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Thread: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

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    Default Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    This afternoon I examine my tank. I'm trying to remove all of the mosquitofish from my tank so that the shrimp can breed without getting eaten. I've gotten five of them, the sixth is elusive.

    I've seen my six toads mount each other before in dominance displays.

    Last night was a little different. The result was frog eggs.

    The 'yolk' is about 2-3mm in diameter, there appear to be two transparent encapsulations making the overall sphere about 4mm in diameter.
    I can see maybe 20 eggs. There are no doubt a handful I cannot see.
    I figure they are probably fertile, as I have plenty of males. I still haven't worked out which one(s) is a female.

    Uh. Wow.

    I can't really effectively move my adults from the main tank somewhere else. But I could take out tadpoles and put them into a small 'satellite' tank.
    Since I don't think I want 20+ frogs, I have a feeling that these newcomers are all destined to be eaten in some way at some point.

    I feel proud to have provided my frogs an environment where they feel comfortable enough to do tha nasty.


    Any advice?

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I would probably move the adult and eggs to a different tank, but do you want the extra toads?

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Just wondering what kind of frogs, I don't know if i keep skipping over it or if it's mentioned. But definitely separate babies and parents.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Just kidding, I see now that it's in a fire belly toad section or whatever this is, lol I just started using this sorry

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Fire Belly Toads. I got them about seven weeks ago or so. Put 'em into a 30 gallon tank with 11 gallons of water, lots of interesting habitat. Added some cherry shrimp to the bottom of the tank to help clean up, which they do well.

    I'm torn. I've never been through this process.
    I want to see the little ones emerge because I know they will be so cute.
    But I don't have space for keeping all of them, so...I guess nature will take it's course in some way. Which probably means a meal for the adults.
    But the little froglets will be so cute and the whole process will be fascinating to watch.
    Until they get eaten.

    I suppose I could devote my entire house to fire belly toad aquariums. ah, the process of impending madness.

    I do have a second 5 gallon tank attached to the first via a siphon. Currently it has only vegetation in it. So I do have a 'hatchery' of sorts all set up and ready to go; I would eventually need to add some sort of haul-out by the time they transformed.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Yeah. The babies will prob eat fish food and tetra discs or something like that. I don't much about fire bellies and if you should keep the eggs with the adults or not. I usuallly deal with bullfrogs or painted frogs.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    What I would do is seperate the eggs and wait till they hatch and then give em to the local pet store.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Ideally, I would leave the eggs alone, remove all of the adults into another tank. I do not have that other tank that can fit six adults.

    Since they apparently like to hump my Elodea sprigs, I traded eggy sprigs for non-eggy sprigs. Now the 4 gallon satellite tank has three eggy sprigs (about 15 eggs) and no adults. And there are fresh sprigs in the main tank if they want to lay more eggs on them. There's gotta be at least 10 more eggs i'll not be able to get to, so when they become free swimming, I'll try to net them.
    Same water, same temperature, so no shock there, I hope.

    There are lots of good help sheets out there. Including one on this website. I can see that if I continue down this path, i'll need special foods and a different enclosure for the little frogs at some point.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Eggs:


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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    24 hours later, most eggs are no longer spherical. This backlit image shows the various egg encapsulations well.


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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Sorry I haven't gotten to this sooner! Yes, that last picture is definetly proof those eggs are fertile. Here's a link to a care-sheet that has info on raising tadpoles of this species: http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...-and-relatives

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    They were making quite a racket last night.

    And now there are about 50 more eggs.

    Good lord.

    Do they stop laying eggs?


    The eggs laid a few days ago have developed more: I see a spine, eye spots; a little miniature tadpole with a yolk sac. Also, they twitch once on a while now.
    [edit] they are hatching or within hours of hatching. I see a few tadpoles no longer in an egg. Some are very close to emerging from the egg. They still have a little bit of yolk left, they are not actively seeking food yet; they are mostly motionless but once once in a while they vibrate. They seem to remain attached to the location where they were an egg. The care sheets say that they'll finish off their yolk first before venturing forth.
    Last edited by alane; March 11th, 2017 at 01:03 PM.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Do you think a change in the overall tank temperature may have sparked the breeding? Did the temperature you try to maintain it at go from a lower temp to a higher temp?

