[patm]

I still disagree. As I said, your larger dendrobates would work fine. But even your main breeders in the hobby use mostly 15 or 20 gallon verts for breeding pairs or trios of most of your thumbs. A 50 gallon with a group of thumbs may be frustrating, especially for the beginner, because theres a good chance you dont see any of them unless you go with a pretty large group of frogs.

I paired imitators up in intermediately planted 10 verts, and rarely did I see them out in the open, or could I even see them at all. If you pumped that up to the scale of 50 gallons, good luck unless you have a huge group and maybe see one or two at a time. And I know frogs have different personalities, but when you're paying a minimum of $55 per thumbnail (exception be vents) I sure wanna see my investment and be able to make sure I know they're healthy and eating.

So sure, you give almost any animal more space and it's going to be happy, but you put reclusive frogs the size of dimes in a 50 gallon tank and you may never even see them.


But back to the main question, no, you don't want to mix and match species. It is best to stick with just one. In my experience, D. leucomelas uses a great deal of tankspace. They will use the ground as well as explore the mid sections of the tank if given the right background and plant cover. They're relatively bold, and mine are out constanly during the day hunting for flies.

-Pat