Dart Den
Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...
Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Hydei Fruit Flies - Do I EVER need them ?
#1
Nope. The Poison Dart Frog Hobby can actually get along quite well without ever needing / using Drosophila hydei.

Even the Largest -the Truly Big Boyz of the Hobby- Phylobates terribilis and bicolor have been proven to be able to breed and thrive exclusively on Melanogaster. Several large scale MD breeders can attest to that.

Simply put, Hydei are "twice as hard" to culture, than melanogaster and as such, are never recommended for beginner hobbyists.

But do Hydei have their place in the hobby ? Yep, they sure do. After some experience culturing your own melanogaster and feeling that you totally have that routine safely under your belt and well in hand....then.....you can branch out and add a few cultures of Hydei for additonial variety.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#2
Good to know!

One of the reasons I haven't branched out to terribilis yet is that I assumed they needed bigger food, such as crickets. I did crickets with a toad I had years ago, and, hated it. In fact, the crickets lured bark scopions into my apartment (yes I did get stung, in my bed!). And then lured venomous giant desert centipedes into my apartment. I was terrified in my own home! lol

So, yea, crickets are a sore spot with me. I do have hydei, but very good to know that the smaller ffs are ok too.
Do you know where your frogs have been?
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#3
I've heard Mantellas literally Need Crickets in order to thrive, let alone breed.

While Crickets, Larger Fly species and even some worms would be fine and welcomed by greedy Terribs, it's not essential to breed them or have them thrive.Variety is to be encouraged and I think all hobbyists tend to branch out once they get D. melanogaster culturing confidence.

Carolina centipedes and scorpians....Yikes Confusedhock: The only thing worse is - Florida, or perhaps Texas "scary bugs"
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#4
Hehee, no no, I was living in Arizona at the time Big Grin

While I have heard rumors of scorpions in NC, I've never actually seen one here. Ive been here for 41 of my 46 years. Tongue
Do you know where your frogs have been?
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#5
bump...
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#6
On a similar note, what about nymph Dubia roaches instead of crickets? They are softer, easy to cultivate, dont smell or make sounds, and they cant climb glass or most plastic. I just started breeding these for a future crested gecko project. Seems like they would be a perfect alternative food source for terribilis...

I have an 80 gallon that will become a terribilis tank eventually.

Back to hydei, I want to try these out, s a secondary food source. It would be nice to have a few cultures to feed out of occasionally to break it up.
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