Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[ChrisM]

Forgot to say, have had a rethink, hence otherpost asking for suggestions about what to put in here! Am very tempted by Golden Mantellas, small and beautiful!!

[ChrisM]

Ignour other post, had posted on another forum asking....

[Rickeezee]

oerrrrrrrrrr what to put in the vivs, well many species of smaller lizard would be suitable, but from what you have said it seems like you would prefer a nice variety of species. I still think you could adapt and get some mantids in their somewhere, so stick with that, even if it means splitting one viv into smaller sections to house a few diff species of mantids.

Anoles, that might work, maybe a pair of smaller day geckos, perhaps some other folk would care to make some suggestions to, nothing like a wide variety to chose from!
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[ChrisM]

Am thinking mantellas in the middle- and maybe a leo up the top. Got my mantid over the otherside of the room, so might just build something so that he /she can have a few pals over that end!

[Peter Parrot]

Phelsumas , (day geckoes) the smaller species (plenty to choose from) could go well in the viv you intended the Yemens for. Mantellas, if you are going to have them need to be kept cool, so would do better on the bottom where it would stay cooler. I have kept both Mantellas and several species of dart frogs and would say however that Mantellas are not the best species to start with. They prefer it cooler than most darts which unless you have air conditioning can prove more difficult to achieve in the Summer than envisaged.
Some of the more commonly kept dart frogs are easier to care for than mantellas as they don`t require it quite as cool. Whather going for Mantellas or darts however, you would be well advised to go for a purpose made Glass vivarium as high humidity levels are mandatory. As far as dart frogs go, Dendrobates leucomelas, auratus or any of the tinctorius locales are good starter species.
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[ChrisM]

Cool, thanks for help guys. Thinking Bumblebee darts- Dendrobates leucomelas for the middle. What do you all reckon for Leopards in the tops, is long and deep, but quite shallow.

[Peter Parrot]

Would probably suit them very well. It is doubtful whether you would need any additional heating for the dart frogs. More than enough heat would probably permeate from the top viv.
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INSPIRING PEOPLE, IMPROVING PLACES
www.btcv.org
Visit our website - Gwelwch ein Gwefan
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[ChrisM]

Cool, cheers Peter. Right, darts it is. Am gunna leave it up to the misses to choose- bumblebees or a one of the dying strains.

I know mixing is majorly frowned apon, and I totally agree, but can you mix Dendrobates tinctorius sub-species?

[Peter Parrot]

Tinctorius are better kept as pairs or at most two males and a female. The females are very competitive and wrestle each other to try and prevent each other from mating. This is all natural behaviour but in the confines of a vivarium it would be hard for them to avoid each other and the weaker of the two females would undoubtedly suffer.

The mixing of subspecies ethic, is very wrong in my eyes , especially as regards amphibians which are currently in a crisis stuation the world over with the chytrid fungus now moving at an alarming rate through South American species of anurans due to escaped imported chytrid carrying xenopus populations from back in the 1970`s.

As such we should do our best to keep the locales pure in my opinion. I would put tinctorius as an excellant starter species however regardless of the locale that you choose. I have, Oyapuks, Patricias, Azureus and La Fumee and all are large colourful dart frogs but above all are ballsy and active, full of attitude, but all are kept seperate from each other.
_________________
YSBRYDOLI POBL, GWELLA LLEOEDD
INSPIRING PEOPLE, IMPROVING PLACES
www.btcv.org
Visit our website - Gwelwch ein Gwefan
www.btcvcymru.org
Llinell Gymorth / Helpline: 08702 40 48 41