Captive reared frogs released back to wild

[BugBoy99]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Joh, and I live in South Africa. As it is quite dangerous to go to remote places here, at night, it is almost impossible to go frogging, whilst the frogs are calling. So, in order to see the maximum amount of species, I catch and raise tadpoles. I then release the adults back into the wild. I have already encountered at least three species, that I never saw before I started raising tadpoles.

May I post the photographs of the adults here, or should I post them in the captive care section of the forum.

Thank You,
Joh

[Heatheranne]

Post away! We'd love to see them. Welcome, btw .

[GrifTheGreat]

I agree. You should post the pics and explain your experienced rearing these tadpoles before releasing them back into the wild.

[BugBoy99]

Hello,

Thank you so much for the welcome.

One of the species I raised, has not been identified as yet. But, I will post its pictures first.

I found the tadpoles in one of the temporary pools that always form after our summer rains. Because of this, I believe it to be a species of Grass Frog, Ptychadena. This is the only Genus that seems to match both the breeding habitat, and general description of the frog.

I raised the tadpoles, entirely on a tropical fish flake, and they metamorphosed within 18 days. I did complete water changes every one to two days.

I raised them, first in a large jar of water, and then in a tank with about 5 cm of water in the bottom. When they began their terrestrial lives, I tilted the tank so that half of the tank had water on the bottom, and the other half was just glass. this worked efficiently, and the metamorphs moved onto the glass, when they were ready to get out of the water.

The tadpole

The Young Frog

The Young Frog(with size reference)


Thank You, I will post the second species later.

[Heatheranne]

Cute frog! Great job! How many did you raise?

[SkeletalFrog]

I've actually been curious about the exceptional jumping ability attributed to Ptychadena for some time. Have you experienced this? Are they truly as amazing a jumper as their reputation suggests?

[BugBoy99]

Hello Again.

Thank you, they were quite cute. I initially started with 12 tadpoles, but they were the first tadpoles that I raised. I lost one tadpole due to a mishap, with the gravel vacuum that I use for my aquariums. Unfortunately, I thought that tadpoles would behave in the same manner as fish, and one of them was sucked in by the vacuum. I also lost two froglets, and I don't know why. So, I eventually released nine froglets. The froglets seemed to be extremely fragile, and I could not get any of them to eat. I believe that this weakness probably came about as a result of the lack of food variety I gave them whilst they were still in the tadpole stage. I fed them entirely on Fish flake, and I believe that that may have had some nutritional shortcomings.

Skeletal Frog, As the froglets were so weak, they did not jump much. So, unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to experience their reputed jumping abilities. However, it is nearing our rainy season, and the pools are forming once more. I hope to raise some of these tadpoles more successfully this year, and then I will definitely see if their reputation for jumping really suits them.

Thank You So Much for the remarks and questions.

[BugBoy99]

The second species that I raised from tadpoles was Xenopus laevis.

I found the tadpoles, strangely enough, in the same pool that I found the Ptychadena tadpoles. I'm still not sure exactly how the tadpoles made their way to the pool, as it is only abut eight inches deep, and maybe three feet long. However, it was directly after Cyclone Irina, I surmise that the tadpoles either came to be there:

1. as a result of one of the forays that Xenopus are known to make in wet weather.
2. The pool that I found them in is part of a dry stream bed, and further up the stream bed there is still water, but stagnant water, so I presume that a pair of Xenopus laevis may have spawned upstream in the water there, and that the eggs may then have been washed into the pool, by the torrential rains.

However they came to be there, this pool was full of tadpoles, there was easily a couple of hundred tadpoles. I scooped two small aquarium nets full, and it turned out that I had about eighty tadpoles. These were particularly interesting tadpoles to raise, although they are quite messy. I kept them in a fifty litre aquarium that was about three quarters of the way full.

I fed them on:

• powder fry food, which is high in protein, and especially formulated for optimum growth in young fish
• Tropical fish flake, which i powdered in a ziplock baggie, by rolling it with a rolling pin
• Powdered shrimp food
• and pond fish pellets, which I also powdered

I did complete water changes almost every day, and partial water changes were the rule. They grew very quickly and, within a month, 76 of them metamorphosed. I only lost four tadpoles, and I released 74 of them into the wild. Despite the fact, that it took quite a lot of effort, I would say that these tadpoles were particularly easy to raise.

Tadpole


Frog


I also tried a brief experiment, after reading an article about tadpoles being raised in rooibos tea. I switched about six tadpoles over to rooibos tea(dechlorinated) instead of water. The tadpoles took longer to metamorphose, but were larger, had stronger claws, and darker colouration, than their pure water counterparts. In the following picture, the frog raised in tea is a day old, and the one raised in water is a week old.



That's all for now.

[numpty]

Nice! Aquatic clawed frogs in your backyard (well, maybe not literally). And the tadpoles look like little catfish!

Care to share the details of the rooibos tea experiment? How diluted, would you say? What are the specific benefits, as studied? Maybe frog breeders already knows about this, but I don't raise tadpoles so know nothing about such things. Is this based on scholarly research?

I have my eye on an almost-dry concrete water tank up the hill which contains some Polypedates tadpoles. If the level gets critical I might decide to "rescue" a few and raise them through metamorphosis. Not sure yet.

Interesting posts. Thanks!

[Locascio]

thats so cool that you can do that you should try and rase some pixie babys

[BugBoy99]

thats so cool that you can do that you should try and rase some pixie babys

Believe me, if I could I would. Sadly, I live in the distribution zone of only the African Pyxie, but I have never seen one. Also, you need a permit, even if you only wish to move the tadpoles. And, permits are hard to come by. But, one day....... One day, it is my big dream to raise some pyxies.

But, for now, I'm happy with my other frogs. I enjoy the challenge of raising different species.

[BugBoy99]

Oh, and I received word yesterday that I will be adding another River Frog to my colony. This time, it is a green one. I am very excited, to add the green variant to my group.

[LoLzMachine531]

this thread has been a joy to read your frogs and tadpoles are so cute i cant wait to try my hand at raising the local amphibians your grass frogs were so cool i want one now

[BugBoy99]

Hi lolzmachine.....

I!m glad that you enjoyed this thread. I haven't updated it in a while because I forgot to take photos of my last few batches of tads. I'm currently raising some more grass frog tads, twelve of them, and am going to try to raise them more successfully. I'll be sure to take photos, and update this thread. I hope that you do raise some amphibians, and please post photos of them.

All the best,
Joh

[deeishealthy]

You are doing a good thing. The world needs more frogs!

[LoLzMachine531]

lolz yeah i know my name is weird it is one of my gamer tags my names cody bummer about the photos would love to see the grass frog tads make sure to take lots of pictures ^^
sadly i have to wait till spring/summer all the creeks and other bodys of water are under 3 feet of snow ill make sure to track their growth and take plenty of pictures
thanks friend, I wish you the best of the new year!

-Cody

[Heatheranne]

Psychotic, your frogs are beautiful! Btw, did you know some of your photos and posts are featured one The Reptile Report? It's an online website. Scroll through the amphibian section .

[Psychotic]

Psychotic, your frogs are beautiful! Btw, did you know some of your photos and posts are featured one The Reptile Report? It's an online website. Scroll through the amphibian section .

That's pretty neat. I didn't know lol. I get the reptile report on facebook.

[Heatheranne]

Lol! I didn't know either until I googled some species and found my own photos. When I clicked on the link it took me there. I read a bunch of them. We have quite a few members photos and posts linked into it . Kinda nice .