Aurotaenia are a found in the lowland forests of western Columbia, which are some of the wettest rainforest in the world.  There is a complex of forms of this frog, and recently one of the forms, once seen occasionally in the hobby and known as the red striped aurotaenia, has recently been reclassified as a new species, Phyllobates samperi.  This complex is, in the wild, highly toxic, and I’ve heard anecdotally that some populations of this form may be more toxic than Phyllobates terribilis.  These green stripe aurotaenia are no slouches in that regard, and are highly toxic in the wild, I’ve seen them ranked as the third most toxic dart frog species.  Of course these captive bred dart frogs are completely non toxic.

Back in the 2000s, several forms of aurotaenia were present in the US and European hobby, and, along with this form, which was called the “wided banded” there was of course a “narrow banded” and the aforementioned “red banded”.  I don’t know why they were labeled banded, as, to me, banding refers to markings that go across the body and stripes refer to marking that go from front to back…but be that as it may,  I’ve not seen any of these frogs in the US hobby for some time, and only these remain, the “Green Aurotaenia”. Somewhat recently another form of these, called “Yellow aurotaenia” began to be offered, and these are still seen, although personally the neon green color is more my style!

As mentioned earlier, these are great in groups, and breed easily.  The coloration is superb, the glowing metallic green stripes and the sparkling markings on the legs is just gorgeous.  Generally they are fairly visible in the tank, and once they are mature, you will hear plenty of calling if you keep them reasonably wet. They do like it on the cooler side and I’d try to keep them in the low seventies.  Like all the Phyllobates species I’ve worked with, they can shove a startling large food item into their mouth, as a mature frog they can easily eat 3/8th inch and possibly larger crickets.

Status- we are working with a group that regularly produces for us, and generally have juveniles and larger frogs available.

We provide a bit more detailed information about this frog on our  Dart Frog Species Profile page for this species, here.

Please do not order dart frogs without becoming familiar with their care. We provide full care instructions on the Dart Frog Care Sheets page, if you are a beginner with dart frogs, please read through this information, and feel free to ask any questions, we are happy to help.

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