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Thread: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

  1. #21
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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I had to remove the reptile waterfall from the tank. It was trouble for two reasons:

    1) It is a death trap for fast growing animals. Tadpoles go into the intake holes, eat on the filter, and grow until they can no longer get back out.
    2) It's a snail haven.

    Fortunately, I caught it early and most of the tadpoles that had been captured by this thing were still alive and doing well. I believe I saw three dead and maybe twenty live. The bigger they are, the more likely they are to survive stuff like this, it seems.

    I noticed the problem because the pump inside of the waterfall started sucking air. So many critters had gotten into it, that it's filter was no longer working well.

    The remaining water intake is covered in plenty of filter media material, so the water flow is very slow and will not disturb even the smallest of critters. Also this intake serves as a prime feeding ground.

    All of the tadpoles are in 24-7 eat/poop mode. The biggest are about 25mm long now. like a flattened grayish jellybean with a tail.

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  3. #22
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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I've got a pair of frogs that's been in amplexus for hours. A receptive female. I wonder if i'm going to get another brood of eggs tonight. I guess in the wild, it's breeding for the whole season. Ouch.

    I saw one of the bigger tadpoles feeding close to the surface. An adult snapped at it and missed. It would have been an enormous mouthful for this toad, the tadpoles have grown. So I can see how if you want to avoid casualties, you separate the adults from the rest. However, I believe that the number of tadpoles and the growth rate will outweigh any such losses.

    I'm hoping to raise a frog or three to help replace the one that I neglectfully killed by leaving the top of the cage open. *snif*

    Here is a pic of the largest tadpole as of today. You can see tiny little itty bitty froggy legs starting to develop.


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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    More eggs were laid in my tank last night.

    So, basically, tadpoles are going to be a constant thing in this tank.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    These eggs are also fertile. With all of the medium sized tadpoles constantly feeding, the tank is a less friendly environment to this new wave.

    At night, the tadpoles get active. I peeked in on the tank at midnight with a flashlight. So much activity.

    The cherry shrimp in this tank also had babies, but those babies are so microscopic, they are hard to see let alone photograph.

    I believe I am about two to three weeks away from emergence according to things i've read.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Are you leaving the tads in the same tank as the parents? I'm guessing that's a good way to minimize the population explosion. All thoughts on that will be interesting if anyone cares to comment.
    Keep the pic's coming when you can. They are interesting to see.

  8. #26
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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I would suggest giving them to pet store if u dont want them but you might want to keep a few. However if the adults start eating them which i dont think they will, you should remove the babies not the adults. figure out a safe way. also that wold mean you need a smaller second tank because adults need more space then babies. You could also try putting them up for sale on this website in the for sale section. but if u do you should add where to get them because shipping frogs = bad idea.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I found a nifty way to move the tadpoles into my side-tank. I replaced the small siphon hose with much larger one and removed the filter...it's big enough to fit a tadpole; I've seen one go through. Over time, I expect i'll catch quite a few in the side tank. The side tank's pump returns water to the main tank, so the siphon is what moves water from the main tank to the side tank.

    With the tadpoles emerging on a floating platform in the side tank, I don't have to worry about adults eating them. But I sure do have to make the lid secure!

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Boy have they progressed. I fished about 20 of them out of the tank and into a nursery box where I can feed them fruit flies.

    The rest are emerging in the adult tank. Little toadlets. Everywhere.

    Even when I try hard to make a good environment, there's a certain mortality. The nursery is a critter keeper with a little water in it and a reptomat for them to climb out onto. Also, a few abalone shells to climb out of the water entirely if they want to. Well, one got 'stuck' under the mat and drowned. One 'dried out' and got stuck to the abalone shell and died there. So, two died in the nursery but there's 20 more thriving.

    They are not eating yet. I expect the most mature one might start eating tomorrow, his tail is gone, he is a toadlet.

    I've not seen my adults successfully get a toadlet, but i'm looking at my adults and wondering how they got so fat.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    welcome back. Glad the four or so days of "database error" didn't cause you to "forget" us. I do enjoy the continuing saga. Keep it coming.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Even though i've seen the adults 'trigger' once or twice on a toadlet, they seem to coexist way, way better than I had imagined.

    I even let them get a little hungry, not feeding them crickets for a few days. The toadlets can do a dance in front of an adult frog and not trigger it.

    But good lord, put a handful of crickets in the cage when they haven't eaten for a few days. Angry Brawl. Everyone got fed, but not until some food aggression got worked out.

    I suppose that the tadpole side-tank was still very useful, as the tadpoles wreak havoc on a tank and every other living creature in it. For the 24-7 feeding period of a tadpole, it's better they feed on their own. But once they stop eating, they are better off in the adult tank. The environment seems much better for them, highly varied.

    Even though I have a few fruit fly cultures going, I don't have enough flies to feed them all, and feeding gnats to the little ones in the adult tank will be very wasteful.

    I was kind of hoping that the adults would snap some of them up and I wouldn't be left with a lot of lingering starving froglets.

    Pics. Yes I know. I'll get right on that.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Here's two pictures. Sorry the first one is blurry, but it's my smallest, most micro toadlet riding on the head of an adult.



    Everyone likes fruit flies. The adults totally don't mind getting piled on.


    I've seen a toadlet get snapped at...but the toad that snapped at the toadlet then got accosted by another adult. I know they are hungry, but they just don't seem to trigger on the babies.

    Now put a cricket in there after a few days of fasting? Wow. Never fails to amaze. Bedlam.

    The adults like fruit flies as much as the babies.


