Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: New American Toad Morph Question

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    4

    Default New American Toad Morph Question

    Hi, all. I'm hoping I can get some advice here.

    I've had adult American toads before, but I found a whole bunch of tadpoles this year in the abandoned swimming pool at the farm where I work. Long story short, I brought home a small group of them to try and raise. There were 11 in total, and they were doing really well, eating and swimming and generally acting like healthy tadpoles. I was/am keeping them in a good sized reptile water dish, inside a live-planted 10 gallon aquarium. There's a large rock to climb on, and some gravel that slopes upward so they can climb up as they morph. The substrate is a mix of organic potting soil and coconut fiber.

    The first of them to get all four legs crawled out of the water three nights ago. He still had a pretty decent tail at that point but there was no stopping him leaving. I kept an eye on him for a few hours, and apart from getting some substrate stuck to him, he seemed to be doing fine getting around. I went to bed, and that's the last I saw of him. It's like he completely disappeared. Is this normal? Is it likely he's just hiding somewhere out of sight, or buried himself somewhere while his tail disappears? Or should I assume he somehow died?

    He was so tiny, small enough to fit on the tip of my pinky finger, but there's nothing in the tank that I would consider dangerous. No ants or spiders or anything like that, the plants are all just local weeds like grass and clover taken from the farm (no pesticides). The water dish is accessible and I mist the tank every day to keep the humidity up. There are some fruit flies small enough for him to eat in there. But there's been no trace of him at all in three full days. There's another one now with all four legs, and if something happened to this first one, I'd like to avoid it happening to the second. I had thought leaving them alone and letting nature take its course would be best since I plan to release them when they're big enough, but I don't want to lose all of them this way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

  2. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Location
    Advertising world
    Posts
    Many
     

  3. #2
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Red Wing, MN
    Posts
    236

    Default Re: New American Toad Morph Question

    If there's really no trace of the toadlet, it probably climbed out. Tiny wet amphibians can stick to glass surprisingly well.

  4. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: New American Toad Morph Question

    Could he have gotten through the screen? The top has a mesh screen on top because I have cats and I don't want them getting into the terrarium and bothering the tadpoles or eating the plants. It's also got a lip of plastic on it all the way around the top so he'd have had to be totally inverted to reach an escape route.

    Here's a photo of the setup:



    That seems like an awfully long way for such a tiny creature to climb, not even including the upside down hanging he'd have to do. Is it possible?

  5. #4
    100+ Post Member daybr4ke's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    California
    Posts
    494
    Picture Albums: Member Photo Albums

    Default Re: New American Toad Morph Question

    Toads are avid burrowers. I would consider it more likely that he/she borrowed somewhere enough that you can't see it. You may see the toad let later, especially if you put in food. Toadlet's are super tiny, much like treefrog froglets, and its been hard for me to keep track of how many treefrogs I had and they don't even burrow.

  6. #5
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: New American Toad Morph Question

    That's what I'm hoping. There were times I "lost" my adult male in that tank because he burrowed so completely, he disappeared. And he was about 500 times bigger than this little guy was. I'm hesitant to go digging around too much, or move the rocks around to look for him because I don't want to accidentally crush him if he's under there. So I guess I'll just have to be patient, hope he's still alive, and see if he reappears again. I figure he had at least a couple days where all his nutrition would come from his tail, so maybe moving around wasn't a priority, and he could just hide in one place. I noticed that before he climbed out of the water, while he was growing hands and legs, he was pretty sedentary too, and so is the second one. Thanks!

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. American toad question
    By Deku in forum Toads
    Replies: 35
    Last Post: February 28th, 2016, 08:07 PM
  2. American Toad Shedding question
    By Larry Wardog in forum Toads
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: December 3rd, 2014, 10:53 PM
  3. Red morph American toad (?)
    By Soli in forum Toads
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: September 24th, 2013, 07:46 PM
  4. American Toad Sexing Question?
    By furious george in forum Toads
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: June 26th, 2013, 10:19 AM
  5. American Toad Question
    By BerryNight in forum Toads
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: September 4th, 2012, 08:33 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •