, Sweden, keeping any wild caught vertebrates as pets is completely illegal (I think we're only allowed to keep third generation captive breds and onwards or something like that). Given that dart frogs (at least all of the beginner friendly ones featured in this video) are very easy to breed in captivity, this has created a massive market of captive bred animals among hobbyists. This market completely outcompetes any smugglers or other frivolous actors on the scene, since there's absolutely no point in getting a wild caught Dendrobates tinctorius Azureus when there are literally thousands upon thousands of captive bred ones on the market in a healthier condition for a much cheaper price. Unless you're the first to introduce a new species to the hobby, or have a species that's very pricy and difficult to breed in large numbers (such as Oophagas), there's little to no monetary gain from selling wild caught frogs. The only case I immediately think of when wild caught frogs are sold in large quantities is Oophaga pumilio Blue Jeans imported and sold extremely cheaply in pet stores in the US (it's something I've heard a lot of people talk about, but I am by no means a trustworthy source when it comes to the US pet trade as I live across the pond), where most of them are sold to random people who don't know what they're doing. This is not something I support. Of course every frog has been taken into the hobby at some point, and that process obviously includes taking them from the wild. There are cases where this has been done ethically and unethically. It is very possible, in many cases, to collect animals without it taking a toll on the population as a whole, and there are of course plenty of legal imports. The hobby as a whole is very negative towards animals with a questionable or illegal background (there are certain morphs and species where this is the case) and generally takes a strong stance against them, even though there will unfortunately always be a black market for these species. Nowadays, many of the imported frogs (once again, the only ones that are really imported are Oophagas that are hard to breed, and they are usually bought by experienced people with the goal of breeding and further distributing them in the hobby) come from places like Tesoros de Colombia or Wikiri, which are breeding the animals themselves on-site in Colombia and Ecuador respectively, and they are certainly not threatening the wild populations (quite the opposite). Many of these frogs are also threatened by other things than collection for the pet trade. Take for example Ranitomeya fantastica True Nominal. Like many localities, its range of distribution is extremely small, and its habitat will likely be entirely destroyed in the near future, likely causing it to go extinct. In a case like that, I think it's better to have thousands of frogs in the hobby and zero in the wild than to have zero in the hobby and zero in the wild. Once again, the small number of frogs collected for the pet trade (which have then been continually bred in large numbers) is by no means responsible for the population possibly going extinct. For this specific locale, there are conservation efforts, but that's certainly not the case for all the hundreds of locales in the hobby. Unfortunately, animals bred by hobbyists could most likely never be used to replant a wild population due to the risk of spreading diseases, but having them in the hobby is certainly better than having them extinct and entirely gone from the planet.
Ein interessantes Projekt ist "Tesorros de Columbia". Die züchten unter anderem Pfeilgiftfrösche um Nachzuchten von selten Arten billiger als Wildfänge zu machen. Zur bedrohungslage bei Pfeilgiftfröschen kann man keine generelle Aussage machen. manche Arten sind Kulturfolger und profitieren von Menschen, andere Arten haben nur sehr kleine Verbeitungsgebiete und besondere Anforderungen, bei den meisten Arten ist die datenlage unklar. Generell ist zur Zeit der Chytridpilz die größte Bedrohung für Amphibien, die einzige Lösung die es da aktuell gibt ist Tiere in Gefangenschaft zu züchten um sie anschließend entweder gegen den Pilz zu imunisieren oder die Lebensräume wieder herzustellen und die Frösche neu anzusiedeln.
These are the best dart frog videos on the internet
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Absolutely incredible video, the pace and layout with the level of detail was extremely insightful. Keeping personal and anecdotal experience separate was also extremely helpful.
@@Crestedrested Thank you so much for the kind words!
What do you think is the best beginner dart frog? And to those of you who don't have dart frogs yet, which species are you leaning on starting with?
Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of your frogs for this video! This video is so much more interesting when it showcases 51 different species/localities rather than just the 7 it would've been if it only featured frogs from my collection. A list of instagram accounts and names of the contributors is in the description.
I wait months and mo the for a single video from this guy. Best terrarium and frog videos on the internet.
