Dart Frog Blog
www.CarolinaDartFrogs.com
 
It's been a very busy month at CDF.  We have many new frogs available and sales have picked up considerably.  As usual, space is at a premium in the frog room.

If some of you have been following along on our red trivittatus tads, they are doing quite well.  You may recall that we lost all of our tads last year.  I believe this was because the clutch was so big and as a result, the tads too small.  The clutch was smaller this time, at 18 eggs and the tads are much larger.  They are sprouting rear legs now, so it won't be long before they are ready to go into their new vivarium, which is heavily seeded with various springtails.

You may have noticed we have had a good number of pumilios available, including cristobals and popas.  We are now working directly with an importer of farm raised frogs from Panama.  They have been very healthy adults, beautifully colored, eating well and include calling males.  We will be getting in more within a couple of weeks and hope to have some other pumilio species as well.

We have also been working with Marcus Breece, who many of you know is considered one of the foremost experts in dart frogs.  He has provided us with a number of tinctorius species that we do not breed ourselves.  Marcus has spent many years breeding for the healthiest, most colorful dart frogs available in the hobby.  We have somer absolutely gorgeous bakhuis, bicolor, alanis and matechos currently available.

Another fairly new addition for CDF is "Turkish Glider" melanogaster fruit flies.  They are larger than the standard d. melanogster and seem to reproduce in greater numbers. 

Please stop by our booth at the Repticon Columbia SC show, March 10 & 11 at the Jamile Temple.  We will have a larger than usual assortment of frogs available, as well as fruit fly cultures, cork bark tubes, horizontal and vertical ten gallon Eco Vivs and many supplies.  I will also be giving a demonstration on building vivariums.

In April/May, you can find us at Repticon Baltimore and The Raleigh Reptile & Exotic Animal Show.

That's It for now.

Jeff
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It's the second week of 2012 and things have been busy at CDF. 

We just came back from selling at Repticon Charlotte.  It was a good show.  There were less vendors there this time around, but the crowds were good. We saw some of our older customers, made some new friends, got some new folks started with dart frogs and sold out of our Eco Vivs.

Our next shows will be at Columbia, South Carolina in February, Raleigh, NC and Baltimore Md. in May.

It's time to get the frog room re-organized.  We will be reassessing which species we will continue to breed (or should I say, attempt to breed) and possibly add a new species or two.  We will likely add some more thumbnail species.

We currently have over eighty tads in the water, with a mix of auratus, leucomelas, lamasi, and azureus.

To date, we have not had any luck with breeding our Vanzolinis, Red Galacts, Black Bassleri, Citronellas and Cristobals.  We have had a new clutch of Red trivitattus, with about eighteen eggs successful.  You may recall, we had an even larger clutch a year ago, but none of the tads survived.  So, we will try to take especially good care of this batch, with our lessons learned.  It is very rare to see captive bred red trivs avaialble in the US, so it would give us great pleasure to offer these to collectors.

The exciting news is our pumilio "Strawberry" pairs available by the end of January.  We will have several pairs of Cristobals and Almirantes available.  These are some beautiful frogs!

I would like to invite all of our previous customers to send in pictures of the frogs purchased from us and any vivariums you have built.  We will be happy to put them up in our picture gallery.

That's it for now.

Jeff


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It's the end of September, the beginning of fall and it's still 85 degrees here.  The frog room still gets over heated, so the fans still keep going.  Luckily, that's about to change this weekend with a major temperature drop.  Tank temps remained fairly steady at 76-78, so no problems there.  It will be interesting to see if the temperature change outside, affects the frogs reproduction.

We have been fairly busy with shows lately.  we just attended Repticon Ice in Myrtle Beach this past weekend.  It was a first for Repticon in that area.  Overall attendance was not great, but there were quite a few vendors, including four selling dart frogs.  Typically, with these shows, most people are coming for snakes and this was no exception.  Since we had such a busy summer, we didn't have many frogs for sale.  With all the competition, that was a good thing.

We did however, sell all of our vivariums.  Since we make several different styles, they were sold to house, darts, tree frogs, geckos and pygmy chameleons.  The vertical vivs seem to be the most popular.

Speaking of pygmy chameleons, we sold them for the first time at the show.  They were quite a hit and sold out quickly.  I have to admit, they are very cute little critters.  We will have a new supply very soon and will attempt to breed them.  Although we are running out of space in the frog room, a rack for their homes is being set up now.  Luckily, we have a friend locally who has bred them in the past and we will certainly take advantage of his expertise.

We picked up one more breeding pair of azureus at the show and have high hopes for some good production from them.  They are a very healthy looking pair.

The "baby" tanks are getting full these days.  We currently have a good number of azureus, green & black auratus, blue & black auratus, mint terribilis and leucomelas froglets in them.  Also, there are quite a few of the same tads, as well as campana auratus and orange lamasis.  By December/January, we will be overrun with frogs.  That's a good thing!

