Good story Brian. It just goes to show that research is needed in advance (before you buy) by even very experienced herpers.
I posted the following on Dart Den in 2007.
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I want to start this post off by saying that each and every one of my vivs are mixed species tanks. That's right , every one.
It seems that at least once a week I read a newbie post on one of the boards asking what species can be mixed. I thought I would start a thread stating what species could or should be mixed.
As I said , each and every one of my vivs is a mixed tank. I have Dendrobates in almost every one . I have bug species in every one. Springtails of many different types. Rolie-polies. I am told that I may have fungus gnats, not sure though. Many bugs that I can't even ID! It seems that the bugs do very well with the dendrobates and I seldom have any issues. I would say that crickets in my mind are very evil little creatures and will never be purposely introduce into any of my vivs but other than that most bugs are welcome additions to my mixed species tanks. No too happy to see big old spiders in my vivs , but I really don't go too nuts over them. I find them, I kill them when I can, done.
On a more serious note though, the two times I have attempted mixed Dart tanks they both ended in what some may call successful, but what i call far from that. I have mixed "arboreal' with ground dwelling (terribilis with intermedius) and they got along just fine. No aggression, no cross infections, no hybridization, no anything, including no breeding. They were in-fact the ONLY tank I had running that was not producing one single egg, not one egg. At the time each and every other tank was "successfully" producing good eggs. My second attempt at a mixed dart tank produced the same exact "successes". No aggression in a big old tank but not breeding either. Tincs mixed with thumbs. Nothing good to report other than the fact that they did not kill each other. What did I learn? Mixed species tanks good. Bugs with darts will always work. Mixed dendrobates tanks bad. Mixed Dart tanks will never be as "successful" as single dart species tanks.
Rich
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