Frogs are like people, even if there are a male and female, they MAY not get along or even fight and especially never breed. Having one male and one female is never 100% guarantee to breeding. Sometimes they just never breed even though everything seems right. If you have your heart set on breeding, you may have to 'go tru' 3, 4, 5 or more different frogs / tries before you find the compatible 2. THEN your enclosure has to be perfect for them. Breeding dart frogs is just not very easy - otherwise everyone would be doing it.

Depends on the various species. All must have a constant high humidity spot. Some utilize leaf litter, some broad-leafed plants, some film cans and finally, some on clean flat smooth surfaces under a cocohut for example. That takes care of the egg deposition site and then the larvae gets transported to water - could be small pool, bromeliad or another film canister with some water in it.

I've cleaned plastic cups and fabri coted lids for @ 15 years straight. The stuff they are making recently is thinner and doesn't last as long but you get the picture. Easy clean up.

Now, I'm always in favour of glass over plastic but not in this case. Dropping and shattering as well as you lose the ability to TAP. Tapping the plastic is essential for me, for harvesting the flies. Glass just doesn't 'Tap'.

No screen...no t-shirt....Use this lid. It fits the cups like a glove as it should and can last 20 years rinsed with hot water and a plastic scrub pad. If you lids are homemade or goofy, mites will congregate under the lip of any protrusion you make. Proper lids, fitting correctly lasting 20 years and costing 70 cents each. Get the right tool for the job.    

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Figured we should generate some new build discussions! I've been slowly working on an Atelopus barbotini build that has three phases - a forest vivarium housing the females, a stream vivarium housing the males, and a grow out sump (hopefully) housing tadpoles. I have build the forest setup already and am working on the sump now. Plumbing and a display cart build is next, and I'll finish up with the stream build. 

The critters for those unfamiliar with the species:
   

I've documented the details on a post on my blog:
https://www.oneillscrossing.com/2022/03/...rple-toad/

Here's the forest build:
   
   

The sump:
   

I'm working on the plumbing next - overflow and returns to the stream from the sump. After that I have to build the cart housing all this stuff, then stream hardscaping. Fun times!

Excellent.    

I just wanted to shout out to Troy Goldberg, I was able to follow this video and complete a 36*18*36" vivarium for around $320.  I am super stoked, I think it turned out great.  This will be for lemur tree frogs, but the concept is designed for dart frogs.  




For some reason attachments wont post so I will update with photos below

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I buy commercial media and I FOLLOW THE EXACT INSTRUCTIONS!!!

why is there fail? Whhhyyyyy???

No matter what the directions say, no matter what the experts say, Fruit Fly culturing will ALWAYS be 'Mad Science'. So many variables with these living flies.


There is a TON of variables for correct and good FF production, and I'll try to cover them here in order of importance or occurrence:

1. Species of Fly

Melanogaster or 'Turkish glider' is the most stable and productive fly 'strain' to use for beginners or those seeking stability and increased production. 

Hydei - the larger and blacker flies are MUCH harder to deal with - longer pupate and not as large a yield, more prone to mite infestations ect. Do not use these if you are new.

2. Media or Fly food.

If you have a poor media, then you get poor results. If you are new or new- ER, do NOT try to make your own fly food. Buy ready-made and time tested like Rapashy (google it). Often hobbyists will make their own and SELF promote it on the interwebz. Do not go this route if you are new or need help. Buy Repashy. 

3. Moisture of the media

If you live in Arizona, your added water to the media is WAY different than if you live in Ft Myers Florida. If you are making fly cultures in a dry basement in the winter it is gonna take WAY more added water than if it's mid-summer. FF culturing is MAD SCIENCE. You can read labels on the containers all day long but in the end, you have to adjust constantly....CONSTANTLY. It takes work. It is NOT plug and play. 

4. Donor flies or stocking the new cultures.

This is a big one - too many flies and your CX will explode and actually not do well. Too few and the opposite. Using flies from a close to, or over 30 day old cx WILL bring in grain mites. About 30-40 melanagastor flies is what I use. Again, you are going to have to experiment and adjust here because there could be 30 or so different strains of flies across this country and this is 'variable number 4' out of many.

5. Mites

Do not keep cx's past the 30 day mark. If you see a lot of little round white or grey dots moving around the top part of the cx cup, then you have mites. Mites are inevitable - everyone get them unless they lie. They show up at some point often. You just have to deal with them and again...what's the word??? ADJUST. Always use mite paper (google it) and Diatomactious Earth (DE). Keep your cups on a tray of some kind with the mite paper underneath and the DE spread around. NEVER stack your cx cups or keep them anywhere near ANYHING else - keep them in a corner of a room ect.

