Dendrobates fantasticus

John Skillcorn
Last updated: 17 August, 2002

Dendrobates fantasticus
Photo by John Skillcorn

When you think about it, out of the whole of this group of already incredible animals many people would be hard-pushed to pick out a favourite.  The scientific classifiers don't seem to have had this problem, however, and have endowed upon this frog  the ultimate accolade: Dendrobates FANTASTICUS!  If you have never met this frog in the flesh, the photographs you see on this page simply do not do this little animal justice.  It is the most astonishing little amphibian I think I have ever seen, and although I can speak with no great authority on its breeding and husbandry, I have had the privilege of keeping it for some time.

I obtained my animals at the same time as my D. imitator  during a Dutch Frog Day, and they had been captive bred.  They were still at the tadpole stage, without legs, but even so they showed the unique colouring in the head region which separates this frog from the rest of its kin.

In the completely metamorphosed frog, the head is a metallic-copper colour which, when seen in contrast to the rest of the body, is quite outstanding.  Even without this colour on the head, the animal would indeed be very pretty, being marbled with blue and black.

They proved to be straightforward to rear, and were fed on TetraMin staple fish food, with water changes at least once a day.  They were maintained in around 100 ml. of soft water in very clean conditions.  The larvae metamorphosed without any problem, and took up residence alongside their small cousins, adult D. imitator.

They started to feed in due course, and did not present any problems in their husbandry.  They were maintained in a relatively large vivarium, at a temperature of around 80°F in very humid but well-ventilated conditions.  Food at that time consisted mainly of Drosophila and hatchling crickets, all dusted with Nutrobal vitamin and mineral supplement powder.  They also took white worm so long as these were placed on plant leaves where they could easily be picked up by them.  Fluorescent lighting was switched on for thirteen hours a day.

Like D. imitator, they were very arboreal, and spent almost all their time climbing among the densely growing plants in their vivarium.  They  were hardly ever seen on the floor.

Dendrobates fantasticus
Photo by John Skillcorn

Dendrobates fantasticus adult
Photo by Kawamura
http://www.wildsky.net/frogs/fanta.htm

The very young frogs showed slight differences to the adults with regard to their general colouration.  The head of the young frog, as can be seen clearly above, bears only one single black blotch.  Over the next few weeks and months, however, this single spot divides into two, as can be seen in the excellent photograph to the left.  In addition to this, the light blue tracery on the back and legs also develops over a similar period of time.  

You can see several other photographs at the following Website: http://www.wildsky.net/frogs/fanta.htm for comparison.

You may have gathered from the above text that my experiences with this wonderful frog have not been entirely successful.  Sad to say, but after several months I lost my animals and so far have not been able to identify the cause.  They were feeding well, growing well and to all intents and purposes were behaving perfectly normally.  They died within weeks of each other, so I suspect some sort of bacterium in the gut.  The D. imitator were, however, unaffected.

Please let me know of your experiences with this frog.  I would very much like to include more pages on this and D. imitator, which is another favourite of mine.