Rearing Phyllobates vittatus

This subpage is intended for those of you who are completely new to rearing Phyllobates vittatus and for those of you who may still be struggling to increase survival of your broods. Any feedback is appreciated!

Early stages:

Much of what will be here is the same as for Dendrobates leucomelas so you can check our that page if you need more details. Here are three photos. The leftmost is at the most a day after the eggs were laid, which was May 14 in 2024. The middle photo is taken May 18 and is a close up of two eggs where the embryo is just starting to form on the top of the eggs. Already the next day, May 19, you can see the head end forming (left on the right eggs) and the body clearly building on the outside of the egg.

After hatching, these tadpoles can be reared communally unlike the leucomelas-tadpoles.  The middle photo shows a tadpole feeding on a pellet. On the right photo hind legs have developed and the copper-colored stripe on the back is starting to show.

A little later the front legs pop out and the copper colored band is now clearly visible leaving to doubt as to which species this baby belongs to. Eventually the little tadpole will leave water so move to land.

About a month later it is starting to shape into a "proper" frog and feeding mainly off minute prey such as springtails.