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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    It's surprising to me that the best environment for these little toadlets is the adult aquarium enclosure. They integrate very well with the adults and don't get eaten or even harmed. At least in my case.

    I have one 'critter keeper' lined with a wet paper towel, frog moss, covered in saran wrap to keep the flies in. In this enclosure are about ten toadlets i'm keeping separate from the rest. I have to hydrate them daily.

    The rest of the froglets are in the adult enclosure. I do nothing for them except dump fruit flies in. They swim when they want to and seem to have no problem with the adults. In fact, the little toadlets tend to ride on the adults heads. It's super cute. They are of all sizes and ages at this point. There's a few under developed super tiny toadlets that are ultra cute.

    I've had a few unexplained deaths in the critter keeper. But in the adult tank, i've not seen a single issue.

    I guess i've got quite a few weeks before the toadlets get so large that i've got a crowding problem in the tank.

    Right now, they are so small that they are hidden away everywhere and it does not appear to be an overcrowding situation...yet...


    I was able to keep my main tank pretty clean with the use of that side siphon tank. I was able to gently coax all of those tadpoles into the side tank and feed them there. All of the **** ended up in the side tank and my main tank remained cleaner than it would have.

    Over all, I put ONE POUND of spinach into my aquarium. !!!


    I guess the advantages of the adult enclosure over the critter keeper are: Better humidity. More water. More consistent temperature. More natural environment.

    I guess the critter keeper advantage would be that I can assure that the frogs get more consistently fed.

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  18. #33
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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    remarkably, the little toadlets, smaller than a large cricket...will strike at a large cricket. such a prey drive!

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I must have a hundred toadlets by now of all sizes. Just dumped a thousand flies into the tank. Somehow the water quality is still good. And the adults are still laying eggs. Sheesh.

    The mortality rate is very low as I have not seen a single dead toad.

    I'm not going to be feeding the new tadpoles as I did the old. It's just too much. I almost killed my bio-filters when I put 5 pounds of spinach in the tank to feed the first batch (not all at once obviously but still, that's a lot of spinach).

    They will unfortunately have to 'fend' and won't be as large or healthy as the first.

    The largest toadlets are now about a quarter of the size of an adult and their bellies are starting to turn orange. They start out white.

    Boy am I greeted enthusiastically when I come by. Food on their minds.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I kind of ran out of flies...i've got a new batch growing to feed my toadlets, but right now they are starving hungry.

    I've seen only one dead toadlet, a super small one that I guess was on the edge of viability in the first place.

    The five adults are consigned to being furniture for the myriad toadlets of various sizes.

    I still have a handful of tadpoles as well.

    The cherry shrimp have grown in population dramatically. Now when a cricket drowns, it's ripped apart and in 24 hours, it's gone. Some of the female shrimp have too many eggs to hold onto and they spend their time juggling three too many eggs.

    I had an explosion of snails from some stuff I got at PetSmart. I added five assassin snails. They do their job well. Now I see only an occasional snail, mostly assassin snails.

    And there is now some planaria in my tank, feasting on a layer of goo at the bottom.


    I was initially fearful that vinegar would upset the chemistry in the tank and now I understand that it's largely neutral and actually a food for the bacteria. So a wipe down with a vinegar rag has kept the glass pretty clean.

    I'm using tap water with a touch of acid buffer to bump the pH down closer to 7. The water is full of minerals; highly buffered and stable as heck considering how many froggies I have.

    Once I get a good load of flies going, I expect a few months I can start them on small crickets. Then maybe I can find homes for them.

    But right now they are pretty hungry, awaiting my batches of flies to mature. This time, I know to start new cultures more aggressively lest they mostly die on me and leave me with just enough flies to start new cultures but not enough flies for food.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Well, I now have enough flies to keep my tank full of F. B. Toadlets gorged.

    I lost two of the tiniest toadlets. Of all of the tadpoles I had, most were fed well but a few were not and developed into micro-toads anyway. These are the ones that are the least viable.
    They didn't last long...I've got cherry shrimp and...believe it or not...more tadpoles. Those make short work of anything that dies and sinks to the bottom of the tank.
    The last batch of tadpoles are very fat and their back legs just formed, so it won't be long before they stop eating and morph.

    Some time late in the season i'm gonna have a lot of FBTs to find homes for. A lot.

    I caught a male grabbing my female and I looked right at them and told them in my most stern voice "no more. stop."

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  23. #37
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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Wow, sounds like Firebellies toads are pretty eager breeders. You should get pictures up!

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Yeah, next post i'll put up pics.

    A big heat wave is coming this week, it'll put my tank well above the safe temperature for these frogs.

    I've found that water changes does not help much. Evaporation only helps a bit.

    I'm gonna make big ice cubes out of dechlorinated water. Frogs are gonna get ice for the first time this coming week.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Well, okay, i'm putting dechlorinated ice cubes into the tank. Woe to the toadlet that rafts on these. They try, and then when they hop off, they find that their legs only half work. They warm up immediately when they get back into the water.

    But a lot of ice cubes reduces the temperature only slightly.

    It occurs to me that I cannot stay home every nice warm weekend, throwing ice cubes into my damn frog tank. Not sustainable.

    I'm gonna have to purchase a chiller. No way around it.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Something interesting about the toxins these fellow produce:

    When I first got them, I was very sensitive to their toxins. Touching the frogs, even touching the water could make my skin dry, crack, bleed. It took weeks to heal. Terrible. I avoided contact best I could.

    Well, months later I am now realizing that I don't have any reaction anymore when touching the water or handling the frogs, dealing with the filters, etc. Apparently, it's a toxin that it fairly easy to develop resistance to.
    Either that or my FBTs have become non toxic.

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