Another interesting poison dart frog: Epipedobates pictus
(Bibron in Tschudi 1838).
Kris Hermans and Dirk Ercken
Belgium
Epipedobates pictus, is the leader of the pictus group.  Other members are E. andinus, E. azureiventris, E. bilinguis, E. erythromos, E. flavopictus, E. ingeri, E. parvulus,
E. pulchripectus, E. rufulus and E. smaragdinus (Frost, 1985 & Duellman, 1993).
Together with E. femoralis it has a huge dispersion area.  They live in parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guyana's, Perú, Surinam and Venezuela.  That's one of the reasons why E. pictus has developed such polymorphism.  In 1976, Silverstone made a revision of the poison dart frogs of the genus Phyllobates.  He made six artificial color morphs.  In 1987, Charles Myers made a new revision; a few species of the Genus Phyllobates were placed into the new genus Epipedobates.  
E. pictus has a lot of similarities with E. femoralis, which has basal toe-webbings and maxillary teeth.  Sometimes the pictus from Perú and Ecuador have small minuscule teeth.  There is a suggestion that they're evolving towards a tooth-less mouth.  In the noted areas these two pictus (the one with and the one without teeth) live sympatrically.
Silverstone measured 148 pictus and found an average size of 23.2mm for the males (16.5-29.5) and an average size of 24.4mm (19.5-31.5) for the females.  Once again we noticed a big variation in their size.  Further proof of their heterogeneity exists in their vertical distribution, which can vary from 6m to 915m above sea level.
I (Dirk) have found E. pictus in two different kinds of altitudes.  One at about 900m and the other at about 300m above sea level.  In Avipas, region Chapare (Cochabamba, Bolivia) we started our first search for one of the two poison dart frogs from Bolivia.  The first time was in June 1998 during the dry season (May-September).  During this period the area is frequently teased by cold patagonic wind (surassu).  These surassus can last for a few days or a few weeks.  During the surassu the temperature drops at night to 10°C, during the day it is about 16°C.  We had bad luck during our first rainforest excursion.  
The surassu was still blowing so we couldn't find any frogs.  When we arrived at Avispas it was a bit warmer (25-28°C).  After a while we heard a lot of fast "tschick-tschick-tschick"-sounds and I was able to locate my first E. pictus.  The frogs were hiding in the secondary mountain rainforest. They lived in the grass and between the bushes.  It seemed that the density was very low.  After a while we passed some children and asked them about the frogs.  They told us that they knew a place where there will be a lot more of these frogs.  We were told that the pictus were active at sunset.  To be truthful, we didn't believe a word of these children but nevertheless we followed them.  They brought us to a place where the river was 100m wide.  Once there, we heard a chorus of more than 100 pictus.  The animals were sitting on rocks and the small pools near the river contained pictus tadpoles of all stages.  There is evidence that they also breed during the dry season.  We went back in December 1998; the rainy season had started.  The area was completely flooded and the frogs had migrated to higher altitudes in between the houses and towards higher forests.  The temperature maximum during this period was 30°C.  
At the second place, we found pictus at 300m above sea level in a secondary lowland rainforest, although the frog abundance was low.  The vegetation structure was almost at its maximum.  However, during the dry season we couldn't find any frogs in this area.
My (Kris) pictus are kept in a densely planted palludarium (90cm x 70cm x 45cm).  I've got five pictus, probably four males and one female.  The terrarium is lighted by a tl-bulb and two halogen-spots of 20w.  To keep the humidity constant at a high level, I made a small waterfall in the terrarium.  The sidewalls and back wall (waterfall included) are made from melted and painted styrofoam.  The temperature during the daytime is 22-23°C whilst at night it drops to 19°C.  The small water part is maintained at a constant 20°C using an ordinary aquarium heater and thermostat. 
In summertime the frogs are fed with meadow-plankton (only the small insects).  During the colder seasons I give them fruit flies, Collembola and other small artificially cultured insects.  Once a week I dust the flies with calcium (and added VitD3) and some vitamins (Reptavit().
The advertisement-call of E. pictus consists of a few 'tscick-tschick-tschik' calls.  This vocalization is also produced when I feed the frogs.  Maybe this is a form of inter-communication and/or territoriality.  This call can be very loud and starts early in the morning or late in the evening, especially when the lights in the terrarium are already out (between 9pm and 9am).
The eggs are laid in film boxes and bromeliads.  This frog prefers a dry oviposition site.  The number of eggs differs between 10 and 30.  After a few days I remove the eggs and place them in a Petri dish with a small layer of water.  It can take three weeks for the larvae to hatch.  Another option is to let the frogs do their own job. Male parental care is the rule.  The father will bring them on his back to the open water (the water basin inside my palludarium).  The tadpoles are not cannibalistic and can be raised together in a small aquarium (water depth about 10cm).  As food I give them a mixture of Spirulina-flakes, beer yeast, goldfish flakes and Urtica herbs.  The Urtica (Nettles) is dried and sold to make tea.
Metamorphosis takes place in 8 to 10 weeks, and the young frogs can be raised with Collembola and small fruit flies.  In Jewels of the Rainforest the author states that E. pictus is a difficult frog for the terrarium.  In our opinion this is completely wrong information, because they can manage a wide range of temperatures and will breed easily.