The second species that I raised from tadpoles was Xenopus laevis.

 I found the tadpoles, strangely enough, in the same pool that I found the Ptychadena tadpoles. I'm still not sure exactly how the tadpoles made their way to the pool, as it is only abut eight inches deep, and maybe three feet long. However, it was directly after Cyclone Irina, I surmise that the tadpoles either came to be there:
  1. as a result of one of the forays that Xenopus are known to make in wet weather.
  2. The pool that I found them in is part of a dry stream bed, and further up the stream bed there is still water, but stagnant water, so I presume that a pair of Xenopus laevis may have spawned upstream in the water there, and that the eggs may then have been washed into the pool, by the torrential rains.


However they came to be there, this pool was full of tadpoles, there was easily a couple of hundred tadpoles. I scooped two small aquarium nets full, and it turned out that I had about eighty tadpoles. These were particularly interesting tadpoles to raise, although they are quite messy. I kept them in a fifty litre aquarium that was about three quarters of the way full.

I fed them on:
  • powder fry food, which is high in protein, and especially formulated for optimum growth in young fish
  • Tropical fish flake, which i powdered in a ziplock baggie, by rolling it with a rolling pin
  • Powdered shrimp food
  • and pond fish pellets, which I also powdered


I did complete water changes almost every day, and partial water changes were the rule. They grew very quickly and, within a month, 76 of them metamorphosed. I only lost four tadpoles, and I released 74 of them into the wild. Despite the fact, that it took quite a lot of effort, I would say that these tadpoles were particularly easy to raise.

Tadpole


Frog


I also tried a brief experiment, after reading an article about tadpoles being raised in rooibos tea. I switched about six tadpoles over to rooibos tea(dechlorinated) instead of water. The tadpoles took longer to metamorphose, but were larger, had stronger claws, and darker colouration, than their pure water counterparts. In the following picture, the frog raised in tea is a day old, and the one raised in water is a week old.



That's all for now.