# Frogs & Toads > Dart Frogs (Dendrobatidae) >  so exactly how hard are dart frogs to keep?

## spires33

ok i have heard anything from hardest frog in the world to easiest frog in the world. i need clarification on how hard they are.
i have also heard the only reason they are hard is because of their humidity needs. which should not be a problem because i cannot really keep desert species of reptile cause my room is around 78% humid.

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## bill

Darts are not difficult at all. Keeping humidity up is a piece of cake, provided the tank is set up properly. 
As long as you can keep your fruit fly cultures booming, darts are easy. Breeding on the other hand, can be tricky with some species and downright impossible with others, but their basic care is much easier than say, tree frogs. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## Paul

Darts are easy to keep once you have a Vivarium up and running properly. Your first step in Dart care is building a vivarium with live plants, micro fauna, and all glass top. Once you have the tank up and running and stable (meaning the temps are dialed in and the humidity is up in the 90% range). Then it's time to get a couple of fruit fly cultures and the supplies needed to setup new cultures and breed your own flies. Culturing fruit flies is not hard, but the technique for getting flies out to feed and to setup new cultures is something that will seem overwhelming and frustrating initially, but like with all things practice makes perfect. You want to be decent to good at making cultures and feeding from them before you actually have frogs that will depend on those flies to survive. 

Also when you buy your micro fauna (Springtails most commonly) you will want to get some bakers yeast, hit up the dollar store for shoe box tubs or small sandwich containers and some horticultural charcoal. The purpose of all these items is to set up 2 springtail cultures. These things are super easy to breed and about once a month you will want to dump more into the tank. Your Dart frogs will eat them as a snack, but on top of that they will fearlessly eat the frog poop and any decaying organic matter in the tank. A healthy micro fauna population is key to a long lasting vivarium. 

The order of these steps is not set in stone, but you should have a viv and be actively breeding flies and micro fauna well before you purchase your frogs.


Depending on where you get your frogs from you will want to do a 30 day QT before introducing them into the tank. 

Paul

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## spires33

thanks guys im going to be keeping
_Dendrobates leucomelas 

i did locate a breeder but he has not had them since april 4th 2014 so........
so im probably going with josh's frogs_

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## Paul

Josh's sells good quality frogs. Leucs love vertical space. Do you know how many you are planning on getting? What size of tank are you looking at?

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## spires33

> Josh's sells good quality frogs. Leucs love vertical space. Do you know how many you are planning on getting? What size of tank are you looking at?


well im going to start out with one 
its about 16 and a half inches tall.

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## FwoGiZ

The one big difference with painted frogs vs most other herp animals is that they're not as forgiving as other species...
A gecko can go couple days without water.. or several days without food...
Don't make that mistake with frogs; especially humidity wise.

But if you have all the correct specs and a healthy frog, they're easy!
Some other species are considered hard but what that means is even with all the proper specs and a apparently healthy animal, it might not work for various magical reasons... happens mostly with wc animals but also cb specific species.

I think a 16 tall viv will be  too small for a group of leucs... they're medium/large sized frogs.
18x18x24 exo would be a good size for a small group.

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