Frog and Frond

11/05/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Nicky'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

This is an exceptional example of the 'Nicky' locale. Thanks to Alex at FrogDaddy for the opportunity to get a photo. Speaking of which...

Don't forget to come out to the Southeast Herp Fest hosted at FrogDaddy in Bessemer City, NC on Sat, November 16. You can check out this frog and many, many, many... others in person!

10/13/2024

Monolena dressleri plantlets available!

We had a hiccup last year when we accidentally left the door to our plant room shut while we were away for a few days in summer. Despite the AC blowing, it got hot in the room on the south-west corner of our house and unfortunately most plants didn’t fare well.

Since then we’ve been slowly building our plant inventory back up with a few new species added to our collection, including this rare Monolena species.

Monolena dressleri is the slowest growing species of the genus that we work with, but also the most rewarding, especially when it blooms with its white, short lived flowers. The leaves are olive green to copper to deep green with the bright red/deep pink underside and stems, and a more round shaped than some species. New leaves start off with a tint of the red of the underside. The leaves have reached about 5″ long on the specimen we have been growing for 3 and a half years in our vivarium.

It took us 2 years before it finally produced viable seeds, though it had bloomed a few other times before that. This species may look similar to Monolena sp. ‘Ecuador’ or ‘Dark Ecuador’, but it’s stayed much smaller. Also, the flowers on our M. dressleri are white, while all our other Monolena species produce flowers with pink margins (M. primuliflora, wendlandii, and sp. ‘Ecuador’). We like to plant Monolena species on the floor of our vivaria, but they actually grow epiphytically in the wild.

Rooted plants are available on our website: https://frogandfrond.com/product/monolena-dressleri/

10/04/2024

Our Oophaga pumilio desktop calendar is compact, but full of vibrant colors...

All of the frogs photographed are from the collection of Alex Menke at FrogDaddy.
Don’t forget to check out their website as well for everything you need for your dart frogs and vivaria! frogdaddy.net

The calendars are available through our website: frogandfrond.com
Available in two sizes:
11" x 16.5" Wall Calendar
10" x 5" Desktop Calendar

09/28/2024

Due to the extreme weather caused by Hurricane Helene - historic flooding and widespread power outages in the Southern Appalachian region - we are going to hold off on shipping orders until Monday.

We live in southwestern Virginia (Bristol, VA) near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. We were fortunate to only briefly lose power, but many towns and communities nearby have been dramatically affected. Almost all roads that cross the mountains between Eastern TN and Western NC are closed due to major flooding or landslides, including I-26 and I-40. Our post office uses the regional hub in Charlotte, NC for Saturday shipments. The Charlotte area has been significantly impacted by the storm and many of the roads to get to Charlotte are closed and/or severely damaged or destroyed. During the weekdays our shipments normally go through Knoxville, TN as the regional hub. Knoxville is on our side of the mountains and the route between here and there should be much less affected. We plan on resuming shipping orders on Monday.

We take our shipping policies and our shipping schedule very seriously and always strive to ship orders out as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience but hope that waiting a couple of extra days will help to mitigate the risk of longer delays occurring if packages were lost in this chaotic situation.

We appreciate your support for our business. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Send a message to learn more

09/27/2024

Our area has been getting tons of rain and gusty winds due to the tropical storm (Helene) here in Southwestern Virginia. We have not lost power and will try to fulfill orders as usual today and tomorrow, but some weather related delays are possible. Our USPS hub in Charlotte, NC may also be affected and we may hold off on shipping live orders until Monday. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any question about your order!

Send a message to learn more

09/16/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Isla Colon - Mimitimbi'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

08/17/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Rio Colubre'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

I think everyone loves a blue frog. The Rio Colubre locale displays some of the nicest blues in the species. Some individuals can be almost black but when the blue is more dominant, it's pretty spectacular.

08/05/2024

Plant packages: $50 Shipped.

https://frogandfrond.com/product-category/vivarium-plants/package-deals/

We did some tank trimming today and have some plant packages ready to go. There's everything from tiny background fillers to med-large philos - even an orchid thrown into one package. We only have a few of each package available. The photos of each package are approximately what you will get but the exact cuttings will vary. Some of the larger philo cuttings are only one node (just so we can fit them in the box). The smaller plant cuttings are pretty generous.

These are priced to go, but keep in mind they are tank cuttings, not show specimens. Every plant cutting will be viable and should start producing good new growth soon when given the correct conditions, but all cuttings may not be the prettiest on arrival (some broken/browning/misshapen leaves for example). This is basically overgrowth from our vivs. Treat and process all cuttings to your standards before adding to your tanks of course.

