sexing Red Eyed Tree Frogs

[aferland66]

Hi all, I just purchased 8 large Red Eyed Tree Frogs, they look like adults and are probably wild caught, but my other 6 CB Red Eyed are so small I wanted to start with these large ones and see how it goes. Don't worry, these will always be in a separate tank from my CBs.

Now my question is, these guys are 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" so I'm betting they are adults, I picked them myself and picked the nicest and healthyest frogs out of about 120, but I think by doing so I picked mostly females. I will be going back to the importer's next week and will pick up 4 more and try to get all males, now how obvious should the nuptial pads be on these frogs? Does anybody have pictures of male RETF nuptial pads, and is there a difference in the throat on RETF?

Also, if I get a ratio of maybe 5 males to 7 females will that be good enough? I do know the best ratio is one more male then the number of females so there's male competition, but I don't have the room in the tank for 8 males and 7 females.

[jarteta97]

Typically calling is the most fail-safe way of determining whether a frog is male or female. Especially since they're adults, if they call, they're male, if they don't for several weeks, they are most likely female. Just out of curiosity, what size enclosure are you keeping these frogs? Are you getting this many primarily for breeding?

[aferland66]

Right now I can only hear one calling in my tank, now that the lights are out, so I got at least 1 male in there now. I can't be at the wholesaler's place at night to hear them call, so I have to be able to identify the males during the day.

They are being kept in a 90 gallon tank with live moss substrate and live plants and a water feature with a pump. There are live jasmine leaves over the water, and I will be adding larger fake leaves over the water for laying purposes.

Yes, these are for breeding, that's why I was asking about male to female ratios. I want to try my hand with these WC until my CBs grow up.

[aferland66]

Anybody have pics of male RETF nuptial pads?