Quick fire belly question for all you pro's

[demon amphibians]

I have 20 fire belly toads that a friend gave me. His four adults accidentally had about 200 babies so i took a few off of his hands. The group that I have, hatched on Christmas. My question is how old do they have to be before they are adults and ready for breeding? I have searched high and low and have not come across the correct answer. I have noticed that they are attempting to breed but i know for a fact that the females or the frog underneath so to speak is not gravid. I am assuming the reason is because they are not mature. But if they are i will begin to provide the proper climate to begin breeding. Oh and no worries i do not plan on inbreeding them i am going to get other adults for them to breed with. Just want to know if mine are ready to go.

[Bombina Bob]

Hi there
I would assume if fed properly and with suppliments
fire belly toads would mature around 6-8 months.

[demon amphibians]

Hi there
I would assume if fed properly and with suppliments
fire belly toads would mature around 6-8 months.

Why thank you Ryan. My fire bellies are about 8 months. but i feed mine small dubia's, dusting ever other feeding so When i picked up the 66 fire bellies to sell at the LA show from the same guy i got mine from. All of mine where twice the size of his. And they where all from the same hatching. (he feeds his crickets) Even though mine are pretty close to fully grown i was still unsure if they would be ready to breed. Cant wait tell i start seeing some eggs. But i dont think i will have any luck until October. Still far to warm here. I think i may try the fridge method.

[Jenste]

With a large enough water area mine bred last month twice on their own - I did not use the fridge method or any other inducing. My systems are generally 50-60% water with the pool 8+ inches deep. Once they are ready you probably won't be able to stop them so give it time and I am sure yours will breed soon enough on their own!

Pictures PLEASE of your group!!

[demon amphibians]

With a large enough water area mine bred last month twice on their own - I did not use the fridge method or any other inducing. My systems are generally 50-60% water with the pool 8+ inches deep. Once they are ready you probably won't be able to stop them so give it time and I am sure yours will breed soon enough on their own!

Pictures PLEASE of your group!!

That is cool, what are the temps in your area and how many frogs do you have? Also what size tank do you have them in? Do you think the water depth is a must. right now i have a 60/50 water/land set up with water depth of 6". And i construct all my tanks from scratch so i can build and size with any design. right now i have a few multi-chamber display tanks built that i use for the shows that i will use to separate each clutch. I am prepared to house 22 clutches if i have too lol. I don't really mind how fast they breed honestly because i have a few shows coming up and i sell them 2 for 3 bucks. At the LA show we sold 44 fire bellies. Once we marked them down to 2 for 3 they started selling like hot cakes. I will also whole sale to 3 maybe 4 local pet stores in my area. These are the first species i will be breeding so i am very excited however i know i must be patient. I don't really expect any eggs to show up until it cools down here, right now my frogs water temp is in the high seventies during the day and low sixties at night. I woke up this morning to them mounting up again so things may be happening sooner then i expected.

[demon amphibians]

I will post pics soon.

[Jenste]

That is cool, what are the temps in your area and how many frogs do you have? Also what size tank do you have them in? Do you think the water depth is a must. right now i have a 60/50 water/land set up with water depth of 6". And i construct all my tanks from scratch so i can build and size with any design. right now i have a few multi-chamber display tanks built that i use for the shows that i will use to separate each clutch. I am prepared to house 22 clutches if i have too lol. I don't really mind how fast they breed honestly because i have a few shows coming up and i sell them 2 for 3 bucks. At the LA show we sold 44 fire bellies. Once we marked them down to 2 for 3 they started selling like hot cakes. I will also whole sale to 3 maybe 4 local pet stores in my area. These are the first species i will be breeding so i am very excited however i know i must be patient. I don't really expect any eggs to show up until it cools down here, right now my frogs water temp is in the high seventies during the day and low sixties at night. I woke up this morning to them mounting up again so things may be happening sooner then i expected.

When they bred it was a group of 8 in a 26 gallon bow front. About 50/50, water depths around 7-10 inches depending on how deep I filled after the water change. Average temp is around 68-75*F depending on how hot the day is and how much we run our Air Conditioning.

Now they are a group of 13 in a 72 gallon bow about 50/50 (prob closer to 40/60 water) and they haven't bred yet but it has only been a week. I am not doing much to encourage breeding but won't stop them if they try.

[demon amphibians]

When they bred it was a group of 8 in a 26 gallon bow front. About 50/50, water depths around 7-10 inches depending on how deep I filled after the water change. Average temp is around 68-75*F depending on how hot the day is and how much we run our Air Conditioning.

Now they are a group of 13 in a 72 gallon bow about 50/50 (prob closer to 40/60 water) and they haven't bred yet but it has only been a week. I am not doing much to encourage breeding but won't stop them if they try.

Does increased feeding influence them as well? i know other species require a heavy feeding before they begin to breed is that the same with these guys?

[Jenste]

Could be what inspired them last time as it was after I was away on vacation (they weren't fed by my cousin when she took care of the cats - made it easier for them to skip a few days then deal with run away crickets. )

Generally they are fed every 2-3 days. I buy 50-80 crickets depending on
1) if its been the 2 or 3 days in between
2) how many crickets I have spotted hiding in the rocks
3) if there were a lot of crickets who drowned the time before.

[demon amphibians]

Could be what inspired them last time as it was after I was away on vacation (they weren't fed by my cousin when she took care of the cats - made it easier for them to skip a few days then deal with run away crickets. )

Generally they are fed every 2-3 days. I buy 50-80 crickets depending on
1) if its been the 2 or 3 days in between
2) how many crickets I have spotted hiding in the rocks
3) if there were a lot of crickets who drowned the time before.

good info Jen. Thank you so much for your help. I have one more question for you. was there any noticeable fluctuation in temperature in the environment in which you keep them when they bred?

[Jenste]

We did have a heat wave going on pretty much the whole of July - - I don't know if that combined with us sporadically running the AC did anything. I wasn't keeping an eye out for odd behavior as I wasn't trying to induce lol. Most of this now is guessing and reflection.

[demon amphibians]

ok Jen thank you for all the info, you have been great help. I will let you know how i do. I have so many fire bellies to do different things with. If i find anything out i will be sure to post. And dont worry i wont be doing anything unnatural. seems Practices unnatural seem too common these days. And i am patient. Just hopeing for a good product for the November show. None the less i will have some to sell for that show but i want to produce my own product. A product that i can have pride in.