Breeding Phrynomantis bifasciatus?

[Buck Rogers]

I really hope that I can get some ideas on how to do this properly. It has come time that I think my Phrynomantis bifasciatus (banded rubber frogs) are about ready for breeding. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are going into Winter in the next few weeks and I am planning to put them through a short hibernation of about 3 - 5 weeks, then bring them out of hibernation and hope for the best. I have been struggling to get them to a nice size for breeding but now the female has hit 4+cm and think its time... although I wanted them to get to 6+cm before trying this.

So here is my plan: I currently keep a group of 0.0.4, of the group I am 100% sure the one is a female because she is the largest by quite a bit. They are all currently housed in a natural viv with the soil from their natural habitat, leaf litter, small water bowl and logs. Now what I am planning on doing is taking some dry sphagnum moss in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid and moving the frogs into that for the hibernation. Then I will take the tub and keep it in a store room in my house which gets down to 10 C in Winter.

Then as it starts warming up here I was going to take the tub and put it into the shower and leave the water to run for about 30 minutes - due to the fact that they come from a region where there are heavy storms to break in the beginning of the rainy season. Once they are out and active I will move them into a tank that will be about 2/3 full of water with various water plants and stones. Also a floating land section so they can get on to dry land and not become exhausted. I was going to leave them in there for 48 hours and hope for the breeding to be successful.

Should they feed before they mate? Is my technique going to work? Am I missing anything? After never breeding frogs (purposely) will the hibernation process work and NOT kill them?

Please any input would be greatly appreciated in any way.

[Kurt]

I really have no input on the subject, as I believe you are treading on new ground. I don't know of any body breeding this or any other Phrynomantis species. I was planning breeding mine, but if I did it would all be by trial and error. At least you have more of an idea of how to accomplish this. When you are suucessful I do hope you will write a care article on Phrynomantis bifasciatus.

[SethD]

I really hope that I can get some ideas on how to do this properly. It has come time that I think my Phrynomantis bifasciatus (banded rubber frogs) are about ready for breeding. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are going into Winter in the next few weeks and I am planning to put them through a short hibernation of about 3 - 5 weeks, then bring them out of hibernation and hope for the best. I have been struggling to get them to a nice size for breeding but now the female has hit 4+cm and think its time... although I wanted them to get to 6+cm before trying this.

So here is my plan: I currently keep a group of 0.0.4, of the group I am 100% sure the one is a female because she is the largest by quite a bit. They are all currently housed in a natural viv with the soil from their natural habitat, leaf litter, small water bowl and logs. Now what I am planning on doing is taking some dry sphagnum moss in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid and moving the frogs into that for the hibernation. Then I will take the tub and keep it in a store room in my house which gets down to 10 C in Winter.

Then as it starts warming up here I was going to take the tub and put it into the shower and leave the water to run for about 30 minutes - due to the fact that they come from a region where there are heavy storms to break in the beginning of the rainy season. Once they are out and active I will move them into a tank that will be about 2/3 full of water with various water plants and stones. Also a floating land section so they can get on to dry land and not become exhausted. I was going to leave them in there for 48 hours and hope for the breeding to be successful.

Should they feed before they mate? Is my technique going to work? Am I missing anything? After never breeding frogs (purposely) will the hibernation process work and NOT kill them?

Please any input would be greatly appreciated in any way.

I have never tried to breed this species but I would imagine you are on the right track. Generally speaking most explosive breeders can be simulated to breed by a cooler and drier period with little or no food followed by warming things up simulating rains and offering an abundance of food. The trick is figuring out how long each period should last and the general fine tuning of the process. How cool and how dry it needs to be, whether female should be placed with males immediately after simulated rains or if they need a week or two of heavy feeding to to develop eggs etc.

[Kurt]

Well, Darren is in South Africa and can observe them in the wild. If anyone of us to be successful with this species, it will be him.

[Buck Rogers]

Well, Darren is in South Africa and can observe them in the wild. If anyone of us to be successful with this species, it will be him.

Wow! You guys are putting the pressure on. From observations on several savanna species the Winters get really harsh and puts all amphibians in a solid 6 month hibernation. As soon as the first heavy rains start is when males start calling, but sometimes we can go into Spring without any rains until its at least a month or more in.

I figure I can either get it right or get it wrong, but have to try. I really hope its a success so I can share the information with you all.

