Black Eared Mantellas!

["Red-eye"_Matt]

Yesterday me and my girlfriend Baby "G" were at the local pet store nearest to us to pick up some snake food. While we were there I was talking to one of the people in the reptile department that we are familiar with and he mentioned to me that they had some black eared mantellas. I had never seen them before so I asked if we could take out the tank to have a peak (they had two of them about 1 cm long in a 5 gallon). Man they are cool looking little guys!

I inquired about the price and he said they are normally $49.99, but that the manager wanted to sell them quickly because there are not to many amphibian fanatics in our area and with there small size nobody was able to really see them well. He figured this would mean they would be stuck with them for a long time. So I spoke to the manager and he said that if we bought both we could get them for $35 dollars each.

Well needless to say we now have two mantellas to add to our collection. They are in a temporary 5 gallon tank with some damp paper towel as a substrate and a fake plant to give them some places to hide. As soon as we put them in the tank last night we added a few small crickets and they both ate a least one each.

They are in our animal room with a steady temp around 68 F and we are setting up a lamp to bring the temps up during the day.

So I will post some pics after they have a few days to settle in.

Matt

[sketchy4]

Congrats! Mantellas are cool little guys.

[manville]

cool...i am looking to purchase more mantellas right now i have a tri-colour mantella..definitely post some pics up...i will post my tri-colour mantella up too

[Double J]

I hope you don't mean that you want to add them to a "Community tank" with red-eyes and firebelly toads??
The firebellies or the red-eyes will eat those little mantellas in a jiffy... and then you will have some dead red-eyes or firebellies, and some dead mantellas. The mantellas are almost certainly wild-caught... which means they still contain a decent amount of poison in them. Plus, their will surely be some nasty little parasites that any of your frogs may be carrying that will do some damage as well.
If you will be preparing a new tank for the mantellas alone... you should check out Mark Staniszewskis site for information on their care. His new mantella book is excellent as well. I would advise against a heat lamp... these mantellas will die from HRMSS at temps above 80 for prolonged periods of time. A fluorescent light will provide all the heat those frogs need... plus a heat lamp will dry the tank out beyond belief which will equal dead mantellas. I would try to get at least 7 or 8 crickets into them per day.. I would recommend also treating them with some kanamycin (available from any aquarium store) as well as some panacur.
Let us know what your plan is.... just the wording of your post sounded like a mixed tank which will end in a disaster.
Just trying to help...
Double J

["Red-eye"_Matt]

Good god no! We have a 40 gallon tall for our red-eyes and a standard 40 for you firebellies. We just keep them all in the same room.

The mantellas are currently in 5 gallon tank with a little moss and some paper towel substrate. They have some crickets in with them that are a little large but we are picking up some pinheads again tomorrow for them. After we are confident they are doing well we will be moving the pair into a 15 by themselves that we will set up with live plants (to match our other tanks).

But don't worry Double J, we won't EVER mix species.

Matt

PS. The lamp I am using has a standard 40W house bulb and it is around 5 inches above the tank. Plus I mist the tank 5-6 times a day to keep the humidity up. But this is only a temporary setup for them.

[manville]

hahaha that would be a pretty dumb thing to do..never mix spicies

[Cruciform]

I always stop to check out the dart frogs at the pet store. They're awesome little critters.

When you say the wild caughts would have a decent amount of poison in them, does that mean that captive frogs lose it over time? Do they build it up by eating or processing something in their environment?

[Double J]

Here is the link to Mark Staniszewski's Mantella FAQ....
http://www.amphibian.co.uk/mantella.html
I highly recommend purchasing his harcover book... it is expensive, but is well worth the money for the wealth of information it yields.
As for the poison... that is basically it. The frogs in the wild eat insects containing alkaloids. The frogs then process and refine these alkaloids making them far more potent. So basically, I have been told to think of these animals as alkaloid refineries.... they do not produce the toxin themselves, they only modify a chemical in their diet. This is of course, just a general non-specific explaination...... Wild frogs will lose their poison as time progresses, and CB frogs are, for all intents and purposes non-toxic as far as I know.
Good luck with the mantellas. The setup sounds like it will be nice. Be sure to post some pics when you are done.
Double J