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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.