Poison arrow frogs ; a fantastic hobby and pastime
When I was ten years old I was already interested and thrilled in amphibians and reptiles. For ours I could wander past the Dutch waterways. My father helped me build my first terrarium. In this terrarium I kept lizards, salamanders and toads. Information about the keeping and caretaking of amphibians and reptiles was very scant in the 70’s. Together with my father I had to figure out a lot on my own. Within a few years my bedroom changed to a collector’s paradise of terrariums filled with different kinds of salamanders. And of course it became a challenge to breed those animals. For as you might know breeding can only take place when the environment is exactly right.
During my first tropical travel to Costa Rica in 1990 I became enthralled and fascinated by the day active Poison arrow frogs of the Dendrobates kind in wild. After a month of traveling and observing and studying the Dendrobates and Phylobates in their natural habitat I was very impressed by those little jewels. Once I was returned home the first frog terrarium was erected soon. The Salamander hobby was equally fast terminated by the selling of the Salamanders. I became a member of the club Dendrobates the Netherlands. Dendrobates auratus, Dendrobates leucomelas and Phylobates Vittatus were reasonably well bred in the 90’s in the Netherlands and they became the first inhabitants of my terrariums.
Dendrobates auratus became one of my favorite poison arrow frogs and now 20 years later I keep and breed with a wide variety of kinds of the Dendrobates auratus from different area’s in Costa Rica and Panama.
I also love culture and some other tropical frogs and toads.
Because of my many travels to central and south America I have seen the changes in climate, the biotope destruction and the feared Chitrid moulds that threaten the amphibians of this part of the world. Therefore it is important to keep and breed poison arrow frogs as best as possible in captivity so that smuggeling from their natural habitat can be prevented and to keep the species safe for the future.