[StephenLS]

I've just checked my Amphibians in Captivity book and it recommends a dry/cool period of about 6 weeks at 24C!!!...although you are clearly in a better position to work out what temperature to hibernate them at but how long will you keep them at that temperature for?

I'm really keen to know how you get on with this and specific temps/time periods as I have a group of six I really want to have a go at breeding.

I managed to get them to call a few years ago by leaving them really dry for a few weeks at room temperature (approx 16C...I think)!

[Kurt]

I look forward to your success and will celebrate it when it arrives. As far as I know you may be the first to succeed.

[Buck Rogers]

I've just checked my Amphibians in Captivity book and it recommends a dry/cool period of about 6 weeks at 24C!!!...although you are clearly in a better position to work out what temperature to hibernate them at but how long will you keep them at that temperature for?

I'm really keen to know how you get on with this and specific temps/time periods as I have a group of six I really want to have a go at breeding.

I managed to get them to call a few years ago by leaving them really dry for a few weeks at room temperature (approx 16C...I think)!

Getting them to call is a step further than I have got But calling by keeping them dry and cool is odd. When we have heard them calling in the wild it is always after excessive rains. Recently we were in the Timbavati area and it was starting to get really dry and you couldn't hear a frog for love or money, apparently the month before it was so damn noisy because there were such heavy rains.

I am assuming the group I have either came from Bela Bela, Tabazimbi or the Timbavati/Kruger Park area, at a push they could have come from Botswana. Generally all of these areas drop to below zero between June - August.

Its still ganna be quite a few months before I start this (will start the hibernation in August for 3-6 week depending), but I will keep records and share them if it is a success... even if its a failure I will also share so maybe people could learn from my mistakes.

[Buck Rogers]

Just had a thought, maybe the bullfrog keepers could shed some light on this for me. What would be a better medium to hibernate them in, soil or sphagnum moss? Naturally the would burrow through the winter months or even under fallen wood or leaf litter. Just not sure what would work best, is there a wrong or a right thing to do with hibernation????

[Buck Rogers]

Hi all

Bad news from my side, out of my 4 bandeds 3 died :-(

I have no idea what went wrong or how, but the only one that survived was one of the smallest ones which perplexes me as to what went wrong. In a nutshell about a month ago I noticed they were becoming a bit lethargic and not going after food (usually they go crazy for flightless fruit flies). This was at the same time the proper winter month started rolling in, so I gave them a realtively high (mid 20s) day time temp by adding a spot light on one side of the cage and a night time low of around 15 degrees. The cage soon became dry which is what usually happens in their region and they all huddled around their empty water bowl and stopped roaming at night. I took it that they were hibernating but I thought it odd that they didn't burrow. I checked on them every week or so and they all seemed fine, then on their weekly check I noticed the largest female who is a great feeder and always the most active looked an opaque colour. I immediately moved the bowl and found them all huddled around in the same spot with 3 dead and one bearly alive and these odd little white mites on them. I put the small survivor in a seperate container and misted it and warmed it up and with in a day it was looking plump again.

Although it has not eaten I am hoping for the best, but could any one shed light on to what happened?? This species can survive temps dropping into the negatives and can survive long dry seasons, so what could have killed them off??????

I am obviously upset about this but hopefully this is something that we can all learn from and help each other to get them to breed. I will try get some more this season and continue to work with this species until I get it right.

But please any input here would be much appreciated even criticism welcome.

[Kurt]

Darren,
I am so sorry. I would like to shed some light here, but I can't. I was kind of hoping you would be leading the way with species.

[Buck Rogers]

Darren,
I am so sorry. I would like to shed some light here, but I can't. I was kind of hoping you would be leading the way with species.

The hardest part is I wish I knew what I had done wrong so that I can prevent this from happening in the future

The only thing I can think of is that I should have only hibernated them for a shorter period (maybe 3 - 6 weeks), but I was trying to be 'smart' and wanted to sync them up to our natural rainfall patterns and I was prolonging bringing them out of hibernation until then.

I am going to collect some WC ones later in this year and try to have 8 split up in two separate tanks and then when I try it again I will have a 'control'... its the best thing I can think of.

But hopefully my misfortune can be a stepping stone for the rest of you guys.

[Kurt]

I wish you much luck with this project.