Dendrobates

Frogs of the Dendrobates family also known as Poison Arrow Frogs or Dart Frogs, are truly the jewels of the rain forest of South America. They belong to the Family Dendrobatidae and the most popular are of the Genus group Dendrobates. They can come in a dazzling array of brilliant colors such as green, red, blue, yellow and some are just plain jet black with a couple of pale stripes on its back. I've heard from many sources that the reason for the brilliant coloration is for the deadly neurotoxin in their skin which some natives in South America coat the tip of their blow gun darts to kill small monkeys. Hence the name poison dart frogs. Many species have been kept in captivity for a number of years some have even bred in captivity. Most people think that frogs are easy to take care of...well some are, but with poison dart frogs, its a bigger responsibility, these frogs are very fragile and need more than average care. Some of the Dendrobate species can cost up to $200 a piece for a specific morph or rare captive bred species. As I mentioned the large responsibility, I was referring to their needs, these frogs have a lot of specific needs that need to be taken care of if you want to keep them successfully. One major need is the need for moisture, sure frogs need moisture, but these need a lot more than most, all though they are not aquatic, they do live in rain forests, so they are used to heavy rain and moisture, the easiest way to take care of "rain" in a cage is to buy a misting system. Misting systems are expensive, but well worth it. You cage must be set up as close as possible to their natural habitat as possible for a nice vivaria, remember, its your tank, you paid for the frogs, why don't you make it look nice? The frogs being so small, have to eat small things. They eat all sorts of minute insects in the wild such as termites and ants. You may have a problem finding ants or termites near you house, but thanks to bug ranchers, you have access to a wide variety of small insects sutible for your frogs such as pinhead crickets and wingless fruit flies. Fruit flies are good because you can breed them at home with little or no effort. These frogs should have a densely planted vivaria so you want to pick plants that don't have sharp edges or spines that these delicate frogs can hurt themselves on.

More will be added here as soon as I can find some free time....I have a lot to add.

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