Feeding Poisonous Dart Tadpoles

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Richard Rivas, co-owner of Black Jungle Terrarium Supply and today I am here on behalf of expertvillage.com to discuss the proper way of raising Dendrobates from egg through tadpole. Now that we have hatched out our tadpoles into the appropriate containers the next step is feeding. This is a subject that there is a wide variety of controversy and opinions and really there is not one set way to do it properly. The most important thing is providing a balanced diet and I feel also providing a diet that is more tailored to the individual species. Here at Black Jungle we use a flake food that is based on a tropical fish flake amended with spirulina powder and a high quality vitamin and mineral supplement. To this we also add ground up freeze dried blood worms. This is what we use for all of our Dendrobates, Artois, Luckamaylas and also with our Tinctorius and Azurias. The amount fed will depend on the number of tadpoles in the container as well as their relative size. The flake food does tend to just float on the surface of the water so after feeding it is beneficial to just do a light misting across the surface to flush the flakes down to the bottom where they will be more easily eaten by the tadpoles. For our thumbnail species, we will use either the tadpole bites or a mixture of 50/50 spirulina powder. Both diets have worked out very well for us and we are still in the process of trying them and comparing them to see which one yields better results. For the average sized middle aged tadpole of the thumbnail species, just a small pinch of tadpole bites is enough to carry them over for a few days. All of our tadpoles are fed 3 times a week and water changes done twice to ensure that the water does not become too foul and growth regulating hormones do not build up. "