Azureus Care Sheet
This care sheet is downloadable for easy printing!  Click to download.





Description:
Azureus dart frogs are very bold.  They often stay out in the open and are not very shy at all. These frogs hide at night (from our experience they seem to sleep in groups) and are generally out all day. Considering the brilliant coloring & the ease of caring for one of these animals – they are one of the most popular dart frogs on the market today.

Housing:
Space: A bare minimum of 10 gallons of terrestrial space per frog.  (More is better)
Temperature: 70-78F with nighttime drops as low as 65F (Much over 80F can cause stress and death)
Humidity: 80%+ (This usually requires frequent misting)
A live vivarium is a must for these frogs - Please do research before purchasing a dart frog!

Feeding:
As froglets Azureus will snack on D. Melanogaster flies – and will quickly become large enough for D. Hydei. Dusting the flies with supplements is 100% necessary for a frog to be healthy. We suggest using Repashy Calcium Plus for an excellent balance of vitamins & minerals. As for the quantity of flies, there has been lots of discussion on many different forums about this. Keep in mind a fat frog (while happy) doesn’t necessarily equal a healthy frog.  If an excess of flies are left over in the cage from the day before, consider feeding less (or even skipping a day).  Azureus will readily pick off springtails, as well - so consider seeding your vivarium with them!  Not only are they a snack for your frog, but they'll also keep the cage clean.

Water:
Frogs do not "drink" in the typical sense.  They absorb water through their skin, so misting is very important.  This species does not require a water area, water bowl, water fall, or any other water feature to thrive.  In fact, open pools of stagnant water can grow bacteria at an alarming rate, so we usually suggest against typical water bowls being added into dart frog vivariums.  Mist 2+ times per day to maintain 80%+ humidity.

Breeding:
These frogs are sexually mature at around 1 year of age. The male’s call is very quiet & low, usually not audible from outside the vivarium.  Our Azureus females always deposited eggs in either film canisters (seen above), or in coconut huts with a petri dish as a floor.  From our experience, the first few clutches of eggs per season are more prone to going bad until the 3’rd or 4’th clutch when the eggs start to develop properly. Eggs should be removed from the cage and kept between 74-77F surrounded (not submerged) by a standard methylene blue mix solution.
(1 drop methylene blue per gallon of water.)  We incubated our eggs at exactly 76F (+/-1F)

Once the eggs hatch into tadpoles they can each be moved into a tadpole development cup.  (one tad per cup)  We use R/O water, a pinch of moss, an almond leaf and a little splash of diluted methylene blue mix to start. Tadpoles that are freshly hatched usually won't eat for a few days, so don't add a bunch of food at first.  We suggest feeding half-a-pinch of spirulina powder or flakes twice per week, tad bites whenever they are eaten, Zoo Med tadpole food, and an occasional bloodworm.  We also suggest a tiny pinch of Repashy Superpig if you have some available directly into the water occasionally.  More than one bloodworm at a time will foul the water, so go easy.  The tadpole will snack on the algae build up on the moss mix & the leaf and should morph over the course of around 40 days.  Water changes are optional, however we’ve done partial water changes if the water got noticeably darker than usual. (darker than a bottle of Nestea, for instance)  If you do water changes be sure to use filtered (reverse osmosis if possible) water at proper temperatures! 

When the tadpole pops it's front legs move it to a grow-out container that has an easily accessible land area as well as a water area.  This can be done using a simple herp haven half filled with sphagnum moss.  Once the morphed froglet makes it’s first steps on land, it should be just about large enough to take melanogaster fruit flies but don't rush it.  It's common for froglets to not eat for a day or two until they fully absorb their tails.  If your froglet is on the smaller size of things, consider feeding it springtails, as well.  Once they are fully formed froglets, move them to froglet containers.  We used 5.5G tanks seeded with springtails using sphagnum substrate and a simple hydroton drainage layer with great success.  (see above middle)  About 5 froglets per temporary 5.5G grow out terrarium is appropriate, but more space wouldn't hurt.  After 2 months, consider finding them more permanent homes.

Using the above guidelines we had an 87% (47 frogs out of 54 tadpoles) morph rate on our last year of breeding Azureus. (2010)



If you have any questions at all we're always happy to help!  Email us at meikmail@gmail.com



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