No substitutions or omissions on packages. Thanks for checking them out! Let me know if you have any questions.

Packages contain some combination of these plants. See the listings on the website for specifics:

Pleurothallis sandemanii
Pyrrosia nummularifolia
Rhaphidophora pachyphylla
Pyrrosia christii
Philodendron verrucosum
Philodendron verrucosum 'purple'
Marcgravia sintenisii
Microsurm linguiforme
Philodendron werneri 'rotonda'
Philodendron fibrosum
Philodendron squamicaule
Philodendron serpens
Philodendron nanegalense
Philodendron sp. 'lance leaf'
Begonia sp. 'Maldonado'
Ficus thunbergii

07/19/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Salt Creek'
from the collection of

I really liked the gray legs on this Salt Creek. From what I understand, this locale is from eastern Isla Bastimentos.

07/03/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Bastimentos - Red Frog Beach'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

The top side of this RFB Bastimentos was really impressive - a classic bright red/orange - but I was also struck by the very cool koi patterning on the belly and throat. Thanks as always to Alex at FrogDaddy for letting me get this photo!

06/27/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Chiriqui Grande'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

A beautiful locale of green pumilio.

06/07/2024

Oophaga sylvatica 'Situwa'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

The focus has been mainly on photographing smaller obligate species so far, but I have had a chance to get some photos of a handful of large obligates, like this O. sylvatica 'Situwa'. This was the male of a pair. Both were amazing examples of the locale and I will definitely post some images of the female at some point.

06/04/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Aguacate'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

Aguacate generally ranges from dark blue to dark red, or some combination of both. This individual was predominantly blue with some duller red on the back and the top of the head.

05/31/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Cayo Nancy'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

A bright orange frog with gray toes...

05/24/2024

Ranitomeya summersi 'Sauce'

We have a proven trio and some adult unsexed...
Feel free to get in touch while the weather is nice.

05/22/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Rio Branco'
from the collection of FrogDaddy

'Rio Branco' may be one of the most obvious examples of phenotypic variability within a single locale of pumilio. These frogs can range from bright green to bright orange with varying amounts of reticulation or spots. I know that's impossible to see with a single image of one frog, but I'll try to get around to posting some very different looking individuals of this locale soon for comparison.

05/21/2024

This will be great for the future of the dart frog hobby! There are so many amazing small obligate and pumilio locales that could very easily vanish from the hobby without an effort like this.

This is an important announcement:
Here at FrogDaddy, I’ve always dreamed of having a genetic bank, of sorts, for every poison frog in the hobby. We are far away from that dream, only due to lack of finances. Over the years, I have shifted my focus to what I am passionate about. Most likely thanks to William Newell, my ex business partner (but still amazing friend), I have fallen in love with small obligates, pumilio specifically.
Many of you have noticed that pumilio have been few and far between, even though we have over 100 pairs. This is because I am taking a new initiative to tie together something financially (somewhat - haha) feasible, and my dream of creating a gene bank for poison frogs. I made the executive decision to start holding back and acquiring more and more small obligates. This has resulted in low stock for the public, and I know it has frustrated many. All the cryptic build-up aside, here is the new initiative:

We will be adding, slowly, 75 additional small obligate pairs to our breeding supply. We hope to include every single locale of pumilio that is represented within the USA. Of course, this is a monumental increase and we must move slowly due to lack of funds. There are still many locales that we have singles of, lost to time, that we hope you all can help with. Over the next week I will post everything we hope the community can come together on. Many small obligate localities are dying out and disappearing from our captive breeding populations. Whether it be greed, pride, or negligence, we need to stop competing so much with each other and work together. I am hopeful that this new initiative comes to fruition, because at FrogDaddy, we are dedicated to preserving captive breeding of poison frogs for years to come.
I want to thank everyone for their patience as we build up pairs, acquire new locales, and pair up disappearing ones, like Uyama River, Rio Teribe, Pastores, and many others. I hope that future onlookers that can help will partner with us to preserve these locales for the next generation of keepers, and that we can keep inspiring for years to come.
Thank you for reading, and be ready in 2026 for a much greater availability!
A special thank you to Josh Yates, of Frog and Frond, for photographing our entire collection, Oophaga and all. This project will hopefully come to a head in the beginning of 2026 as well, to compile a (mostly) complete set of professional photos of Oophaga pumilio.
And yes, pictured is a granulifera “Quepos”.