Tuesday 28 June 2011

Just some proof of the auratus boy

Earlier, I said a new call had been heard coming from the green and black Auratus tank.... this just proves the Auratus are getting excited. Our lonely female blue and black Auratus, for the first time in a long time, came and sat in full view after hearing the call from the tank next door and I managed to get a good picture of her at last!!
Just a note on mixing species or 'fish tanking'. Many people who start out into the Poison Dart frog hobby get what has been coined as the 'pokémon mentality' or 'gotta catch 'em all syndrome'.... there are lots of sub-groups or various morphs of the same species that are divided into small localities and never meet in the wild, these morphs are often able to interbreed creating hybrid morphs. I do not subscribe to the idea of mixing species and believe that all of these localities should be divided and kept separately from each other as they are in the wild. This is to help preserve the species as nature intended it to be.
   'Fish tanking' happens when people see lots of frogs they want to keep and a lot of cool colour variations but they can only afford the space or money for one vivarium but throw many different frogs together to create a fish tank-like look. This is dangerous most of the time, even if you are a very experienced keeper and is frowned upon by most of the dart frog community, both here in the UK and abroad.
   The mixing of species can cause stress and aggression between frogs as well as hybridization and therefore I would ask anyone looking at getting into the hobby to have a good look around at the various species and locales that are available and to select your favourite of these should you only be able to get one or two vivarium's set up.

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