Short notes on keeping Dendrobates truncatus

Bob Worthington
Last update: 17 August, 2002

I have kept D. truncatus for six or seven years, the original trio of two males and one female having been given to me by Bob and Val Davies as young frogs. These notes are made from a faltering memory as I never keep records of my animals, but the female and at least one of the males are still going strong.

Dendrobates truncatus
Photo by Mick Bajcar

Last year Mick Bajcar told me that there were very few populations of D. truncatus in the UK, so I decided to start raising a few more frogs. These notes concentrate on the original three frogs that were housed together in a heavily planted 45x45x30cm vivarium.

Housing
The base of the vivarium was filled with 7-8cms of aquarium gravel, beneath which an airlift undergravel filter was fitted with the outlet pipe shortened. A trickle of water was maintained at all times. A small area of free water was kept in one corner of the vivarium, and two standard coconut spawning sites were provided. The frogs were fed on fruit flies every other day, dusted with vitamin supplements on a haphazard basis.

Reproduction
Most of the time the frogs were left to care for their own tadpoles, which they ultimately deposited in the water in the corner of the vivarium. The tadpoles were collected from there, and raised individually in tubs. About ten frogs per year have been raised in this manner since the trio started to breed. This is probably only a small proportion of the eggs laid, but 95% of the tadpoles found have been raised to healthy froglets or adults. Occasionally on carrying out maintenance of the vivarium (which normally would be simply cutting back overgrown plants), I would replace the polythene sheeting under the coconut shells. If eggs or immature tadpoles were found, these would be removed and raised separately.

Rearing the young
Probably only 25% of these produced healthy froglets. Among the other 75%, examples of spindly leg were found. On four or five occasions, I have found tadpoles with fungal attacks. I have treated this with enough malachite green to clearly colour the water in their tubs. Interestingly, the fungus infection and/or the malachite green has delayed metamorphosis or at least produced much larger tadpoles. The resulting froglets have appeared very healthy. I do not have sufficient space to investigate this properly; however, I intend to carry out more trials with eggs and tadpoles.

August 1999

Link to D. truncatus article No. 1