    Just curious. Trying to see if I can come up with any evidence that may re-assure me that I might be able to exercise some controls to their environment that might keep them out of the mood to mate should I decide to get more FBT's.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I've done a few things that could have stimulated them to breed.

    Weekly water changes: Although I let the water warm to room temperature, my tank slightly heated to be a little above room temperature. So on a water change, i'll drop from 76 to 73 degrees, sometimes more. The first water change I did dropped the temperature quite a bit. The frogs did not seem to mind, in fact they seem to like changes to their environment. Far from hiding, it kind of gives them energy to explore.

    Rain mode: To clean the tank, I can reconfigure the water return to "rain on things".

    Both of these things, i've heard, can stimulate them to breed.


    I count about twenty five tadpoles. The first brood hatched. The second clutch of eggs is also obviously fertile.

    Their behavior is odd; they don't move. They pick an out-of-the-way spot, hang motionless, vertically, head up and tail down. I read that they have to fully consume their yolk first before they start eating for real. Don't know how many days that'll take.
    Fortunately, the mosquito fish in my tank are not large enough to eat these tadpoles.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    Egg, mid to late development.


    A tiny little free tadpole. 1cm head to tail.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    This is exciting . I wish I could have babies I dont understand why I have not yet . There temp is perfect! SO CUTE!!! im jelly

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    The tadpoles in the satellite tank are not doing as well as the ones in the adult tank. I believe this is because the mosquito fish were harassing them and nipping at their tails. At least one tadpole died, some have nips out of their tail. I removed the mosquito fish and put them back into their outside pond, where they came from. The tadpoles and eggs in the satellite tank are now all alone.

    The tadpoles in the adult tank are doing well. The first group that hatched out appears to be scavenging and eating, and are visibly larger merely 24 hours later. The second group of eggs has hatched, and the first set of tadpoles is twice the size of the second set already. The second set of eggs were more numerous, all fertile with very few or no failures during growth, and smaller. There appears to have been a very minor third egg laying as well, just a few. When an egg fails during development, development stops and it turns cloudy.

    The better tadpole development in the adult tank may be a result of simply having a better environment to live in; many more places to hide, lots of food, no other animals picking on them.

    It's hard to believe that these things are gonna turn into fire belly toads. I wonder at what point do they turn green and become cute. I'll be sure to post photos.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    This is one of the most mature tadpoles, posing on the glass for me. Check out the video on YouTube, below.

    They have a sucker mouth and eat on almost any surface. They love algae.
    You can see the beating heart in the video quite clearly.
    And it's mostly intestines! Eats poops and grows 24-7.



    Video of tadpole. A mouth, a heart, a tail, and a lot of intestines with food.
    https://youtu.be/oy6N-7Ii41s

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    I'm impressed. No wonder so many have to be hatched for a few to make it in nature. They are just a snack waiting for bigger things to come snap them up.

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    Default Re: Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

    My tank has rather a lot of activity now. One would _never_ throw this many fishes into a tank this size. But now i've got a whole bunch of little tadpole swimmers that are cleaning the tank out and growing like weeds.

    I'm glad I chose to put some sort of media on the bottom of the tank. I chose dark blue glass pellets. This apparently gives me just a ton of hidey-holes that collect food as well as provide a favored shelter for tadpoles. It is also a good background to view cherry shrimp.
    I suspect the cherry shrimp are bummed at this point to see so many tadpoles invading the place.

    One odd behavior. Some of them will race to the top, take a gulp of air, then race back down to the bottom. They don't have lungs yet. I wonder why some of them do that?

    Very few of the first generation of eggs survived, but that handful of tadpoles are huge compared to the main population.
    There are just a few eggs left to hatch of the third clutch but they will. The second, most numerous clutch hatched with almost 100% viability.

    Fascinating to watch.

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