@@Pewpro The waiting times have been shorter than ever during the second half of this summer, but it’s about to start getting a lot longer again now unfortunately :)
Great content as always! I created my tank with the intention of housing a group of R. Variabilis/amazonica in the future, but recently I also fell in love with some of the D. Auratus morphs. Fortunately the tank still has to grow in for a couple of months so I have some time to decide on it. On a side note: the leucomelas tank looks absolutely stunning. I really love the vibe of it!
For most beginners, I would recommend Dendrobates tinctorius as an ideal choice. They are bold, relatively hardy, and grow to an impressive size, plus they come in a range of beautiful locality-specific color morphs. Additionally, males of this species have a quieter call, which is a bonus. However, with proper research, any dart frog species can be suitable for beginners. Each species has its unique characteristics, much like people, making the world of dart frogs both diverse and fascinating.
@@ToxicTerrariums I totally see the argument for placing tincs or terribilis at the number one spot due to their extreme boldness. You simply can’t possibly be unhappy with them
My three Leucamelas get more bold as time goes on. I wouldn’t be without them now.
Great video as always; your videos are the ones I watch several times.
This was an incrediy helpful video!
Very good video and explanation
Planning on starting with imitators, just can’t get over their beauty. Long term it would be amazing to keep oophaga
Great video. Really helpful.
Great Video!
Phyllobates aurotaenia is the smallest in the genus with 15mm and also the third most poisonous after bicolor and terrabilis. Phyllobates lugubris size is up to 24mm almost the smallest but not quite. Like your videos a lot! 💪☝️
Aurotaenia get far bigger than 15 mm. Every source I can find (besides Wikipedia, which claims they are the smallest in the genus citing a 1976 source) says they are somewhere in the range of 26-35mm, and when I last saw an adult in person, I remember it being around the same size as my vittatus
Nice video 👍🏼👏👏
Fantastic video. Currently have 4 Epi Antonyi and a pair of Tinc Cobalts. But looking for my 3rd viv. Definitely a bigger taller viv and stepping into more relevant planting, but still in the planning stages. Probably thumbnails as want a nice group. Thinking of some of the oomphaga though for this one
Love those Highland Bronze
They sure are beautiful
@Tropical_Tutorials I've had to set back my first paldarium for frogs due to an unexpected major car motor malfunction (rids are better suited inside the engine block) so I've been watching a lot of these videos, yours and others, to determine a first frog. I'm leaning towards Epipedobates anthonyi or Dendrobates leucomelas.
And yes, I had to look those names up because I am no where near remembering all these proper names.
I started with 5 Banded Leucomelas, and they are a little more shy than I was hoping for, especially for the first year. I see them out and about a lot more now, probably ~50% of the time I look in on them, but rarely more than 2-3 at a time.
Then I got a pair of Blue Sipaliwini Tinc's and they're much bolder. In retrospect, I should have started with them. I got the Leuc's because I wanted a good group frog, but I think it's better starting out to have a pair of frogs you always see, than a group of frogs that hide all the time.
Variabilis Southern are next on my list, or maybe Varadero's.
I had the exact same story. I started with a pair of banded leucs and got some Azureus eight months later, but wished I would've gotten them in the opposite order. Now, the leucs have grown in numbers and they are really fun to look at, but the first months when they were my only frogs and always hid weren't too interesting
Personally My Dream Frogs are Ranitomeya Variabilis, Vanzonilii, Sirensis and Imitator (I like falcutive egg feeders, and group friendly frogs). I also wouldn’t mind Getting a Dendrobates Leucomelas Banded or blue foot Cerro Autana, or Auratus Capurgana, or Trunctus Blue. If they were quieter id be interested in Epipedobates and Phyllobates (the smaller species) but I’ve given up on that idea a long time ago since my whole family often sleeps during the day.
The call of vittatus (and probably the other smaller Phyllobates) is sounds similar, but is much quieter than that of Epipedobates and larger Phyllobates. It's very comparable to all the Ranitomeyas you mention (except variabilis which is almost quiet).
I sleep less than a meter away from my anthonyi tank and I have no problem sleeping through them in the morning as you quickly get used to them (it's like if you live next to a train track, and stop noticing the train sound after a while). First night when the anthonyi were calling (nightly calls are rare, but they do happen when they get excited), I slept like a baby in the same room while my dad was woken up by them two closed doors away :)
The only way we knew our Ranitomeya sp. were still alive, was by hearing them calling daily. Although after 6 months or so they didnt hide as much. They were still barely visible though...
