Hi guys I'm new to the forum as well as dart frogs. I'm refinishing my basement and I've added a 55 gallon fish tank in the wall facing my bar. (good excuse to get more reptiles) Now I wanted to turn this into a beautiful natural viv housing dart frogs. I've done a pretty lot of reading on them and from what I've read 55 gal. tanks were not reccomended for dart frogs. So my first questions are is it possible to house them in a 55 gallon tank? I'm guessing in a tank that size I can keep them as long as food is overabundant so they can find it. But having no experience with them I need your help =) . Also If this is possible I can use any suggestions on frog species and how many can live togher in the tank. Just a little info on the setup, Its a 55gal. long with a waterfall and shallow pond in the middle The substrate is eco-earth on top of screen with those clay balls underneath(forget what the're called) Most of the eco-earth is covered with moss and plants with plenty of hides as well as branches and plants to climb on. The tank originally housed crested geckos but i moved them to a nice high enclosure in another room, and adjusted this tank to accommodate dart frogs. So if you guys can help me out I would really appreciate it. Please include all the info, suggestions, comments, ideas ect. I can use all the help i can get. Thanks
Steve
Wherever did you read that 55 gallon tanks weren't recommended for dart frogs? You could set it up perfectly for any species of dart that is currently on the captive bred market, with rather minor plant and set-up modifications for individual species preferences, and some limitations upon the number of them you can keep together, depending upon the species. Some are groupies, so you could keep several in one 55 gallon, and others are very territorial, and might need to be kept only in mated pairs for best results, so perhaps a 55 gallon might be wasted space on a pair of azureus or even a pair of tiny pumilios, for instance, because they are territorial, and 55 gallons might be more space than a single pair needs, but not enough to add more for more than a single pair. It would be great for 4 to 6 of the groupies like D. glactonotus, D. leucomelas. P. terribilis, or even an interesting colony of the D. imitator group, in which the females do fight ferociously, but are ultimately too acrobatic to really do much serious harm to each other, and the loser never seems to get stressed out over it. A "ghetto" of D. imitators in a 55 gallon with lots of bromeliads on the background, is a great show. If you are seriously into breeding, you can remove the fertile eggs and raise the tads yourself--more efficiently than they do,-- or you can just enjoy the show, and maybe get one or two froglets they manage to raise themselves out of the community scene of competition and dominance, and incidental, accidental, cooperation, when one female is enticed to feed another female's tadpole. They like to mess up each other's eggs, or even eat them, but will turn around and feed a tad that is not theirs with infertile eggs.
In any event, 55 gallons is not a bad size for any darts. The numbers of them you keep together and the set up might vary a bit on an individual basis, depending upon which species you decide to keep.
