Indoor culture lighting

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Any LED will put out a tiny amount of UVB.

Compact fluorescent lights also emit a small amount of UVB.

There is a YouTube video that demonstrated the above cheaply with a special kind of bead that turns purple in the presence of UVB, (UV light meters not required unless you actually want hard parameters).

I keep dart frogs. Dart frogs do not need high levels of UVB. I have a dart frog kept without any light directly over the tank. The Oophaga vicentei does just fine, is fat, and chirps loudly randomly throughout the day. Kept it for about 1 year so far.

I have another dart frog, (a female Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye'), that is kept under two high powered LED's designed to be flood lamps for garages and it is fine too. It hides a lot, so the light is not really of much benefit to the frog itself. They are for the orchids I have growing in the tank with it. Kept this for about 1 year so far.

The Ranitomeya ventrimaculata I have also don't seem to need good UVB output as well. Kept these for about 1 year so far.

Unless you are keeping chameleons, other lizards, or chelonians, UVB is not a big concern for keeping dart frogs healthy.

Your main concern as a dart frog keeper is providing enough of the right kinds of foods in sufficient quantities for the duration of the frog's life and dusting the food with calcium/vitamins. Correct temperature maintenance is also key. Sufficient hiding places are also necessary for the frogs to feel safe.

As far as orchids are concerned, it depends on the type of orchid you are growing. Moderately bright light or bright light orchids can be grown quite "cheaply" with 6,000 Kelvin LED's designed to be flood lamps for garages.

Lights designed for freshwater aquariums are too expensive and may not have very high output, (especially LED's). Specialized LED fixtures for reef aquariums will definitely break someone's bank, but they are the best lighting with the highest level of control anyone can have. These reef tank LED's are not necessary for growing orchids.

[junebug's orchids]

Originally Posted by Optimist

I think for the sake of the frogs you will need one of those "pet store" type lamps. I believe they die without the correct light.

The correct light is UVB light. Most full spectrum lights have some UVB which aids in vitamin uptake in some herps. Apparently it's unclear whether it's necessary or not, but better safe than sorry

I just need it in an LED light so it won't heat up the tank, and need something bright enough for the orchids.

I may have a partial solution. Eventually this terrarium will be moved to my fishroom, and it'll be near a window when I move it. So at least then, it'll get some sunlight which will help with the plants.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can use CFL's or LED's that grows plants and the dart frogs will be fine, they will not die. The lights are for the benefit of the plants, not the frogs. Special UVB bulbs are not required.

I used to keep Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos', Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', and Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' as well. They were never kept using any special bulbs other than the ones I used to grow bromeliads and orchids with.

The reason why the pair of Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' didn't do well and died was because they were young frogs that didn't adapt well and died from not eating.

The reason why the trio of Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' didn't make it was because they are high metabolism frogs that must be consistently fed a lot. There were a few times when I ran out of flies and ran out of money before my next paycheck. These frogs lasted for about 10 - 11 months.

The trio of Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' had the same fate as the Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos', except the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' didn't have metabolisms as high as those of Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos'. I ran out of flies and I ran out of money before the next pay check, and the frogs starved to death. These frogs lasted about 11 months.

Flies are also not easy to come by locally here were I live. The local PetSmart does not carry Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies. The local Petco does carry Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies, but they do not consistently stock enough fresh batches. Sometimes when I run out of flies and try to buy them locally, I run into the problem of going to multiple Petco's in order to find a branch with fresh flies.

I now just suck it up and buy flies online and ship overnight. Don't ship flies using Priority Mail, most of the flies will die in transit and you will end up with questionable batches.

Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu', and Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' are also territorial, with Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' being the most territorial, second most territorial are the Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu', and third most territorial are the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi'. It is preferred to use good sized enclosures for a group of them.

[Ray]

I'm going to agree whole-heartedly with "King's" posts here.

Looking at it from a physics standpoint, I'm surprised that a frog that lives deep in a tropical forest would have a strong need for UVB, as that part of the spectrum seems unlikely to penetrate the dense canopy that well.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Ray is right. The frogs hide way too much to even benefit much from UVB. Most of the times, you'll be searching for them in the tank.

Of the species of dart frogs I kept, the two species that stayed out the most were Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' and Ranitomeya ventrimaculata, in that order. The Oophaga vicentei hides so much I almost never see it, I only hear it. The Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' came out occasionally, but they hid a lot and came out far less than the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' did.

Between Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye' and Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', the Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye' came out more than the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi'.