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Yellow-banded Poison Dart Frog (Green Leg)

Dendrobates leucomelas "Green Leg"

Green Leg morph. A rare variety of the yellow-banded poison dart frog where the lower legs exhibit a metallic green or aqua-blue coloration instead of solid black.

Taxonomy
Class:Amphibia
Order:Anura
Family:Dendrobatidae
Genus:Dendrobates
Species:Dendrobates leucomelas "Green Leg"

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Environment

Terrestrial

Humidity

70 - 100 %

Day temperature

22 - 26 °C

Night temperature

18 - 20 °C

UVB

Low

Species description

Geographical Origin and Habitat: Native to northern South America, including southern Venezuela, Guyana, northern Brazil, and eastern Colombia. They inhabit humid rainforest floors but are highly resilient to drier forest margins and gallery forests, often climbing low trees.
Taxonomy and Genetics: Reach a size of 3.5–4.0 cm. Features a striking warning coloration of bright yellow-orange and jet-black bands. In this rare "Green Leg" morph, the lower limbs display a metallic green or aqua-blue hue rather than solid black.
Behavior and Habits: Active, bold, and highly visible. They actively climb plants and glass surfaces. Males are famous for their loud, musical, canary-like mating trill, which is often stimulated by misting or rain.
Morphology: Sexual dimorphism is subtle: adult females are typically larger and rounder, while adult males have a darker vocal sac under the chin that becomes wrinkled during calling.

Care, breeding and tankmates

Terrarium Setup: Provide a vertically-oriented terrarium of at least 45x45x60 cm for a small group. Furnish with climbing branches, 3D backgrounds, elevated cork bark tubes, and broad-leafed plants (bromeliads). Maintain a bioactive base of leaf litter at the bottom.
Lighting and Heating: Prefer slightly warmer conditions than other dart frogs. Maintain a daytime range of 24–27°C. Do not exceed 28°C. Provide low-level UVB lighting to mimic sunlit forest patches and support active diurnal foraging. Keep night temperatures around 20–22°C.
Humidity and Hydration: Maintain target humidity of 75–85%. Drier periods during winter simulate their natural seasonal cycle; increasing misting in spring acts as a strong breeding trigger. Never keep the substrate soggy.
Feeding and Supplementation: Voracious diurnal hunters. Feed daily with Drosophila fruit flies, aphids, and small pinhead crickets. Dust all prey with high-quality calcium powder at each feeding, and add a multivitamin with D3 once a week.
Compatibility: Excellent choice for social colonies. They can easily coexist in groups of 4–6 individuals in a spacious terrarium. Both males and females show minimal intraspecific aggression.
Health and Common Diseases: Very robust, but monitor for obesity as dominant females may overeat. Distribute food across different spots in the terrarium to ensure equal access. Avoid handling to prevent stress and toxic absorption through the skin.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Native to northern South America, including southern Venezuela, Guyana, northern Brazil, and eastern Colombia. They inhabit humid rainforest floors but are highly resilient to drier forest margins and gallery forests, often climbing low trees.

Origin

Selective breeding and cultivarsAmazon, Orinoco, and Guianas

Amphibian profile

Diet
No verified data available
Life expectancy
No verified data available
Adult size
3.75 cm
The catalog's scalar value is 3.75 cm. The AmphiBIO v1 source reports a maximum adult measurement of 3.75 cm for this species, recorded as snout–vent length (SVL). These figures are not interchangeable: the first is the profile's editorial reference, whereas the second is a published maximum under a specific measurement convention; differences among sources can reflect sex, population, life stage and measuring method.
Lifestyle/Microhabitat
No verified data available
Activity cycle
No verified data available
Sociality
No verified data available
Reproduction
No verified data available
Toxicity
No verified data available
Life stage
No verified data available
Handling tolerance
No verified data available
Brumation
No verified data available
Molting
No verified data available

Image gallery

Licensed images linked to the species or, when marked, to the closest representative taxon.

Related species

Recommendations grouped by close relatives, companion choices, and similar care.

Last updated: 08/10/2026
Yellow-banded Poison Dart Frog (Green Leg) (Dendrobates leucomelas "Green Leg") Care Guide & Terrarium Setup | Atlarium