AJCs Virtual Frogroom: Dendrobates
tinctorius
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<barrywhite> Oh baby, can't get enough of your love baby ... </barrywhite> No eggs yet, but I'm keeping Barry cranked up on the stereo and everything I've got crossed. |
Poison
Frogs of the Family Dendrobatidae: Jewels of the Rainforest
Jerry G. Walls.
A beautiful oversized book with literally hundreds of very high quality glossy
photographs of these exquisite animals. The photography in this book alone justifies
its purchase price. However, the extensive
text
also includes information about the species, including their habitat range,
biology and behaviour. (Amazon.co.UK)
Not a great photo, but it shows how to sex frogs of the D. tinctorius group nicely. Note that the toepads on the front feet of this mature male are twice as big as those on the back feet. In females, the toepads are much more even in size.
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This pair bred regularly from June to October 2005, when falling temperatures called a halt. Alll the tadpoles were reared communally in open-topped translucent plastic storage boxes (extensively scrubbed and soaked in hot water before first use). These contain about 10 litres of water, lots of aquatic plants and are lighted for 12 hours a day. There's lots aquatic plants, algae and of oak leaves for cover. ~25% waterchange once a week (water is rainwater plus ~25ppm CaCO3). Tadpoles are fed mostly Hikari algae wafers though they graze on natural algae too. Up to 20 odd tads in one tub (more for Mantellas and Epipediobates). When they have four legs, I pull them out and put them in closed sloping boxes until they metamorphose. You lose a few at the aquatic stage (10%?), but the ones that make it come out big and strong. |
One of the offspring, ~2 months after metamorphosis, ~30mm SVL.
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© AJC 2005.
