Fingers Crossed!

[Jimbok3]

My fire bellies winter cycle is over! fingers crossed on getting some tads!!

[bshmerlie]

Be careful for what you wish for....

[Heatheranne]

Good luck!

[Jimbok3]

Bad news..... The female died yesterday , sadly the male has become very shy and seems like he is depressed

[artes]

Bad news..... The female died yesterday , sadly the male has become very shy and seems like he is depressed

I'm so sorry for your loss. Losing a friend is terrible.

[Jimbok3]

now the male is refusing to eat...

[artes]

now the male is refusing to eat...

Maybe you should pick him up a couple of friends to perk him up. I know they usually say quarantine, but in this case I would pop them in there. No use worrying about parasites when the poor guy could die from depression anyway.

[Jimbok3]

I just went to check on him.... He passed.....

[artes]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[Han]

Stop crying and handing out condolences and lets try to find out what went wrong before, during and
after their "wintercycle"? What did you do or didn't do to finish the
poor buggers off?

Han

[Jimbok3]

I have no idea what went wrong....

Winter cycle:
- their enclosures temperature was kept around 60-64 degrees F
- constant filtration
- partial water changes
- and 8 hours of artificial "day light"

Things I always do:
- I always dechlorinate the water (I use 'Prime' to dechlorinate the water it is safe for the frogs)
- constant filtration
- water changes every week
- and when their winter cycle was ending Slowly brought the tanks temperature up to 74-75 degrees F (I did the transition over the course of a week)
- after winter cycle the amount of light they would get increased to 10-12 hours of 'day'

[Han]

Well a true winter-resting period takes some 3 months (Nov. - March)
in a fridge at ca. 41F (5C) in a mix of damp moss and leaves. No water,
no food, dark. Their metabolism should slow-down. Needless to say:
well-fed animals only!

Han

[Jimbok3]

They were definitely well fed they ate 8 to 10 (sometimes more) small crickets a day, I had to get 30 -40 crickets every 2 days.

As for the "winter cycle" I did not want to put them in the fridge (our fridges tend to over chill things). at the end of the winter cycle after a week of temps slowly warming up to 77-80 degrees the female started eating more and was showing signs of producing eggs.