| Discovery |
O. Schmidt, (1857) |
| Classification |
Dendrobates Pumilio, belongs to the Dendrobates Pumilio group ( also D. Speciosus, D. Vicentei and D. Granuliferus), this group is often combined with the D. Histrionicus group, which adds D. Histrionicus and Lehmanni to the family, genus : dendrobates, Family : dendrobatidae, Order : Anurans, Class : Amphibians |
| Geography |
North coastal areas of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua
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| Morph guide |
D. Pumilio is found in many colour forms, usually reffered to as morphs or colourmorphs. The best available Morph guide for d. pumilio is found here
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| Biotope |
Wet lowland rain forest, mosthly found near the edges of the forest. Likes diffenbachia's and Heliconia's as plants, but requires bromelias for the off-spring. From 0 up to 800 M above sea level |
Care and
conditions |
Requires a lot of space, it is impossible to keep males together but a pair would require at least 100 - 150 litres of space, they are best kept as pairs or in trios ( 2 female, one male ). They are very territorial, therefore the male will fight with all other males in the vivarium ( even the bigger ones like tinctorius and azureus ( about 2 times bigger ). The temperature can be moderate, around 23 - 25 degrees Celcius during the day. During the night the temperature can drop up to 20 degrees Celsius. Humidity should be high more than 80% and 100% during the night ( |
personal
experience |
Pumilio's are small poison frogs they stay between 18 and 22 mm in size. They can have a lot of different colours and colour forms. The pictures below shows typical colour morphs, but they can also be orange, yellow, green with black dots and even blue, dependent on the place of origin.
They feed on small fruit flies, springtales , ants and mites
Breeding of Pumilio very difficult since they are egg-feeders, which means that the female frog will feed the tadpoles in the bromelia's with unfertilised eggs
every day. In a vivarium this behavior is not always succesfully copied by unexperienced females. People have tried with chicken egg yolk, but this rarely works. Also the food of the parents is very important, experience in the Netherlands has learned that they provide the best off-spring using a mixed diet using meadow plankton as food source. This is a reason ( and the fact that they are easy to find in nature ) that a lot of pumilios are in fact imported from the wild.
The breeding has to be left to the parents. My pumilio's ( morph Bri Bri ) are local bread and from Dutch origin.
In my large vivarium they are lively and very visible. Males are territorial, therefore can only be kept in large vivaria when more than 1 male is present. Otherwise they could fight until death does follow for one of them ( usually ). Males are usually in the higher regions, Females stay lower and more covered.
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| Foto's |
dendrobates pumilio bribri picture above is a personal picture from my large vivarium © MvD
All dendrobates pumilio foto's published here with the kind permission of www.pumilio.com ©
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