Ranitomeya imitator intermedius husbandry ?

[michaelslenahan]

I recently purchased 3 Intermedius from Mark ("pigface" on DB)--they arrived beautiful and healthy and one of them began calling 15 minutes after taking him out of the packing container! This same little guy calls every couple of minutes for about an hour every morning--I was surprised as Mark has his OOTW date at Feb 4 of this year. All of them seem to be eating well and are very active.

I decided on imitators as my first thumbs because the information I have read classifies them as an "easier" thumbnail to begin with. Please understand that I didn't jump into them without any information or thinking they would be "easy."

With that in mind, I searched DB and this forum for threads dealing with imitators and more specifically with Intermedius--before purchasing them. I cross referenced some of the threads here with Rich and on DB with Phil Tan to try and get good references/info. After reading 92+ threads on here that mention them (even the ads... =) ) and 60+ on DB, I have learned a ton--now I want to hear more!

I know there are some incredible froggers on this site (that don't post on DB) that have kept and do keep Intermedius and I want to hear more than just DB's "care sheet" with regards to what works for each person.

So... post away! What makes your keeping of Intermedius a success?

[joshsfrogs]

We have found that they breed just fine in groups. They lay their eggs on plant leaves and on the sides of the tank. They are good at hiding the eggs, so we suction cup film canisters to the sides of the tank and fill with water (changing the water 2 times a week). The male(s) will deposit the tads in the film canisters. We then take them out and raise the tads.

[mattolsen]

I have a couple tips, even though this thread is really old.

I've only had 2 groups but my success with them, and a lot of other imi's is based on honing in on what each group likes, within reason. Give a lot of options, canisters in different orientations, broms, pothos, etc. Also, I prefer to keep the tanks so that 3 sides are covered in great stuff/substrate method, while cutting out gaps in random places so that light penetrates from different spots. I believe that this keeps frogs feeling more comfortable than on display. One other thing that has worked well is a bunch of bromeliads mounted to a piece of corkbark then mounted to the back of the tank. They love it, put it in and eggs next day. Just an idea or two.