I wanted to add the advice for beginners not to start with froglets that are too young. Better to invest a little more money and get a proven pair, an adult group or stable subadults. Don't buy anything less than 6 months old as a rule of thumb. If you are buying froglets or subadult frogs, buy at least 4 to minimize your chance of ending up with zero females in the end. It can be surprisingly hard to get hold of a species, or locale, again in your area.
And if you are starting out with an adult pair, you could even start with Oophaga pumilio as your first species. Adults especially of the bigger locales are super hardy and robust, probably more so than most Ranitomeya species. They are bold, long lived, have an awesome call, and take care of their young. You probably shouldn't start with Dendrobates or Phyllobates if you are actually specifically into Oophaga.
Can vouch for Azureus Tincs and Mint Terribilis
Couldn't agree more, you can't go wrong with a massive bold frog that's always out and about.
this might be a weird question, but seeing as most of them say “can be kept in groups” (minus the few you said prefer it)
would it be fine to house some of them solo?
❤
So are there specific species that are fine to Co-hab with other dart species in like a large bioactive terrarium? Like will most of them do well with different types if they have a healthy amount of space?
@@Dubo-wabo I have a whole video dedicated to this topic. Generally, mixing species (or different locales of the same species) is never recommended to beginners, and a good rule of thumb is that if you have to ask about it, you probably shouldn’t attempt it, but in my video about mixing species, I get into the nuances more since there are cases where it can work
@@Tropical_Tutorials Fantastic, thank you. I've been wanting to get more into frogs like Darts and Tigerlegs and Giant Waxy Monkeys.
In the video, you mentioned a Ranitomeya sp. that you have kept but wouldn't recommend. Which would that species be and why?
I was referring to reticulata, which I should probably have clarified, but I didn’t want to make the video too long. Mainly because of their very small size (I think it’s the smallest Ranitomeya), but also because I find them to be very uneager to eat. I know many experienced keepers who have struggled a lot with them, experiencing random deaths, high mortality in froglets etc., and I have personally lost three adults prematurely (it’s the only species of which I’ve had a significant amount of deaths that weren’t age based, one was a stupid mistake on my part because it got stuck, but the others are mysterious).
The other Ranitomeyas I keep are variabilis French Guiana (which, as I said, is among the easiest thumbnails) and sirensis Contamana (which is generally a hardy and easy thumbnail species, but there’s a significant risk that they’ll be very shy, especially for the first few years)
How frequently do the different species call? Not everyone in my household is thrilled with the idea of keeping a pet smoke alarm.
It varies a bit, and it all goes in waves. If you don't want to listen to it all the time, the key is to not have too many males. Epipedobates anthonyi are probably the most frequent callers (if you have a few males, you'll usually hear them several times per day, each time they keep going for maybe 10-25 minutes), leucomelas and vittatus are a bit less frequent but they'll still have "happy days" from time to time where they will call a lot, but then they can shut up for a week sometimes. Normally, I think the call is very nice and the amount of it is pretty tolerable, but right now, I have about 12 anthonyi males (since I haven't sold the froglets from this year yet, and they have started calling now at around 6 months old) which i think is a bit much once they start calling in the mornings
Could I keep a green anole with 2 mourning geckos and some dart frogs and a red eye dart frog
If so what size tank
I definitely don't recommend it. I have a whole video about mixing species (focusing mostly on keeping different dart frogs together, but also touching on the subject of mixing dart frogs with lizards etc.), and in that video, you'll find several reasons this combination will most likely not be that successful. The main problems are the vastly different temperature requirements of the dart frogs vs the green anole (this requires a massive vivarium to provide enough space for each species in each temperature range) and the predation risk (many tree frogs, unlike dart frogs, can eat very large prey items compared to their own body size, and the anoles can also be problematic depending on what dart frog you go for). In general, mixing is never recommended to beginners, and a good rule of thumb is that "if you have to ask, you do not have the experience necessary to try to mix species safely".