6. Air and light.

The cx's need ventilation. They need proper fabricoted lids and do not lock them up in a box or tote ect. They need good airflow and light cycles

7. Temperature.

Need close to 75F. Drops or flux are ok but never close to 60 or 80F for very long at all.

Bottom line = Keep at it. Don't give up. You will get there!

ALSO:

also put a location in your advertisement / statement. Doesn't have to be your exact city or town. I can be a nearby city if you are squeamish. A HUGE, sometimes untapped resource in this hobby is our fellow hobbyists. Close by hobbyists can provide WAY cheaper fly cultures and other feeder bugs. The help and assistance from local hobbyists have done nothing short of amazed me over the years. Use it.

Should I buy a Humidity gauge of some type?

Nope. They are almost all, cheap trash. Do not waste your money. 98% of them - retail sold, are not meant to be inside a humid vivarium, and 80-90% almost constant humidity will cause them to fail and have false readings. Stay away from them.

Use the 'Eyeball and finger" method.

First, make sure you have some standing water in your false bottom. Don't know what a 'false bottom' is? It's the hollow space under your substrate that hold excess water. You need it or your enclosure will be a sloppy wet mess and your plants will die.

When you have some water in your false bottom, you can literally see that there is some degree of humidity inside the enclosure. I like to have between 1 and 3" of water down there at all times.

Won't it get stinky and dank and need changed? Nope. It really doesn't smell. There is a zookeeper in NJ that says it's clean enough and without problems that he will drink false bottom water. Seriously. 

You need to HAND mist your enclosure. Do not buy a silly fogger. They are dangerous, get hot, malfunction, shit the bed after prolonged use and only add SURFACE moisture, not long lasting deeper water humidity.  Foggers are crap just like gauges. 

Initially Spray your whole tank down - everything. Get all the substrate hit with spray. Now, pause and take some dirt (substrate) and ball it up and squeeze it in your fist. Is it too dry? Is it so wet that water pours out. You want MOIST....not wet...not dry.

Same with plants and wood and tank hardscape - moist a couple times a day...never totally dry. The tank should have a lower humidity period - mine gets 50-65% guestimate of course, during the day and 70-90% at night and early morning. You will get good at looking and feeling and judging the humidity. It just takes a little time.

Lastly, make sure you have a GLASS lid. Not saran wrap, not plexiglas...a proper glass lid. Also make sure it's not sealed. Frogs must have airflow or they will die from lack of O2 or evaporative inability - similar but cause by heat plus lack of O2.

You lid should have @ 15-20 percent of it be either holes or screen or some other venting near the front of the tank.

Question: At what age or size should pumilio be kept separate for safety and/or best breeding results

Well, it’s always hard to give EXACT ages, sizes ect, so this answer will be ‘ballpark’ like so many things in this hobby. These animals live and grow at different rates, and what is a big 3-month-old Colon for one person, may seem like a really small frog for someone else. That’s why I really don’t like to quote ages. Now SIZE is a little more useful to qualify.

Newly morphed pumilio inhabit the bottom of the enclosure almost always. They forage in the leaf little and stay on the bottom. The top region of the tank is the domain of the breeding male and female. When the froglets get to be sub adult, the breeding pair may aggressively herd them, possibly physically, to the bottom or even force them to hide under the leaf litter or behind cork or wood features ect. This is why you must separate the young froglets sooner than later. Adults may stress them out and cause them to not feed or have access to humidity gradients and they often die.
Sub adult frogs are almost as big as breeders. They can be introduced to a lone breeder adult. I always caution throwing a ‘third wheel’ into the mix as there is often female on female aggression.

Never put two males together even if the tank is large. Why? There is no need to subject them to stress.
Sometimes a 3rd or even 4th female is ok, and adds to the tadpole raising communally, but this is a lot harder and rare than people imagine. If you already have a good ‘factory’ going with a 1.1 I would almost NEVER chance it by changing thing and adding another female. If it ain’t broke….
So to recap – 1.1 is best, like 90% of ALL dart frog hobby animals. It just is safer and best.

Back to size again. Obviously, you want similar sized animals, but again, if it is just 2 pumilio, then a little larger or smaller is ok….as long as it’s never to males.
There is NO tips or tricks to get the frogs to breed quicker or better – there is NOT. Frogs are like people -sometimes bam…. other times 2 years later, nothing. Nothing can predict this. If you don’t have patience, then this may not be a good hobby for you. Want to know how long I am waiting for a couple different pairs of obligates to breed? Going over two years now! HA. Stick with it and enjoy the hobby and do not get so caught up in the Breed Breed Breed aspect.