Frogs are not tropical fish.........

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Posted by tpopovich on May 11, 2003 at 16:11:04:

In Reply to: Frogs are not tropical fish......... posted by Double J on May 11, 2003 at 14:31:13:

I started out in this hobby three years ago with a mixed tank. I had 2 Leucs, 2 Galacs, and three dwarf tincs. It was a great tank when they were all juviniles, all different colors... Well. 6 months later they all died except for my one male leuc. Since then, I have 5 tanks running now, one for each species, I learned the hard and expensive way and could smack myself silly for killing these frogs because I didn't look into and follow the basic husbandry that is posted everywhere.

:Hello there, I am glad you asked this question. I agree with all the others in that frogs should not be mixed period. Even some of the dart frog experts out ther frown upon mixing darts with other darts. And if you are thinking about mixing some other kind of frog with your auratus, a mix like that will ALWAYS result in the death of a frog or two or three. Often people with these "successful" multi species/genus/family tanks often pass off deaths as mere "old age" when it likely came from the mix. Here are a few reasons why mixing is a BAD idea:
:1) competition for food/territory/hiding places
:2) frogs from different geographical area carry different parasite loads that they can withstand, but if these parasites are passed to the other frog, they will stress out and die from these new parasites
:3) Even different species of frogs from the SAME geographical area will live in completely different microclimates with different temps/humidity/plants/predators/prey etc.
:4) Many cheap frogs out there are wild caught, and will likely bring disease with them
:5) Some frogs will eat others
:6) No tank is big enough that a mix could be possible, even a 200 gallon auarium which seems large is actually quite small in comparson to a natural setting
:7) mixing darts can result in hybrids, which are VERY BAD!!
:8) mixing darts can result in poor breeding results (in terms of numbers)
:Basically, nobody has proven to me that a mix could be beneficial to frogs in ANY way. That in itself is proof enough to me that mixes should not be done.
:I hope this helps you and deters you from mixing. Take this post in the nicest of tones, as I am only trying to give you a decent warning as mixing will result in disaster. Good luck, and I am glad you asked this question before you tried anything. Feel free to ask questions in the future.
:Double J

Follow Ups:

Thanks for sharing a real experience with mixing........ Slaytonp 05/11/03 (1)
- Thanks for sharing a real experience with mixing........ Randy27 05/12/03 (0)