D. truncatus adult and tadpoles
Unlike other kinds of frogs that lay hundreds of eggs, poison dart frogs lay only 2 to 12 eggs at a time, several times during the breeding season. The breeding season is during the tropical rainy season.Poison dart frogs lay their eggs on leaves or on the ground, close to water.
The male frogs are good parents. They guard the eggs and keep them wet until they hatch in a couple of weeks. Then the tadpoles hop on the back of the frog (which is sticky with mucous) and he carries them, sometimes one at a time, to a little pool of water. Sometimes the pool of water is in a bromeliad plant, a hollow or fork in a tree, or bamboo stalks.
The tadpoles live in the little pools until they are full grown, which takes about two to three months. The tadpoles eat unfertilized eggs, which the parent frogs bring to them.
In some species, only the male rather than the female frog does most of the caring for the eggs and tadpoles.