ACF tad- second mass die off

[xxianxx]

I have bred ACF for a few years, I am used to having the odd batch of eggs fail and go moldy but my last two batches of eggs have suffered a 90% plus die off within a week or so of hatching. I will give you the care methods I have successfully used in the past and some information on the frogs I breed and hopefully I can get some useful advice. I have three females frogs who have ben laying, a three year old female albino ("pinky") who has successfully laid in the past and two of her daughters from early last year, they are golden reticulated and were selected for their markings, my two males are golden with a slight reticulation they are the father/s. When I think my females are getting ready to lay I sterilize my plastic plants with boiling water and some salt, rinse then dump them in the frog tank, I repeat this daily till they lay. Once I see eggs, I remove the plants and place them in a separate tank with light aeration and a heater set at 24c. When they hatch I feed liquidized spinach with some spirulina . They morph at around ten weeks , end of story, a few deaths but overall a very high survival rate 95% or so I imagine. This was until my last two batches. My first die off occurred a couple of months ago, I pulled the eggs from the tank , all three females appeared to have laid, it was a first batch for the two youngest females, eggs were scattered every where, I removed the plants with the eggs on to a separate tank left the rest in the adult tank and they went moldy. I had about 500 eggs, they hatched fine , within a week I noticed the tads were dying off fast, fifty a day minimum, within a week of this I was down to fifty. They showed no physical signs of illness or damage, death was however proceeded by the tads twirling about in a corkscrew motion, I see this in every batch but only in the odd individual. I put the die off down to the sand I had left in the tank, I had salted the tank and put the temp up to 35c for a week to sterilize it , then done a full water change, I thought some salt had remained in the sand , once I removed it the die offs stopped the next day. I had also considered chemical contamination of the spinach and had changed the brand, chemicals such as deodorants and air fresheners are banned in my tank room. My second die off has just occurred, I am using an 80 liter tub, no sand, care requirements as previously stated. One week after hatching about 350 tads I am down to thirty in two days. It doesn't appear that the sand was to blame, something else is happening and I dont know what. Any help and advice I can get would be much appreciated. Sorry for such a long post.

[rodsboys]

The only advice I could offer you is to check your equipment and make sure nothing is giving off electrical current and all is functioning properly. I have had some mishaps over the years with broken heaters and cracked/chewed cords.

[xxianxx]

The only advice I could offer you is to check your equipment and make sure nothing is giving off electrical current and all is functioning properly. I have had some mishaps over the years with broken heaters and cracked/chewed cords.

Thanks, I considered this as a possability after the first die off andf used a defferent heater for the second batch.

[Kira Hudson]

do u use tap watter

[xxianxx]

do u use tap watter

Yes dechlorinated tap water generally , though I have used aged water on other batches occasionally, it is also allowed to stand in the same room as the tadpole tank to reach the same temp, the same way I have been doing for years. I have also tested the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels of the tap water and they are fine.

[gemzjames]

could it be something to do with the fact there might be a genetical problem considering you mentioned it was two of the females first batches? I mean for xenopus to mature normally takes 5 years so your females seem very young to be laying. The tadpole might not be developing proparly maybe.

[rodsboys]

I think the females are old enough to breed.
I too wondered about the inbreeding, but I think it happens more than we think. Chances are when you buy frogletts at the store or from a private breeder they are related. People later breed those frogs without problems. You also have to consider that all of the captive frogs must have came from relatively few original specimens. This must be especially true where albinos are concerned.