Tadpoles not eating...

[meganmcnerney]

Hi all,

My gray tree frog tadpoles have decided to go on a hunger strike today. They all have their hind legs, but none of them have sprouted front legs yet. 1 or 2 of them appear to be starting to grow one of their front legs, but I'm not positive (it might be wishful thinking on my part). I really would love it if their front legs appeared before this weekend (I'm leaving for a few days and very nervous about how they will fare while I am gone).

Do/can they start resorbing their tails BEFORE the front legs pop? Or does this mean that their front legs are getting ready to pop?

I did just clean out their tanks, but only because their water was so disgusting as they were eating non stop. My water changing process has not changed since I got them, but with this batch of lettuce I did not boil for entire 15 minutes, only 5-8 minutes as the lettuce was so mushy, I wasn't able to store it very well).

[John]

They should eat right up to when the front legs pop out of the body. Sounds like they may be unwell from the poor water conditions but it's hard to know from your description.

[BG]

John is right ,is the water clean,whats the temp ,is it at 79. The warmer the water the faster there metabolism gets.

[meganmcnerney]

the tank remains steady at around 72-74 degrees. I do not have a filter or anything aquarium-like that could affect temperature and/or water quality (other than the tads themselves). I also have another smaller tank for the 2 tads who didn't have hind legs (but now 1 does) and they are still eating, just not as enthusiastically as yesterday.

I can take a sample to petsmart tomorrow to check water quality...