[Pumilo]

NO, and its just not the fear of producing hybrids. Mixing can lead to the spreading of parasites and such from one group to the other as well as chytrid.

Michael

They are both males.

I don't understand why the fact that they are both males would somehow stop the spreading of parasites or chytrid.

 

[Pumilo]

First let me be clear that I do not support mixing. However, logic must prevail when someone asks why. Would there not be the same risk with putting two frogs of the same species/morph from different vivs together? Any two darts frogs that did not grow up together could exchange parasites or diseases. There is no greater risk of this, that I am aware of, between species that between two Green Sips or two Leucs, etc.

If I was new to the hobby and was given that as the sole reason not to put two males of different species together, then I'd be confused. As I understand it, a logical reason not to mix, even if it is safe for the frogs and no breeding will occur, is that it can confuse others new to the hobby into thinking it's ok when they come to your house and see the viv. Most people automatically think of it in terms of a fish tank. That is why zoos that display darts in mixed tanks do not help the hobby IMHO.

I think that most of the time, with someone new to the hobby, when they get two frogs of the same species, they are going to have been raised together. They are going to purchase them from the same source. Why would they want to pay for shipping twice in order to get them from 2 different bloodlines? Especially if they are not interested in breeding. So generally, putting two frogs of the same species together will mean that they were raised together. But putting two frogs from different species together pretty much assures that you are grouping frogs that were NOT raised together. i.e. different pathogens and parasites.
Plus, and maybe this is old school, but I was always told that putting frogs together from different locations, could introduce frog A, to a pathogen or parasite from Location B. Frog A's population could have little or no natural defense against said pathogen.
I thought it was good advice that Michael gave him but in his next post the op completely ignored and discarded it.

 

[Pumilo]

Has anybody else noticed that in the last week or 2, there have been a LOT of new threads on mixing? They are almost all posted by a brand new member. Do you think it's just a crazy coincidence or are there one or two people out there, registering from different computers, just to start a flame war?? Just wondering.

 

[Pumilo]

PS they are more likely using a proxy

Ahh, that would make more sense. I'm computer impaired so it's not the first thing that came to mind.

 

[Pumilo]

I really can't begin to stress the whole novel pathogen issue enough.. It really is a bigger problem than many people realize and the information is just starting to come in with herps..
As an example of cross taxa issues, there are epidemics of seals dying from canine distemper (Mass die-Off of Caspian seals caused by canine distemper virus.), to lions dying from canine distemper (AGRIS repository search result) sea otters dying from toxoplasmosis (http://www.otterproject.org/atf/cf/{1032ABCB-19F9-4CB6-8364-2F74F73B3013}/RISK PAPER-MILLER.PDF) to outbreaks of iridovirus in mixed collections of chelonians (see http://www.emc.ncsu.edu/faculty/people/lewbart_greg/doc/boxturtle_ranavirus_devoe.pdf). I've already mentioned mycoplasma and ranavirus.

If you are going to consider mixing, then please be responsible and use animals from as close a geographic region as possible, ideally one that is the same.

There is more data now about this than when I wrote my first thread on dendroboard and it isn't a good picture.

Ed

This is what I was talking about earlier in the thread, although I had no science or precedents to back it.
Are there any Sci Fi nuts out there? This is an old concept in science fiction. Man discovers life on another planet. Man establishes friendship. Man goes back to Earth to announce findings and gather supplies to help new "alien" friends. Upon return, man finds entire planet wiped out by the common cold. They had no natural immunity to our alien pathogens.