As with other dart frog species, Dendrobates leucomelas has evolved into quite a few different locale morphs, probably at least a dozen in the wild, and several that are found in the US hobby.  Recently these unique little leucomelas have made their way into the hobby, and personally they are kind of my favorites at this point!

Their smaller size makes them more compatible with a mid size tank, and a group of four or five has plenty of room in something like the 24 inch long Exo Terra type tanks.  I’d suggest giving them at least 18 inches of height.  Temperature and humidity requirements are pretty typical for dart frogs, mid seventies up to around eighty degrees, and very high humidity, over 80% would be my recommendation for maximum boldness.

I’ve not been working with these long enough to really be able to say for sure what the story is on breeding them, but my early results lead me to believe that these might be a little easier than some of the other forms of leucomelas.  Personally, while the “standards” are considered easy to breed, they have proven to be a challenge in some ways, for me at least.  In particular, they do breed easily, but they only breed for me during a fairly tight season, March through early summer, and I’ve always struggled to get them to breed any other times.  So far, these Rio Negros are breeding year round for me, although they are a bit on and off.

As I mentioned, these are around 2/3rds the size of a standard leucomelas, some males are actually amongst the smallest of the “normal” (as opposed to thumbnails or pumilio) dart frogs I’ve ever worked with.  Babies come out of the water small and these are probably not going to be the “one inch juveniles” that I often mention offering.

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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