The only animals out of those that I would condone mixing during normal circumstances (though a REALLY experienced expert keeper might be able to attempt some other combinations) are the dart frogs with the mourning geckos. Two species in a tank is more than enough and more than that is usually not a good idea. However, even then, the choice of dart frog species is crucial to get right (avoid thumbnail frogs, as they can get hurt by the geckos, and large Phyllobates species, as they can eat the geckos), but Dendrobates species always tend to do well with mourning geckos. I wouldn't keep mourning geckos with dart frogs in anything smaller than 24x18x24'', and for any other cohabs (which you really shouldn't attempt as a beginner), I'd like something far larger.
Flotte terra & en nice opplysende video👌.. heia (duste Norge )💩💀
A lot of those are endangered/vulnerable, not very good to suggest them as pets
Nearly every single dart frog in the hobby is captive bred and has been for generations. In my country, Sweden, keeping any wild caught vertebrates as pets is completely illegal (I think we're only allowed to keep third generation captive breds and onwards or something like that).
Given that dart frogs (at least all of the beginner friendly ones featured in this video) are very easy to breed in captivity, this has created a massive market of captive bred animals among hobbyists. This market completely outcompetes any smugglers or other frivolous actors on the scene, since there's absolutely no point in getting a wild caught Dendrobates tinctorius Azureus when there are literally thousands upon thousands of captive bred ones on the market in a healthier condition for a much cheaper price. Unless you're the first to introduce a new species to the hobby, or have a species that's very pricy and difficult to breed in large numbers (such as Oophagas), there's little to no monetary gain from selling wild caught frogs.
The only case I immediately think of when wild caught frogs are sold in large quantities is Oophaga pumilio Blue Jeans imported and sold extremely cheaply in pet stores in the US (it's something I've heard a lot of people talk about, but I am by no means a trustworthy source when it comes to the US pet trade as I live across the pond), where most of them are sold to random people who don't know what they're doing. This is not something I support.
Of course every frog has been taken into the hobby at some point, and that process obviously includes taking them from the wild. There are cases where this has been done ethically and unethically. It is very possible, in many cases, to collect animals without it taking a toll on the population as a whole, and there are of course plenty of legal imports. The hobby as a whole is very negative towards animals with a questionable or illegal background (there are certain morphs and species where this is the case) and generally takes a strong stance against them, even though there will unfortunately always be a black market for these species. Nowadays, many of the imported frogs (once again, the only ones that are really imported are Oophagas that are hard to breed, and they are usually bought by experienced people with the goal of breeding and further distributing them in the hobby) come from places like Tesoros de Colombia or Wikiri, which are breeding the animals themselves on-site in Colombia and Ecuador respectively, and they are certainly not threatening the wild populations (quite the opposite).
Many of these frogs are also threatened by other things than collection for the pet trade. Take for example Ranitomeya fantastica True Nominal. Like many localities, its range of distribution is extremely small, and its habitat will likely be entirely destroyed in the near future, likely causing it to go extinct. In a case like that, I think it's better to have thousands of frogs in the hobby and zero in the wild than to have zero in the hobby and zero in the wild. Once again, the small number of frogs collected for the pet trade (which have then been continually bred in large numbers) is by no means responsible for the population possibly going extinct. For this specific locale, there are conservation efforts, but that's certainly not the case for all the hundreds of locales in the hobby. Unfortunately, animals bred by hobbyists could most likely never be used to replant a wild population due to the risk of spreading diseases, but having them in the hobby is certainly better than having them extinct and entirely gone from the planet.
Ein interessantes Projekt ist "Tesorros de Columbia". Die züchten unter anderem Pfeilgiftfrösche um Nachzuchten von selten Arten billiger als Wildfänge zu machen. Zur bedrohungslage bei Pfeilgiftfröschen kann man keine generelle Aussage machen. manche Arten sind Kulturfolger und profitieren von Menschen, andere Arten haben nur sehr kleine Verbeitungsgebiete und besondere Anforderungen, bei den meisten Arten ist die datenlage unklar. Generell ist zur Zeit der Chytridpilz die größte Bedrohung für Amphibien, die einzige Lösung die es da aktuell gibt ist Tiere in Gefangenschaft zu züchten um sie anschließend entweder gegen den Pilz zu imunisieren oder die Lebensräume wieder herzustellen und die Frösche neu anzusiedeln.
They are awesome looking frogs to keep. I am devoed I can't keep them in my country.
Great video!