I'll be picking up a male, no spot citronella this weekend, so will be looking for a mate for him. 

Our next show will be Repticon at Columbia SC, November 4 & 5.  We will have the usual assortment of dry goods, frogs and vivariums available.  So if you will be in the area, stop by and say hello.  We always like to hear how our frogs are doing.

That's it for now.

Jeff

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It's the middle of August, temps are down a bit and we are quite busy at CDF.

We took some time off from doing the reptile shows in July and August.  We are gearing up for September, when we will be at two of the bigger shows in the Carolinas.  September 3 & 4, we will be at the Carolina Reptile and Exotic Animal Show at the Raleigh Fairgrounds.  September 24 & 25 will find us at Repticon Ice in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  This will be the first "Ice" show for Repticon.

In anticipation of these shows, we have held back a good number of frogs.  We will have azureus, green & black auratus, orange lamasi, mint terribilis, bicolors, pumilio cauchero and pumilio almirante frogs available for sale.  We will have our usual supplies as well.

One of the things keeping us busy these days is construction of our Eco Vivs.  These vivariums are suitable for many creatures including dart frogs, tree frogs, anoles, geckos, small snakes, and some tarantulas.  There will be several vertical and several horizontal vivs available at the shows or for pick-up.  We have actually been selling them as quickly as we can make them lately.

Our frog room is busting at the seams right now.  There are over eighty tads in the water at this time and more eggs soon to hatch out.  Our newest addition to breeders was a pair of blue & black auratus.  They have been producing since the first week in their new home.  They should be available by late November.

It is unfortunate, but we lost all of our red trivitattus tads over the last couple of months.  They rarely reproduce in captivity, so when they laid a clutch of twenty six eggs, we were thrilled.  The tads were tiny and as they morphed out to popping their front legs they died off.  It is quite difficult to find any info on breeding them, so it's still a mystery as to what happened.  It could be that the large number of eggs produced much smaller and weaker tads than normal.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you with any questions or comments and getting pictures of frogs you have purchased from us.  We will be happy to include any of your testimonials on the site in the future.

That's it for now.

Jeff


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July Update 07/05/2011
 
It's July fifth and the weather is hot, very hot.  So, it is with a look at the forecast and great caution, we will consider whether shipping frogs is prudent.  Even with insulated boxes and ice packs, it can get well over 100 degrees in the back of a delivery truck.

We have some new arrivals this week.  First was a male azureus, to join our female who lost her mate a couple of months ago.  The two bonded immediately and have been seen in their coco hut together quite a bit.
Next was a male leucomelas for the many females we have.  He will be put in a viv with one of the females. 
Finally, we have a proven pair of blue & black auratus arriving this week.  They will join several pairs of green & black auratus.  One of those pairs has been producing non stop for the last month.  So look forward to plenty of the green & blacks available by September.
As usual, our orange lamasi have been steadily producing.  Not large numbers, but on a regular basis.  We will have four to five available, also by September.  We also have eight Bicolors that are just morphing out.  They are a bit on the small side as they morph.  We should have them available some time in September. 


One group of five leucs has been very vocal recently.  We believe there is one male in the group.  There had not been any calling for the last few months, but now his call can be heard quite regularly.  This is a very shy group of frogs.  There is a great deal of cover in the viv and they really take advantage of it.  So, we will be checking their coco hut for eggs every day and hoping for some great results.
Not too long ago, I decided to change our fruit fly media mix.  The flies were just not producing as well as they should have been.  I tried a different type of brewer's yeast and started adding bits of chopped apple to the mix.  I must say that it has made quite a difference in production.


Our next show will likely be in Myrtle Beah, SC this September.  It's the first ever Repticon Ice show.  It's a new market for Repticon and for us.  We're hoping for a large turn out there.  We are thinking about doing future shows in Richmond VA and Atlanta GA.  Updates on the shows we will attend will always be on the home page.


That's it for now.


Jeff



 


 

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June Update 06/02/2011
 
Well, it's the first week of June and temps are already in the mid 90s.  Hopefully this is not a sign of what we are in for the rest of the summer.  I'm already nervous about shipping frogs.  Typically we don't ship with temps over 85, but also typically, temps don't get this high for another month or so.  This means that we will look at shipping on a case by case basis.  As always, our frogs are available for pick up in Greensboro.

We have quite a few tadpoles right now.  They include Red Trivitattus, Azureus, Green & Black Auratus, Orange Lamasi and Bicolors, all at various stages of development.  Additionally, we have Azureus, Auratus, Leucomelas and Mint Terribilis froglets.
We should have quite a bounty of frogs available at the Ice Show at Myrtle Beach in September.  In the mean time, we will be at Repticon in Columbia, SC on June 18/19.  If you are interested in reserving any frogs for Repticon, please call or e-mail.

There's an insane amount of calling in the frog room, especially at dawn each day.  I love hearing so many different species calling at the same time.  The red trivitattus are by far the loudest.

