If I were to find some wild Gray treefrog tadpoles, raise them into froglets, and then place them into a large paludarium containing Western clawed frogs (tropicalis), what is the likelihood that the treefrogs would pass parasites or bacteria onto the clawed frogs?
And, assuming that there is some likelihood of this happening what, if anything, could I do to treat these treefrogs that would prevent it from happening?
I am looking for specific information please, rather than general opposition to the concept of mixing species.
The paludarium is quite large and well planted, and the treefrogs would be well past the size of predation by the tropicalis, which are fairly small themselves.
This paludarium is built for treefrogs, but I'm not going to do it if it is likely to kill the tropicalis.
Most parasites, to my knowledge, live in frogs' digestive tract. I think the only way they could pass them on is if a froglet was eaten by a clawed frog, or for some reason the clawed frog ingests the feces of one of the grey tree frogs. And there is always the chance that the tadpoles might not have parasites, but most do. The bacteria problem may be the worst. If the tadpoles have a disease, but they are immune to it, they would be fine and you would never notice. They could pass it to the clawed frogs and, because they are from totally different places, they might not be immune. This idea seems pretty risky, but if you can pull it off, great. I would just try to find tadpoles for sale that were not found in the wild if you really want them. You should also probably wait for others to reply since I don't know everything about parasites and bacteria being transferred, or how to treat them.
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