Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
I’m in a frog-buying mood
We’ll get to the frogs in a moment. First, I wanted to ask you guys why my hit counter is going nuts with searches for this image:
Billy Munster all grown up, you say? No, it’s Justin Theroux, and he’s obviously supposed to be a bad boy. Aaaah, I get it: Theroux will be playing Detective Larry Zito in Michael Mann’s upcoming movie version of Miami Vice. Karen and I saw a trailer for Vice last weekend, when we saw The Da Vinci Code. Looks good, although if I were creating a Vice trailer, I would have placed Gong Li front and center.
Mmmmm. Gong Li.
Back to the frogs we want to buy. This is kinda sorta my father’s day present. If Karen gets to keep 40 tarantulas, I should be allowed to buy six more dart frogs. It’s only fair.
Pix below the cut.
We will probably buy from Herpetologic.net, since they have everything we want at reasonable prices. I hope they don’t mind if I pinch a few photos (especially if I drop a few hundred dollars on them for frogs).
First and foremost, I want my leucs:
Dendrobates leucomelas, sometimes called the “bumblebee frog,” an arboreal species with a beautiful trill originally from British Guyana.
I should mention that most if not all frogs bought and sold in this hobby are captive bred. Wild harvest is discouraged, since some of these species may be endangered. They are threatened far more by habitat destruction than by hobbyists.
Leucs are big, hardy, and extroverted. Other dart frogs are more colorful (check out the Herpetologic.net page under frogs/availability), but many are shy.
Speaking of colorful, Karen wants a pair of citronellas:
Dendrobates tinctorius, Citronella morph. Here’s another photo.
And a pair of pumilios:
Dendrobates pumilio, from Panama. Here’s a great closeup.
According to Karen, the females lay unfertilized eggs for their tadpoles to eat. Until folks discovered this, they had a devil of a time captive breeding this species. Now, that’s one fine mama frog!
The leucs and the citronellas ought to get along with our azureus, but we’re not sure about the pumilios. Maybe we’ll keep a separate tank at home for a change. Just have to keep the evil cats away.
In case you’re scratching your head, unable to understand the fascination of these little dudes, you need to spend some time around them to understand. They have personality to burn. They’re aware of their keepers and they’re not shy. They are also horny little bastards. Inevitably, they save up all their lovemaking for the five-year-olds with fundamentalist Christian parents.
“They’re, um, wrestling, Jebediah. For, um, exercise.”
D.
I love dart frogs, and whenever we’re at the zoo, or aquarium I’ll gaze at them all for ages. The kids lose interst and have to drag me away. I’ve never heard one sing though, what’s it sound like?
I’ve seen the pumilio and the azureus – they seem the most popular, and some wee bright green ones I couldn’t see on your link’s page.
Perhaps, we could have them as a pet…never considered it before. Can’t have a nything with fur, feathers or fins so why not wee froggies?
Is it so that dart frogs in captivity for a while are no longer poisonous? I read that the natives would hold them over fires to scare them and make them “sweat” their poisonous goop, to use for their blowgun darts. Poor little frogs 🙁
Some pretty fantasy frog pics for you
pretty frogs
and I’m deeply amused by this one link
and I keep forgetting to scan in the “Bead and Button” article devoted to making beaded frogs, awfully spiffy.
Gosh Doug – I could get you about a million bajillion of these for free right now.
Soon I’ll be able to enlist my neighbours’ boy, frog-man extroardinaire, to get you a whole bunch of these. Not as pretty as your frogs, don’t sing as nicely as the peepers, but you can race ’em!
By the end of the summer I could find you a handful of these big daddies.
Yeah, gee, Doug–my nieces have a huge jar full of tadpoles. Too bad I couldn’t just mail you a few. 🙂
So, how hard are they to keep? Harder than salt-water fish? Harder than invertebrates?
They’re a heck of a lot prettier than the fresh water fish we have here.
Oh, forgot to mention. The first picture? Creepy.
We ended up with some lab frogs last year, thanks to the husband’s colleague who shall pay, but I haven’t decided how yet..
whooo weee did those babies stink! when I went to the pet store to find out how much it would cost to get them set up in a stink free environment, I was told about $75 minimum.
We checked with the lab supplier, found out they were frogs that are native to this area– and said goodbye to them at a nearby creek.
Ours were big guys who lived on land and water. Maybe the smaller ones that live full time in water would be less niffy. Couldn’t be much more stinky unless they were ferrets.
They’re beautiful. I don’t want any of my own, but I like looking at the pictures.
Down here, we worry about the big bufo (sp?)toads because they are poisonous. If a dog or cat attacks or licks one, they’ll die without immediate vet attention.