Care sheet guide by DartFrogsAndGeckos.com

So, hopefully you’ve read the first discussion on planning for your first dart frogs. Now, you’ve got some good ideas about what frogs you are going to get and how you are going to go about having a terrarium ready when the frogs are the right size and so on…time for some fun, lets plan that first terrarium!

This little sheet isn’t going to be in-depth on how to build a terrarium, perhaps I’ll get to that later. However, there are plenty of ways to build a terrarium described out on the web, and they generally focus on things like your substrate layer, and the background, and I think these are fairly safe topics, most of the approaches to doing these things are straightforward and should pose little danger to your frogs. The areas that seem to be overlooked are the lid and ventilation that the lid provides, for the tank, and I think some of the substrate choices I see are poor, I’ll get to that towards the end.

But, my main goal is to provide a little contrary advice on the subject of bioactive tanks, and some advice on some of the things you might not need to buy!

So, I often see people wasting money and time on a couple of unnecessary things, so bear with me while I go into this a bit, read it over and decide if you want to spend your money on these things! So, first things first, this is kind of controversial…but a bioactive tank is not a necessity, and frankly I don’t even know that it is even that desirable. The amount of time, money and energy I see being expended on this aspect of dart frog keeping is WAY above the benefits. Dart frogs are not going to get any substantial number of calories from the springtails and baby isopods in your tank. And, the springtails and isopods are not going to be “tank janitors”. This is all sort of a fairy tale, one that is often spun by vendors who sell isopods and springtails, and in some cases, vendors who don’t even keep dart frogs.

Springtails

So, a little bit more info perhaps…let’s start with springtails. Springtails are by far the most beneficial of arthropods to put in your tank. They should settle in and prosper in your tank fairly easily. If you have an opportunity to grab some, put them in your tank, they are fine, and your frogs will love them. But…they will quickly die back, and generally only be seen if you poke around a bit under the leaf litter, no matter how much you load up the tank in the beginning. Springtails will help break down leaves (not that this is necessary), and they will break down poop in your tank, but dart frog poop disappears in like two days with or without springtails. Dart frogs are small relative to their enclosure, and they do not put out that much poop. And much of the poop will be on plant leaves, and not really easily accessed by springtails. The fact is that all my tanks have springtails in them, but I didn’t put them in the tank. They came in on plant roots, or in bromeliads, or any number of ways. Honestly, I am not sure how you would setup a tank and then at one year of age, not have springtails in it…and probably not that different a level than if you had heavily seeded it in the beginning.

Of course, springtails can be critical to raising certain egg feeder frogs, the juveniles are really small and can sometimes morph out into the tank and be undetected for a few days or more. You will be very happy you have a heavy load of springtails at that point! But, presumably as a beginner, you aren’t starting off with a $1200 pair of eggfeeder frogs.

Isopods

Next, lets talk about isopods. There are a couple of species of dwarf isopods that are kind of a take it or leave it thing, the dwarf purple and dwarf whites do well in terrariums, especially the whites, and they can be fairly prolific, your dart frogs will enjoy snacking on them, but they really are not going to contribute much to their caloric requirements. So, grab them if you like, but I wouldn’t put a lot of money into it. The larger isopods are another matter, and some of the Porcellio species can be hungry for meat… I’ve talked to people who felt that their frogs wouldn’t sleep in the bottom of their terrarium due to the isopods nocturnal activity. Isopods like the powder blue or orange are quite safe, and inexpensive, and the juveniles are palatable to most dart frogs. Keep in mind that you will basically only see any of these creatures if you go looking for them, they are quite fossorial, remaining under the substrate or under hide spots (the same ones your dart frogs will likely want to use to sleep in!) and you won’t see them often.

Ok, well sorry for the rant, I’m constantly talking to customers who are “waiting for their tank to cycle”, like it is a freshwater aquarium or something like that. These little critters are fine in your terrarium, but their importance is being greatly exaggerated by the people who breed and sell them. I don’t put them into any of my dart frog tanks here…zero. Oh, and if you do decide you want to have one of these species handy for use feeding baby frogs or something like that, I’d highly recommend culturing them outside the tank as well as in the tank, they will be much more easily used as feeders for baby dart frogs if you have a culture dedicated to them.

