Newbie needs good advice on how to start!

[aerohung]

1st of all, "Hello" to every one!

I'm totally a newbie, perhaps not even a newbie yet

I just converted my old fish tank and parts into a vivarium. I spent all of last weekend for this and now it is completed. Everything is ready but no frogs yet.So I went through the internet I tried to gather as much info as I can about the PDFs.I really interested in these spieces: Dendrobates Azureus,Dendrobates Tinctorius. My question : "where is a good start? tadpoles, froglets or adult?"

I personally want to start from either of the 2 extremes:

1. Tads , so I can raise them from the very beginning ( but then : is there anyone really selling their tads?)

2. Adults, even though the price is much higher ( more than double froglets price), but it maybe worth because I can cut down the time in jump right into the breeding experience.

However, I never have any experience about amphibian so please give me advices for the posibility No.2
I do have a lot of experinces with fresh water fish though, especially Discus.

Thank you very much

PS: by the way, I live in San Jose, CA. I just wonder is there anybody in this forum live in the San Francisco Bay area?

[Jay Why]

Heya - I got here only about a month before, but that month of experience has taught me a couple things good for a newb to know.

I know you didn't ask - but get a good food source, if you plan on buying thats cool, find a consistant source. Like most folks though, you'll end up raising fruit flies yourself (save$$$) Start those fruit fly cultures NOW. Get that part figured out and running smooth. Its not hard, but when you've got the frogs and you don't have a sure food source, it can get sketchy.

I don't know about the frogs you listed, I've got auratus, but I personally think its worth starting with tads if you can find them. Actually, I got mine and one had just a little tail left, the other had its full tail and fully developed its arms and legs. I gotta' say seeing them growing from water to land was a fun thing to see. Than again... if you start with adults (that hopefully mate,) you'll see that soon enough!

I live in San Diego and have a friend with tads (more every day) of auratus, in case you are interested.

If you are good with Discus you obviously are smart enough to keep PDFs! Its a completely different experience (I've been into freshwater for a while now,) but it's alot of fun and you'll enjoy it.

Hope some of this helps!
Jay

[Brock Fluharty]

Is your friend selling the auratus tadpoles? How much are they? How do you care for the tadpoles? I may be interested, but much later, and only if he ships of course...i'm all the way in the Mountain Momma...

[Mantellaprince20]

welcome to our ever growing, addictive hobby . Since no one has placed the warning label up yet, here it is "Warning: the collecting and breeding of poison dart frogs is incredibly addictive. Once you have your first frogs, you will never stop."

Also, I don't like the idea of starting with tadpoles, just because that is the point in life where they have the lowest mortality rate. Up to about 2 or 3 months old depending on species, they are very sensitive. If you can afford to purchase a pair of adults, that would be best in my own opinion. Another option is start with mantella's, then you can get adults fairly inexpensive, and they have very similar requirements to darts.

Like pointed out previously, get on the food long before you actually get frogs. Flies can be a pain in the butt until you get the cycle down. Just remember it takes about 2 weeks for a new culture to start producing. I make flies on a weekly basis, just in case I have acrash or something.

If you get more q's or what, just let us know .

Take care,

ed parker

[porkchop]

i been into it about 6mo. now, listen when people tell you to start your food source now, buy your flys now and get them cultivating, that turned out to be my challenge as i collected more frogs prematurely. my recomendation for starter is leucomelas or tincs, everyone says their a great starter, easy and bold enough to enjoy ( you see alot of them) you might lose interest if you never see them. as for the tads, i agree, their great to start with cause they require enough attention to give you an idea of what your in for, and thats the time to figure out all the rights and wrongs as you go along, read alot and find someone to talk to who is knowledgable w/ darts. enjoy, but be warned, when everybody is saying their addictive, they say that for a reason !!!!