For the last couple of months, we could only locate one of our vanzollini pair.   We were convinced it had escaped or died.  I'm very plesed to report it has been found and the males has been calling recently. 

We have four, ten month old orange terribilis arriving next week.  They will be kept for breeding.

We have recently changed the formula of our fruit fly media.  Hopefully, it will produce greater yields.  There's plenty in stock now.

That's it for now.
Jeff

 

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May Update 05/09/2011
 
After our recent expansion, it's been fairly busy in the frog room.

We currently have 23 Red Trivitattus tads, many with their rear legs.  Along with the Trivs, we have Azureus tads, Orange Lamasi tads and Green & Black Costa Rican Auratus tads.
We also have a clutch of and Green & Black Costa Rican Auratus eggs.


One of our G & B Auratus males is calling constantly.  It can get pretty noisey in the frog room when five or six breeds start calling at the same time.


I'm preparing a 40 gallon breeder tank as the new vivarium for the red Trivs, when they morph out.  I'll also be changing out a couple of the ten gallon vivs holding Leucs, to a 20 gallon long, where four adult leucs will live.


Our show in Raleigh was quite successful, despite fewer vendors and lighter crowds than last year's show.  We are currently trying to decide which future shows we will be vending at.  We will likely be expanding the number of shows we normally do and spreading out a bit into Georgia and Virginia.  You can always find out which show we will be at on our home page.


That's it for now,
Jeff



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Earlier this week, we bought out a number of breeding pairs from a Kentucky dart frog breeder, who is leaving the business.
The adult pairs included several Leucomelas pairs, a couple of green and black Costa Rican Auratus pairs, two pairs each of Standard Imitators and Yuri Imitators.  In addition, we purchased two more pairs of G & B Costa Rican Auratus from another source.
Hopefully in the coming months, we will have many of each available for sale.

I know some of you are following the progress of the Red Trivitattus that recently hatched.  We currently have twenty three healthy, growing tads.  We lost a few eggs toward the end and one tad so far.  However, I'm feeling pretty confident about their survival.  Once big enough, at about two to three months old, we will be releasing them for sale.  These will be the first Red Trivs I have personlly ever seen available, that are captive bred.  It happens, but is very rare for them to produce in captivity.

We had ten Mint Terribilis available and sold out the first week they became available.  I will be releasing eight more for sale next week.  So, if you are interseted, please call, text or e-mail to reserve.  They can be picked up in Greensboro or at the Raleigh Reptile show April 30/May1.

We also have plenty of Azureus juvies and Turquoise & Black/Bronze Auratus juvies available.  The Auratus are very large, fat, healthy six month old frogs.

Please stop by our table at the Raleigh show in two weeks.  We will have all of the above frogs available, along with some planted vivs, Rep-Cal calcium powder, FF cultures and culturing kits, sheet moss and we will be debuting our new "Got Frogs?" t-shirts.
Also, if anyone has any tads, froglets, juvies, adults or pairs of any frogs we currently are not working with and would like to sell them, please contact us.
We always like to meet fellow dart enthusiasts, so say hey when you visit the show.

That's it for now,
Jeff
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Just have a minute now, but I wanted to give a few quick updates.

Twenty one Red Trivitattus eggs have hatched, with six left to go.  The tads are doing well and are gaining size quickly.

There are some Azureus eggs and tads and some orange Lamasi tads growing out.  The four O. Lamasi froglets we have are sold.

We have several new breeding pairs now.  We have added three pairs of green & black Auratus, another pair of Leucomelas, two pairs of standard Imitators and a pair of D. imitator yurimaguensis.

The frog room is busting at the seems.  There isn't any more room for expansion here.

that's it fo
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Yes, it's time for an overdue update.  We have a number of new things to report.
First, we now have ten very fat and healthy Costa Rican Green & Black Auratus available at $45.00 each.  These are exceptionally nice five month old juvenile frogs.

We have been trying to augment our Leucomelas for breeding.  I believe we had three adult female Leucs, which have been sold.  I was able to locate seven adult Leucs, which seem to include at least two males.  We have separated them into a group of three and a group of four.  The group of three seems to have settled in to their new vivarium.  They are generally out and there is calling.  The other group however, has remained very shy.  They stay hidden most of the time and no calling so far.  We have high hopes for at least two breeding groups.

I have saved the most exciting news for last.  Our year old wild caught red Trivitattus have produced a large clutch of eggs.  It is extremely unusual for captive Trivs to reproduce.  There appear to be at least 25 viable eggs, all with tails showing.  We will be keeping a very close eye on these and doing our best to raise them to juveniles.  Hopefully they will be available for purchase in several months.  I have never seen captive raised Trivs for sale anywhere. 

Finally, please stop by to see us April 30 and May 1 at the exposition center at the Raleigh State Fairgrounds for the Raleigh Exotic Animal and Reptile Show.  There are many different types of animals available for sale and on exhibit.  Also there is a flea market just outside the exposition center.  So, please stop by our table and say hello.

That's it for now.
Jeff
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