The next big money sink/mistake I see people making is getting a misting system. These are great for the hobbyist or small business who has multiple tanks, and they can be a great investment for some first-time frog keepers, but honestly, not many. One of the issues you will have to deal with if you do decide to get a misting system is the accumulating water that will need to be removed. If you want to have your tank drilled and put it over a sump, then problem solved…but if you don’t want to deal with that, you’ll need to have a way to get the water out, and pretty regularly!

I think a lot of people think the number of times they need to mist the tank is much higher than it actually is. If you ventilate your tank properly, you really don’t need to mist more than once or twice a week. You can certainly mist a couple of times a day, and you can do this easily enough with a hand mister. If your terrarium is properly setup, the worst thing that would happen if you failed to mist them for a few days is that your frogs would hide. This is a natural response to the humidity being too low, and most dart frogs in the wild spend a lot of time in shelters that hold high humidity, under a leaf or a log or something similar. They hunker down until the next rainy spell; they usually don’t have to wait long!

And this brings me to my next subject, the lid and the amount of ventilation you need. As a beginner myself, I remember reading that dart frogs needed “high” humidity, and so I covered about 75% of my screen lid with a piece of plastic and planned to spray them two or three times a day. Well…my frogs were nowhere to be seen. Even when I sprayed the tank, the ventilation that my lid permitted, was such a draft of cold air on their little bodies that they barely came out. You know that feeling when you get out of the shower without toweling off first? Dart frogs are always wet, and they probably feel just like that if they are sitting under the gap in the vapor barrier on your lid if it is too large. So, generally the gap that is not covered with a vapor barrier should be maybe an inch or less. I’d suggest figuring out a way to have about a two inch gap at the front of the tank, and then have something to cover it with, (could be as simple as a piece of cardboard cut to fit and then covered in clear tape or saran wrap) so you can alternate between the super high humidity the frogs will love, and the lower humidity that will make the tank look better, and reduce the fog on the glass.

If you take this approach, of having the ability to easily adjust the ventilation, then one strategy for enjoying your dart frogs and having a great looking tank, is to leave the ventilation open during the day while you are gone, then when you come home, you can spray the tank down, slide the vent cover over all or most of the vent, and then feed the frogs…you’ll have a nice show as they come out to eat and should remain active in the tank for a few hours. Then, before it is time for lights out, spray the tank down again…in the morning take the vent off and let the tank air out through the day.

Another bit of gear that people often buy as they are setting up their tank are those little stick-on thermometers and hygrometers…the kind with the little dial. Those are neat, but they don’t survive the super high humidity of the dart frog tank. Within a week or two, they will no longer move, and you’ll be thinking how stable the temperature is…but, actually what has happened is the metal spring that expands and contracts to show the temp or humidity is just rusted into one piece. And the digital devices also generally quickly fail, if they are installed in the tank, again the high humidity wrecks them. My suggestion is to go on Amazon and buy a combination thermometer hygrometer there, the handheld types. These sell for anywhere from $25 to $1000, (air conditioning technicians use them, so you can use that to search for them) but I’d look for one that is less than $35 or so, and don’t leave it in the tank…I mean you will need to leave it in the tank for a few minutes to get a read on the humidity, but if you leave it in there overnight you could have problems. Mostly, you don’t really need to measure humidity by the way, your frogs will tell you if they are comfortable, by hiding if it is too dry.

Also, if you spray the tank down and two hours later the leaves are dry, this is probably not humid enough for your frogs to be comfortable, so you will need to cover more of the ventilation.

A couple of notes on setting up the tank, then we are done! Water bowls are generally a bad idea. I don’t have water bowls in my tanks, and water bowls are often included in stories about dead or dying frogs. Frogs drown each other in them, because they are nice and shallow and fighting frogs can hold the other frog down in the water. They also become dirty fast, so you will need to clean them daily. But overall, they just aren’t necessary. Water features are nice and will add to the humidity and ambiance of the tank, but again, not necessary, and often a weak point of the first terrarium build, getting everything working right on a water feature is tough.

Substrates are an area that can be a problem, but the most obvious one is using coco husk, and another is using any type of soil from the hardware or garden store. My go to substrate in my tanks is typically either fine aquarium gravel, or hydroton, the little clay balls…either can be covered with a layer of insect screen and then a layer of leaf litter or something like ABG mix (a durable substrate of various products that we offer) again with leaf litter over the top. Of course, you will need to thoroughly wet these substrates before putting your frogs in the tank.

Ok, well hopefully this helps you to make some buying decisions and will get you started with a minimum of unnecessary expenses!