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Rarest imitator morph?

7K views 30 replies 16 participants last post by  Baltimore Bryan 
#1 ·
I am already cringing at the possibility of getting flamed for this question but I am curious and im willing to risk it. As of August 2011, what is the rarest imitator morph legally available in the US? and what if any other imitator morphs out there need more people breeding them in captivity? They do not need to be the prettiest morph, just the ones that need the most help in establishing viable captive populations.

Ive decided to focus all of my attention in this hobby on imitators and Id like to contribute what I can to this species where its needed most. I currently keep tarapoto imis(just starting to exhibit breeding behavior at 5-6 months!), and am picking up some varaderos in the near future. I am really fond of the intermedius that have a leucamela type look to them, and will probably keep some of them as well.

Since I am already familiar with keeping thumbs and imis in particular, the husbandry issues and the "if youre new to the hobby you shouldnt keep a rare frog" thing isnt a problem. I have a pretty good grasp on keeping imis, I culture all of the food they could ever need (ff's, springs, pods, etc.), and am 100% focused on producing imitators exclusively. My goal is to learn as much about the species as possible, and then publishing that info along with my log book entries at some point. I know that these are considered a good "starter" thumbnail, and there is already a bunch of info on them out there as they are fairly common in the hobby, but I would like to delve more into the nuances in breeding, husbandry, and behavior in the different morphs. I would also like to to be able to offer a consistent supply of captive bred offspring with well documented lineages to hobbyists who share my enthusiasm for the species.

I think that this is a fairly straightforward species to keep, but by offering a variety of different food sources and really fine tuning the husbandry to the specific morph I believe there are valuable insights to be gained that can lead to new "best practice" when it comes to keeping the diff. morphs.

thanks,
 
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#3 ·
Benedicta is not an imitator. While it is sympatric with R. ventrimaculata and R. imitator in the northern part of its range it is a separate species.

Among the R. imitator in the hobby, I would say the 2006 INIBICO imports and the old Sens line Green R. imitators are less common than the ones brought in more recently by UE.

Tor has a nice description of some of the old line stuff.
Froglet.us Adults
 
#4 ·
Youre right. Totally read through thread fast while driving. As I kniw we have out imitated ranitomeyas by the imitators.....and now that think of it......benedictas might be the most expensive ranitomeyas but summersi and fantasticas I have seen around posted alot less.
 
#5 ·
As someone who is also trying to breed only imitators, my vote is Bajo Huallaga. Not exactly rare. But there are few in the hobby as they are not that popular, and I'm told they are hard to breed. I also have not been successful with them.

Best of luck! I've got three kinds of a tarapoto and only one pair are breeding.

Justin
 
#7 ·
Yeah I was going to guess Bajo Huallaga, too. I haven't kept them, but it just seems that I almost never see them on the boards here.
I also feel like banded intermedius used to be uncommon but I have seen more of them lately.
Just my personal observations about how frequently I notice them for sale/ discussed.
Bryan
 
#12 ·
wow thanks for all the responses guys. I was looking at the baja huallaga from understory, theyre pricey lol and the pics ive seen look alot like tarapotos. Im making moves to get a trio of varaderos at the sept 11 white plains show, really looking forward to that (theyre my fav imi morph!). As for my third morph Ive narrowed it down to caranachi (sp?), banded intermedius, or yuris. Im kinda leaning towards the intermedius provided i can fine good banded specimens, but I really like the yuris too lol. I thought narrowing it down to one species would make this easier but theres still so many options its hard to pick. Im capping it at 3 morphs for the time being. I need to take my time with this to avoid freaking my wife out with a bunch of tanks in the house all at once. I think im just gonna go with whatever good opportunity comes my way. Seems like the easiest way to do it. So if theres a nice group of banded intermedius at the show (ive heard rumors there will be) then ill go with them. I think by sitting back Ill end up coming across a good deal.
 
#15 · (Edited)
My vote is Varadero! I've got a 2.3 group which produced about six tads and stopped. I couldn't figure it out till I found they had hidden a tad on me and have been feeding it for the last month a huge amount of eggs.

Chazutas are just location specific Intermedius as far as I'm aware. Same as CV's are to Nominals. I wouldn't call them rare. I was thinking of getting some as well. And maybe some Yumbatos which look more like Yuris than BH's do. At least in my opinion.

I won the Melanistic Tarapoto from the AAA Frogs contest. They got them from Saurian:
Saurian Enterprises, Inc :: R. imitator "Tarapoto" Sexed pair Melanistic

If anyone wants to give me some regular tarapoto to mix them with I'd be happy to do so. :D Come on! Put your tarapotos where your likes are!
 
#16 ·
I don't think the OP made the distinction between localities and subspecies or variants. I wouldn't have guessed that Varaderos were rare, as I've seen them at expos and advertised online fairly often. Chazutas still get my vote :D
 
#24 ·
Well, I'm not sure who would have told you this, or why, but I can assure you that I've found plenty of striped-ish frogs in the Cainarachi valley, so I would be comfortable treating them as being from that population. Unless of course that person has specific locality data that conflicts with this.

It seems that stripes/spots are far more variable than color within this population. For example within the Cainarachi you can find spotted and striped-ish frogs, but they all have green rather than yellow dorsal coloration.
 
#29 ·
Ive actually heard pretty recently that the green nominant are becoming harder to find (lack of interest maybe?), Im not sure if its a certain locale thats rare, but a breeder friend told me to get them if i see them.

Varaderos? Really? Maybe its just where I live in the country but i see varaderos offered all the time, Im picking up three 4 month olds for $50 each this sunday. It seems like the nominant and even intermedius command higher prices so I would assume they are more rare. I saw an add for a trio of nominal imis one was entirely green the other had blueish legs so Im not sure if theyre really what im looking for for a breeding project cus Id like to line produce the greenest nominants possible.


BTW!!!! MY TARAPOTOS LAID THEIR FIRST EGGS!!!! Ive only had them for about a month and they were about 5-6 months oow when I got them and I came home two days ago and sure enough there were two eggs right on the glass with a male hovering all around them. I was just starting to wonder if I was doing something wrong because aside from the constant calling i hadnt seen any courting behavior except for the first day i got them. I let them settle in for two weeks then began to mist heavily and sealed the tank a little more than it had been and it seems to have done the trick. Its only two eggs (that i can see) but for their first clutch im not complaining. The eggs are white and are getting larger every day, Im pretty confident theyre going to morph... time will tell i guess, but either way im really excited!
 
#30 ·
Ive actually heard pretty recently that the green nominant are becoming harder to find (lack of interest maybe?), Im not sure if its a certain locale thats rare, but a breeder friend told me to get them if i see them.
As was explained just above in this thread, the "green nominate" isn't actually real...it's just a nominate form. Someone probably saw a hair-splitting variation in coloration and decided to put it out there as something "different."
 
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