Is a 24"x18"x24" exo terra good for tincs?

[hydrogalaxy]

If so how many could I put in?

[Philsuma]

1.1 or 2.1 adults

[Frogopolis]

I've had the same mated pair of Azureus for close to four years and have kept them in a number of different types/sizes of vivarium. In my experience in what I have observed with these two is that they never climb higher than 18 inches. I've always considered Tincs to be more of a terrestrial species that climb a little. There are some people who will say that Tincs climb a lot but mine only do so occasionally and I think it would be better to have a more horizontally arranged vivarium.

I would go with a Exo Terra 24x18x18 or a standard 20 gallon tall. When this pair originally formed they were in a 20 gallon long for about a year and they moved around every single inch of that aquarium. About three months ago I moved them into a Exo Terra 18x18x24 and outside of the first couple of weeks when I first put them in, I have never seen them up in the heights again.

IMO length is much more important than height. A 20 gallon tall tank would be perfect for a pair. I don't have experience with keeping a trio although I wouldn't try it and I think this species works better as a bonded pair when they are adults. I really love my pair and I never get tired of seeing them.

Good Luck...

[joneill809]

I would always choose additional height if you are considering it. The extra height will give you more room to work with for substrate, hardscaping and planting. If properly scaped, a tinc will use the entire viv, including 24" plus tanks.

I always find the story of the discovery of Azureus fascinating as it was written in a first hand account:
http://www.sipaliwinisavanna.com/docs/d ... n_frog.pdf

After about 20 minutes I saw my first blue Dendrobates in the wild. It was sitting on the forest floor on fallen leaves, and when I moved nearer it hopped away with short, quick movements. Its bright blue colour contrasted beautifully with the brown dead leaves. It was easy to capture. During my trip through the creek valley I saw many more and collected some of them, restraining myself of capturing more than a few because I had no idea about the extent of the forest island and the size of the population of the blue Dendrobates. Also, at the time, I had no idea whether this species would occur in other forest islands in the region or not. Most specimens were on the ground, but a few were moving up the trunks of large trees to.....where?

You can also find other scholarly references that document climbing behavior in tincs:
http://www.revistas.usp.br/phyllo/artic ... 2724/46392

Dendrobates tinctorius is mainly terrestrial, although we observed frogs climbing tree trunks to heights of 40 m (Born 1994).

So given the choice between an 18" and a 24" tall viv of the same footprint, I would always choose the taller viv and ensure the hardscaping met the needs of the particular species I was interested in. For tincs, I'd use multiple stepped cork ledges with sloped branches and climbing surfaces to encourage usage of the upper portions of the viv. You can get a lot of extra usable space in the same footprint with this strategy. It also provides extra cover for you male(s) should the females get overly aggressive while breeding.

Also, I'd be careful using the term "bonded pair" as tincs don't demonstrate pair bonding in my experience, and I have not read any literature that confirmed this. I have shifted pairings before and within weeks the newly formed pairs were breeding. I also have a 3.1 tinc group where the female will chase down any calling male, not just one.