Epipedobates boulengeri

Although this small brown frog is considered by many hobbyists to be an uninspiring animal I consider it to be one worth maintaining in the vivarium. It is a ground dwelling frog, about 15-21 mm long from Ecuador and Southwestern Columbia where it co-exists with E. bilinguis near Loreto. They are found from elevations of 10 to 1200 metres and so can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. It is a very active frog, the males of which call most of the day. The call is similar to that of a loud cricket, repeated several times.
I maintain two pairs of these frogs in a 40x40x40-cm vivarium at 23-24(C by day and about 21(C at night. Males are territorial and quite aggressive and tend to sit in the higher reaches of the vivarium. The frogs are fed on a diet of small and large Drosophila, crickets, springtails and aphids, all of which are dusted with a vitamin and mineral supplement.
They are easy to breed and spraying the vivarium with water twice daily can induce this simply. The eggs are laid into film tubs or onto leaves, and as E. boulengeri make excellent parents, the eggs can be left in situ or removed to be raised separately. The tadpoles can be raised on flake fish food or algae. Newly metamorphosed froglets are very small and will require springtails and hatchling crickets to thrive.
E. boulengeri is an unpretentious and active frog that is easy to breed making it a worthwhile vivarium subject despite its dull colouration. 

Jan Stenicka
Czech Republic