Sat, 19 May 2012 08:06:17 -0800WeeblyFri, 18 May 2012 08:09:51 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2012/05/may-frog-blog.htmlIt's mid-May, it's getting warm and there's been lots of rain lately.  Should be breeding time!
Someone needs to tell our frogs that.  There are a few leucomelas and lamasi eggs, but that's about it.

We are trying to get the latest batch of red trivitattus tads to morph out, but no matter what we try, we lose some as their front legs pop.  They drown, before they can crawl out.  There is virtually no info on the web about raising trivs and even repeated pleas on dendroboard has not helped.  I guess they are just an extremely difficult species to raise in captivity.
I am happy to say the three survivors from the last clutch are growing, coloring up and chowing down on melanogasters.

We have a new batch of farm raised Panamanian pumilios, incuding cristobals (singles and pairs) and caucheros.  I also purchased a pair of esperanzas (similar looking to escudos) and a pair of loma partidos.  Unfortunately, one of the lomas died a couple of days after arrival.  I was not happy, as they are difficult to come by and very pricey.
We were also able to get two pairs of captive bred eldorados, for breeders.  One of their offspring also came along with them.  He (or she) will be available for sale in a couple of months.
Meanwhile three of our F1 caucheros are growing and will also be available for sale in several months.

A couple of weeks back, we were vending at the Carolina Reptile and Exotic Animal Show in Raleigh.  This use to be a huge show, but the number of vendors attending was smaller than ever.  It had to be dissapointing to attendees.  I beleive this is due to much higher vendor costs, than for other reptile shows and poor advertising.  I'm not sure if we will attend future shows there.
I was able to purchase a nice trio of orange galacts there , for breeders.  They are sub-adults, so it may be a while before we see offspring.  So, we now have red, orange and yellow galacts.

Speaking of shows, we will be at the Repticon shows in Columbia, SC in July and Charlotte, NC in August.  We will also be at the Reptile Expo in Myrtle Beach, SC in July.  Stop by and check out our frogs and supplies and if you are a dart enthusiast, make sure to say hello.

That's it for now.

Jeff ]]>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:28:29 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2012/04/april-blog.htmlWow, here it is April already.  Time is flying by.  Everything is in bloom early and the temps have been crazy warm already.

Over the last couple of weeks, we had to completely dismantle the frog room, to have new floors installed.  Man was that a major job.  The spiders were not happy!  It took several days to get everything out and several more to rearrange things.  Oddly enough, there was less room for tanks, even after getting rid of lots of unneeded junk.

The good thing is everything is more accessible.  The frogs are grouped together more by species as well. 

We had a great show back in Columbia SC no too long ago.  The show was sold out of vendor tables and the crowds were good.  We went there with forty eight frogs and came back with twenty four.  Not bad.  We also sold out of our Eco Vivs.

Our next show is in Raleigh, NC.  We always look forward to this show, since crowds are good and we know so many frog collectors in the area.  We will have a pretty good assortment of frogs available, including some pumilio pairs, which should include cristobals and popas.

We will be raffling off a ten gallon vertical Eco Viv at the show.  Tickets will be $3.  The drawing will be Sunday 5/6 at 3:00 and you must be present to win.

Our red trivitattus tads are doing well.  After some discussions with other breeders, we are hosing them communally.  These are by far the most difficult frogs we have ever tried to raise.  So, every time we have a new clutch (which is unusual in captivity), we have better success with numbers.  It is my goal to reach a 100% success rate with the trivs.  I am hoping to have two or three from the last clutch available for sale by July.

Fruit fly cultures continue to be troublesome.  We are currently culturing melanogasters, "Turkish Gliders" and Hydei, but production rates are nowhere near what they should be.  So, we will continue experimenting with different culture media mixes and different storage methods.

That's about it for now.

Jeff


]]>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:33:38 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2012/02/odds-ends-for-february.htmlIt'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
]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:19:05 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2012/01/1st-post-of-the-new-year.htmlIt'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


]]>Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:39:47 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/09/septemberoctober-update.htmlIt'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

]]>Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:57:02 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/08/august-at-carolina-dart-frogs.htmlIt'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


]]>Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:40:17 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/07/july-update.htmlIt'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



 


 

]]>Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:07:11 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/06/june-update.htmlWell, 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

 

]]>Mon, 09 May 2011 05:02:36 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/05/may-update.htmlAfter 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



]]>Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:54:51 -0800http://carolinadartfrogs.com/1/post/2011/04/we-have-expanded.htmlEarlier 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]]>