Parasites in the Wild VS. Parasites in Captivity

[RichFrye]

Well, it seems this has to be rehashed about once every two years. For the new guys (mainly , but anybody really) out there giving medical Dart Frog advise to others , especially concerning parasites.....
It has been typed dozens, upon, dozens, upon dozens of times across the forums I read that it is very natural to find parasites in Darts. It is also typed that it will not normally harm the frog unless there are other problems with the immune system , a non-related infection, ect. , ect., .
These are both VERY false statements. Period.

It may surprise some out there to know that the very vast majority of WC Darts do NOT in fact have parasites such as Hockworms, Lungworms, or Coccidia, the three major parasites found in captive bred Dart frogs.

How is this possible? First off, we have little idea of how all parasites make it into our captive collections but things such as crickets, field sweepings, plants, animal poop infected with parasites coming in contact with things we put in our vivs or our hands, and substrate are only a few of the things that will contaminate a vivaria.
Now why do the WC Darts not have parasites? WC Darts do not stand around in a 10, 20, whatever gal viv with their own infected poop all day long. A captive frog with parasites will only be able to suppress a certain amount before the loads that are being excreted are too much and become a health hazard. It should also be know that
It has been said Darts can handle a "normal" load of parasites, but if the WCs don't have any(many) parasites what is considered "normal"?? A "normal" load can very quickly become a large load which will very quickly become a factor to a stressed frog. It should be stated that there are absolutely zero known beneficial parasites in Dart frogs. There is no upside to having a frog with parasites.

Now with that being said , what do we do about parasites? There are a few different scenarios. There are the newly acquired Darts yet to go into a viv. There are Darts that are in viv already that have not been through a full or thorough quarantine . And there are the Darts that have been found to have parasites and are in viv . Newly acquired Darts should go through a quarantine which includes fecals that will tell if parasites are present. If parasites are found there are meds which can either cure of treat the parasites. One of the major reasons for quarantine is that young frogs in many cases have not had the chance to build up huge loads of parasites. So the treatments are much easier and less stressful on the frogs than it is for a frog that has been living for years with loads becoming giant and more stressful to treat. Darts that are in viv can have fecals done if they were not run while in quarantine. The frogs' fecals may come back clean in which case everything is fine, carry on. If fecals from in viv frogs come back with parasites the viv will need to be totally broken down and cleansed to kill all parasites . This means throwing away most all organic matter in the viv.

One last thing . I have read a ton of posts along the lines of" I have had my frogs for years and they are healthy and happy. I just got a fecal back and they have tons of hookworms (or whatever parasites). Is it worth treating and/or tearing my viv apart since they have been happy and healthy for years?" I have yet to meet anybody who can (solely) look at a frog, dog, cat, fish, or person and be able to pass judgment on their health. These animals live (can) for decades, not years, and if they are not living for decades in captivity then we are doing something different than what occurs in the wild. Huge loads of parasites for example.

Darts with parasites are analogous to mixing species. There is no benefit to the frog at all with either.

Rich

[spitz666]

ive had these sip tincts for about 5yrs. i found 2 dead out fo 4 1 is 1 i breed still alive w 1 othere ive had for awhile.ive isolated the last 2 toa quaranteen and the look alright . nothing new but 2 plants in the last month and i washed all dirt fro them and planted in same substate.could slight mite infestation in culture kil these frogs, mights are white.i am @ a loss here i use tap water that sits out for@ leat awk before i use it. same as always for yrs.. don't know what to do...also if i cleans the tankit has tads in it how can i do that w/out killing tads /wont they pollute clean tank if i keep them? any help would be great.bruce

[RichFrye]

I would suggest getting fecals done as a start and full sentences and punctuation as an end. :wink: Can't follow half of what you wrote. hock:

[MattySF]

The den may be in need of a Cornwallian translator or a protocol droid would suffice too.

[spitz666]

sorry about that,i had 4 sip.tincs.found 2 dead.quareentened the other 2.i found it weird that 2 died,they were in different stages of decay,i was out of town for 2 days. to gone for necropsy. any ideas ? i didnt do anything different except i was waiting for flies and feed them out of 1 that had mites in it white mites.ive done this before thinking no harm would come of it.the 2 remaining are eating well look healthy.i had noticed they were spending more time sitting butts in the water but thought it was cause they have tads and eggs in the tanki'm in the process of gutting the tanklooking for ideas on deaths,cleaning tank out what 2 use can i boil rocks clay pellets,ornamates,ect?

[RichFrye]

I would suggest getting fecals done as a start.

[Dancing frogs]

I would suggest getting fecals done as a start and full sentences and punctuation as an end. :wink: Can't follow half of what you wrote. hock:

Yes, please write in sentences...
Below the letters is a space bar.
To either side of the lower row of letters are shift keys...

Use of these, and the return (enter) key will make you're posts easier to read...hard to answer a question that gives you a headache trying to read.