# Frogs & Toads > Dart Frogs (Dendrobatidae) > General Discussion >  sharp edges on bromeliad leaves

## Lynn

Is anyone else concerned about the sharp edges on the sides of some species of bromeliad leaves?

The 3 species I mounted in the past are smooth.
Some new cutting we purchased at the Hamburg show have VERY sharp leaf edges.
Sharp enough to scratch my skin   :Frog Surprise: 

 :Butterfly:

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## Fluffysmom

I am also concerned about some of my new bromeliads being too sharp. It's been several weeks since I put them in my viv and nobody seems to have a problem with them so far. They have been climbing on them and sleeping in them.

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## bill

I wouldn't worry about them. Frogs are "evolutionarily" (copyright deranged chipmunk lol) designed to deal with them. Think about ranitomeyas, they are essentially canopy frogs, where the neos grow. And ground dwellers have to deal with much larger, pointier broms on the ground. 


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

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## Paul

I was a tiny bit concerned with a few of my Booms, but I figured if they are safe for the frogs in the wild than I have to trust that the frogs will know how to deal with them. lol.

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## Lynn

Not so sure I agree with how safe they are ?

Our captive bred frogs don't have a clue about their _natural habitat_. 

ie Would we put _sharp sticks_ in the red eye enclosures since there are _sharp sticks_ in their "natural habitat"
My tree frogs would be shish kabob...my morning   :Frog Surprise:  They are not the sharpest tools in the shed !

thoughts ? 

So Bill ?
Which species broms *DO NOT* have spines on the leaves? 

I may be -continuing to ...... opt-out on the use of broms with the leaf spines?

Yeah! Yeah ! I know Bill .....I can read your mind   :Big Grin:  

 :Butterfly:

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## bill

That's why I coined the phrase "evolutionarily" lol. Let me use an example: dogs and cats are essentially captive bred, yet the hunting and killing instinct that is genetically encoded in them from their origins are still in them today. The same goes for frogs. Granted, they have never seen their natural habitat, but their wild instincts are there. 

I do agree about sharp sticks, to an extent. What with close quarters, they can be a true menace for "klutzes", like retf's and white's. But broms are what they breed in in the wild. Just like captive bred birds who still have their nesting instinct encoded, I believe frogs just instinctively "know" them. I like to think that over 40 millions years of amphibian evolution has to carry some weight lol

Broms that have no sharp points, hmmm. You know how I feel about broms Lynn, so I am not as well versed as others, but, I can feel comfortable in saying the neoregalias would be safe. I would stay away from the terrestrials, they normally have sharp edges to ward of ground predators. Neos grow way up in the canopy, there the red eyes and ranitomeyas live, and there are few predators up there, so they never evolved that defense. But I sort of recall seeing a few species of neos with points on them, so I could be mistaken. Bonnie is truly THE person to answer that question. I mean, she grows a ridiculous amount of stunning broms. She would definitely be who I would run to for advice on broms.  :Smile: 


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

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## Happy Frog

> Is anyone else concerned about the sharp edges on the sides of some species of bromeliad leaves?
> 
> The 3 species I mounted in the past are smooth.
> Some new cutting we purchased at the Hamburg show have VERY sharp leaf edges.
> Sharp enough to scratch my skin



When I first started keeping dart frogs I worried about this too, just like the concern for dart frogs jumping from high areas of the vivarium.  Someone had posted a jumping question several weeks ago.  I got over these concerns quickly.  All it takes is sitting in front of your vivarium all afternoon on a Saturday and watching the antics of your frogs.

One of the first plants I bought for my first vivarium was a crypthansus from junglebox.com, it was $2.99.  When I first took it out of the box I saw all the ridges on the leaves and I was just imagining my frogs being sawed in half.  It never happened.  The original plant has given me about a dozen pups that I have place throughout my other enclosures.  The frogs crawl all over it, jump onto it, sleep on it and so forth and have never been hurt by it.

I think Bill has explained it best.

As far as which brooms to use...Neoregalias are one type of brom and most of them have leaves with smooth edges.  There is this one Aechmea that I've always wanted and it looks pretty dangerous as far as the spines but it's a really nice looking plant and I've seen it in several pro's vivariums.  I'll try and find a picture.

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## Happy Frog

Here is one of my Crypthansus.  I have this in the top area of my 18x18x24 where I keep my Leuc trio.  If you look close you can see the teeth running along the edges of the leaves.  I'm not sure if this is the type of pointed objects you may be concerned with.

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## Lynn

Brian,
I don't want to de-rail our thread...but just had to say: ....We speak 'Hovitos' here at our house too  :Wink:

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