What to do?!!?

[darrahjohnston]

So, a couple of weeks ago, my husband brought home a couple of pacific chorus frogs...super cute. They've been doing really well so far. Then, today, I was watching them, and our smaller one tried nibbling on the bigger one's toes...after which, the big one tried stealing some food out of the little one's mouth. They haven't fought before, and their size difference is fairly significant...or so I thought...when my husband came home this evening, he had a super adorable micro mini itty bitty PCF that's MAYBE the size of his thumbnail...we put it in the vivarium and immediately the big frog tried to EAT the little baby! So very sad. We moved the baby into a little critter keeper so that wouldn't become chow for the others. I had read somewhere that the adults generally didn't pose a threat to the juveniles. I'm wondering if that was a territorial reaction, or she was actually trying to eat the little guy (or girl). We think that all of them are female based on the lack of calling and the throat color...of course the newbie may just be to little too properly identify it's gender...I would like to keep all 3 of them, as I am a major frog lover, but, of course if the baby is just going to end up as a meal, we'll set her free where my husband found her....thoughts?

[Jess]

I think its general for most frogs and toads to be cannibalistic towards smaller versions of themselves, generally if it fits in its mouth its gonna eat it as far as a frog goes. It's more obvious for us to see in captivity, as they're in a smaller space then they would be in the wild...and the littl'ins can get away from the bigger ones. Its a rule of thumb that cagemates should be about 2/3's as big as the largest frog to be safely housed together without worry of one getting eaten.

[darrahjohnston]

Thank you for your input. The micro mini is really small, like I said, his/her body is the length of a thumb nail. and the largest one's body is about 1 1/2 in, with a another smaller frog in there as well, about 1 inch in length. I do want to keep the teeny one, and like I said right now it's in a separate and small enclosure, with some eco earth, a small dish of water, some plants to hide, and some moss, and the enclosure seems to be decent enough in size, when you take into consideration how small she/he is. Anybody know how long it may take for this little froggy to be an appropriate size to introduce into the tank with her/his "siblings"? I think the largest is pretty close to full grown...