Current Availability and Projects

Summer '09

In this space I try to offer a fairly updated discussion of the captive bred offsping that are available at this time, as well as any new information about dry goods, shipping, and projects which are coming to fruition! This text area is a general overview, followed by the more frequently updated table below that shows each species or form that we have in “production” right now, as well as their prices.

The dart frogs we offer are generally juveniles, as opposed to the froglets some vendors may be offering. This means the (for example) D. azureus that you order from us will be a three or four month old frog, about one inch long. Many beginners have trouble getting baby frogs to thrive for them, and larger well established frogs are much easier to deal with. For the most part, the frogs sold here are at or over one inch in size when sold. This one inch standard of course applies to frogs other than D. pumilio and thumbnail frogs, but the same theory applies to these frogs as well, they will be well started before we send them out to you. The larger and more well established your frogs are when you get them, the greater your chance of success with them is, and this is well worth checking when you are considering where to get your frogs, and well worth considering when comparing prices.

Terrariums

We are busy at work on a new line of zoo quality dart frog terrariums, we have some photos of these posted on the “Terrariums” page. These unusual terrariums feature realistic cast backgrounds, and provide a striking home for your dart frogs or other rainforest inhabitants. These tanks are ideal for offices, zoos and other public places, as well as for home use. Please contact us if you are interested in discussing a tank, we'll be happy to custom design a terrarium to fit your needs!

On a somewhat more modest scale, we recently introduced a terrarium kit for medium size terrariums. The kit features a cast background with the look of real rock. The background has a water fall, and comes with everything you need to set up a tank. The kit is made with the Exo Terra and Zoo Med tanks in mind, but can go in any tank large enough to hold it. We are now offering this kit with a second background, a smaller version of the Mayan ruin background pictured on the terrarium page. Again this background is 17 inches square. I will get pictures of it up soon, but it's ready to go now if you are interested……

Dart Frogs

Our inventory is on the rise, and we have a lot of new and interesting frogs that are coming out of the water. Availability should continue to be pretty good into the fall.

D. auratus-

There are lots of good things going on with auratus right now. We have a good “crop” of Green and Bronzes available now, and there is a nice little stream of Costa Rican D. auratus with a few hitting shipping size every week.   Same with the Blue auratus, we are getting a few out of the water, but not many.

We’ve had a lot of interest in our blue and bronzes, but unfortunately over the past year, most of the blue and bronzes we have produced have been small and have failed to thrive.  We will keep trying, but I am not holding my breath!

We also have a few Ancon Hill auratus that are ready, and a few “Campana” auratus. These Campana are an unusual Panamanian form of auratus, with a dark brown background and a light brown reticulation on them. They are truly remarkable looking frog!

D. galactonotus

At this time we have some red galactonotus tadpoles and the froglets are coming out at a steady rate as well. We are filling orders on the wait list for this frog, but it’s a long list.  It is very hard to forecast how long these lists will take, but we are going as fast as we can! Right now we are shipping frogs out for people who requested them in January of this year.

We had a rather unsuccessful breeding season with the Orange galactonotus, but we are hoping that another round of breeding, just starting now, will be more successful.

We also have some yellow galacs, both ones we produced ourselves and some we picked up from another breeder.  These are great terrarium frogs, and not that frequently available.

Phyllobates

We have a nice batch of P. vittatus out of the water, they are just hitting shipping size….not much going on with the other Phyllobates at the moment though.

D. leucomelas

We have a good  supply of D. leucomelas that are ready to ship, these are one of the best all around terrarium frogs, colorful, bold, compatible in groups, loud pleasant call….what more could you want?

Tinctorius and Azureus

Right now we have quite a few D. tinctorius forms available.  We have a few Patricia, Surinam Cobalts, some Powder blues, Tafelberg or Alanis, and some Inferalanis.  D. azureus are again available, hopefully we wont run out again!  We are producing a nice steady stream of Oyapoks, so if you are interested in this wonderful small tinctorius form, please contact us, and we will get some to you!

One of our most popular offerings are the sexed pairs of D. azureus. These frogs are perfect for those of you who would like to get on the fast track to breeding, or who just want near adult size frogs so you do not have to worry about trying to raise juveniles. with a diverse array of bloodlines to offer.  We have kept detailed records of the origin of almost all our breeder D. azureus, many of which are approaching ten years old, and include some F1 animals, and will share that information with you on request, when you receive your sexed pair.  These sexed pairs we currently have available are young adults, 12 months old or so, and while it is reasonable to expect that they will take a few months to begin breeding, many of my customers have been happy to find it took only a couple of months, or even less in some cases!

