Criptic's Page On Herps - Amphibians - Poison Dart Frogs

males are highly territorial. They will call from a specific spot on the ground or on a low shrub. They will call from the same spot, day after day for several weeks at a time. Males of the same species will space themselves 3-4 meters apart. They will defend their boundaries from any other male that enters it. It is not unusual for males to wrestle for several hours on the forest floor in territorial disputes. Females have smaller, less defined territories. They will also wrestle with intruders. Both sexes fight over love interests as well. Some species are difficult to maintain in colonies because of fighting among sexes and between species. Females will also eat the egg clutches of other females, if they run across them. If you plant to let the male and female care for the eggs, it is probably best to house just that pair in the enclosure.

Males can be difficult to distinguish from females. In species that have pale throats, the vocal pouches will be visible as a brownish or grayish wrinkled area. Males are usually 2-5 mm smaller than females. They are also slighter built. Males are the ones that really call. These calls range from low, soft insect-like buzzes to loud, continuous trills. Some females may make low buzzes and chips.

Mating usually takes place during periods of high humidity, often the rainy season. Male calling will increase and there will be more fights between neighboring males. The calls will attract a female. The sight of her egg inflated body will trigger even stronger calling. Courtship may take two or more hours. It consists largely of the female slowly approaching the male until he leads her on an even slower chase to the egg-laying site or bower. The male will move a few centimeters and the female will follow at a distance. They will both stop, and calling starts up again. The male will move off again, and the female will usually follow. The bower will usually consist of dead leaves on the ground in a moist spot, but not in the water. It is often near the protection of a downed tree trunk or heavy moss cover. The bower will be a very dark place, and will not be easily seen from above.

Once at the bower the frogs may participate in various types of stroking and dancing. Usually the female strokes the male’s snout and back. Then both sexes dance around each other in tiny circles while stamping their feet in place. There is a variation in the courtship of different species.

Poison dart frogs do not participate in the typical frog clasping behavior. Males of Epipedobates and Minyobates may clasp the head of females. The female will often lay her eggs while the male is outside of the bower. The male will return minutes later, and fertilize them after the female has left. Some species will assume a vent to vent position during egg laying, the male immediately fertilizing the eggs. In a few species, males will deposit semen on the floor of the bower, and leaves. The female will then lay her eggs in the semen-wet area. The male may then return to move the eggs around in the area to make sure all are exposed to the sperm.

Males will guard and tend to the clutch of eggs. Dendrobates and Minyobates will lay clutches of 2-6 eggs. Epipedobates and Phyllobates have larger clutches of 1-3 dozen eggs. Females may lay every 10 days to 2 weeks a month. The male will not only protect the eggs from small predators and other frogs, he will also keep the thick jelly around the eggs moist and occasionally move the eggs around, to assure that all of the eggs get sufficient oxygen. He will bring water either in his bladder, or trapped on his belly skin.

Often the female will tend the bower, or both parents will check the bower on a regular basis. Sometimes the male will tend to the clutch for 1 or 2 days until the eggs obviously have begun to develop, then disappear for the next 10 days. He then returns a day or two before the eggs hatch. In arboreal species, all the breeding cycle centers about a bromeliad funnel or similar spot filled with water. The adhesive eggs sometimes are deposited on a vertical surface, often at the base of a leaf near the water filled funnel. Some Epipedobates will lay on the edges of a naturally occurring puddle or spot of water in a tree trunk instead of a leaf in a dry spot.

The eggs hatch in about 10 to 18 days. A day or two before hatching, the male or the other tending parent, will begin to hover near the eggs. As the eggs hatch, the male will stretch his hind legs over the clutch and bow his back to form a trough. The tadpoles will crawl up to his back. The tadpoles have large yolk sacs that will sustain them in the heavy moisture holding jelly remaining from the clutch, so it is not urgent that the parent immediately transfer each one to a body of water. It is not uncommon for a tadpole to be carried about on a parent’s back for 2-5 days. The tads left in the bower must be able to survive without attention for longer periods.

The male or other attending parent, will then move them to one or more small bodies of water, where they will stay until they mature. These individual bodies of water can be the funnels of bromeliads, water holding areas at the base of the branches and stems of various other plants, and holes in standing trees or rotten logs. Typically just 2 or 3 tads share the same body of water. Large Dendrobates may have dozens of tads in large bodies of water as high as 10 or 15 meters above the ground. Males have traditional communal spots for depositing larvae. These large groups of larvae are usually cannibalistic. The larger tads will feed on the smaller tads. Tadpoles will generally feed on detritus and algae, as well as any small insect larvae found with them (such as mosquito larvae). You may use crushed fish food and blood worms to simulate this diet.

Some poison dart frogs use food eggs to feed their tadpoles. This behavior seems to be restricted to species related to Dendrobates histrionicus (such as pumilio, granuliferus, speciosus, lahmanni). For this reason it’s difficult to keep these species in captivity. The female will tend to the egg clutch and transport the tadpoles to individual bodies of water. These bodies of water are usually bromeliads or other such plant several meters above the ground. She will then return at fairly regular intervals (2-3 days), lowers her rear end into the funnel, and lay an egg that is eaten by the tadpole. The mother may feed each of her young from 20-30 eggs before they mature in 7-8 weeks. You may try to duplicate this in captivity using chicken egg yolk, cottage cheese, and yeast. These methods are marginally successful. It is ideal if you can get the natural behavior of the mother to take place in captivity.

Tadpoles usually are ready for metamorphosis after 2-3 months. Froglets usually are 10-15 mm long and will take tiny insects such as springtails, mites, and even hatchling spiders as food for the first few weeks. They are usually peaceful and several can be put in a small moist enclosure. Surround them with food, literally. They drown easily if not allowed voluntary access to land. They will reach sexual maturity in 8-12 months.

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