For the first time in several years, we are running very low on sexed pairs of these frogs, and I believe we will run out sometime this fall or winter, so check with me to see if they are still available.

Thumbnail frogs

First a note on taxonomy, the majority of the thumbnail frogs popular in the hobby have been reclassified from Dendrobates to Ranitomeya. These frogs are still considered dart frogs, and this change simply reflects further clarification of the Dendrobates family tree. We will update the individual frogs pages with this information as we get around to it!

A few bright spots here with our thumbnail frog projects.  R. imitator are doing fairly well, and we have a few frogs ready to ship every few weeks.  We also have some R. imitator intermedius that are ready for shipping as well.

We have a couple of new species that haven’t been added to the frog listing as of yet, we will try to get a page posted for each of these new species soon.  First is the R. variabilis. A very interesting frog, considered to be the frog that R. imitator imitates in their shared range.  Very similar in appearance to imitators, but more closely related to R. ventrimaculatus.  Slightly larger and brighter in appearance than imitators, and nearly as bold.  One of the best features of this frog is that it is much more tolerant of being kept in groups, as is the case with many ventrimaculatus group frogs, so its possible to set up four unsexed young frogs in a tank and not have to worry about them killing each other!   We have quite a few of these that are basically ready to ship.

We also recently acquired a couple of pairs of low land form R. fantasticus, and are starting to get some egg laying from them, and we have a pair of Terapota form R. imitator that have been producing some tadpoles and froglets, in small numbers. Inquire on availability and pricing. .

Pumilio

First a note on taxonomy, the entire tribe of “obligate eggfeeders” (species like pumilio, histrionica, and granulifera among others) have been  reclassified from Dendrobates to Oophaga.  These frogs are still considered “dart frogs”, and this change simply reflects further clarification of the Dendrobates family tree.  We will update the individual frogs pages with this information as we get around to it!

We currently have a few of the Bastimentos form pumilio ready to go, including white, yellow and red/oranges.   We are also producing a few Cayo Nancy pumilio. These frogs are simply stunning, with a solid red body and some white on the feet.  Check for availability on this outstanding frog.

Other Frogs

We are working with a few non dart frog frogs, here is a summary of the offerings in that department.

First, the Vietnamese mossy frogs, Theloderma corticale…..for the moment we have no wait list, but its close, so don't be surprised if there is a brief wait. Just drop me a note if you are looking for these, I should be able to fill your order pretty quickly.

Second, the Solomon Isle Leaf frogs, Ceratobatrachus guentheri.  Right now these remarkable frogs are breeding, and we should have them available in limited numbers through the fall and into winter.  There is a short wait list for this frog, so please get on it right away if you think you want some.

In addition to these frogs, we are also offering some Amazonian Milk frogs, Trachycephalus resinifictrix.  We picked these up from a local breeder who had some success with his group.  This frog is not that common, and a really unusual looking frog, with their white and black markings.  These frogs live high in the rainforest canopy, and may never descend to the ground, breeding in tree hollows. Cool stuff!

Wanted

This is a new feature, please look this over if you have surplus frogs available.  We are looking for the following types of frogs.  We will pay cash, or trade for other frogs or terrarium supplies.

In addition to the frogs listed below, we are interested in purchasing or trading for any frogs we do not have on our “Currently Available” listing.

Juvenile D. auratus Blue
D. leucomelas of any size
Phyllobates terribilis Mint females or pairs
Terribilis juveniles
E. tricolor Santa Isabella pairs or proven groups
E. tricolor Highland form pairs or proven groups
E. Trivitattus, three stripe “Lower Hualluga” Male one or more
R. reticulatus
Orange galactonotus not from our bloodlines here. (Our bloodlines include wild caught frogs, as
   well as imports from Europe)
Matecho Tinctorius
Lorenzo Tinctorius
D. azureus juveniles

Dart Frog Availability at a glance, June, 2009

The purpose of this table is to allow you to see what frogs are available now, and what might be available in the near future. Note that the froglets too small to ship and the tadpoles are listed for informational purposes, we do not sell tadpoles or baby frogs.

Frogs listed as ready to go are well established juveniles, in most cases one inch in length and three to five months old. The one inch standard applies to the tinctorius, auratus and other larger dart frogs in particular, obviously many of the other frogs are too small as adults for this to apply.

Please consider the size and age of the frogs in price shopping, the larger and older juveniles we offer will have a considerably higher success rate than froglets!