New home, new babies

[Marco Caccianiga]

Hi everybody!

Since the last time I wrote, the family has grown.. For the second year, without no winter rest, the tank was full of eggs, and now 24 new toadlets are wainting for a new home.
As I have two babies from last year, and two new "golden" fbts, I decided to prepare a new home for the adults. This is the setup, what do you think? The tank is 60x40x45 cm and 8 toads live there. There is a filter under the bark on the right, a lot of plants both in the water and in the land part.
My toads seem to like it.. one month after they moved there.. eggs again (third time)!! Now I have about 65 tadpoles more to grow, just 2 months after the last breeding (I'm not sure who are the parents, now).
That's all for now.. Thank you for any comment!
Marco

[FinnyBird]

Sweet setup. Where'd you get the lilypads? And what sort of moss is that in the water, bottom right in the first picture?

[Marco Caccianiga]

Thank you for your answer!

The lilypad is Hydrocharis morsus ranae (frogbit), which unlike the "true" lilypads (Nimphaea) is a floating plant. Mine come from a small piece I had from a local cultivator of aquatic and carnivorous plants. It grows vey quickly (up to a new leaf a day) and frogs like to go on it and attach eggs on its floating roots. The other rounded floating leaves belong to Hydrocotyle leucocephala, which is able to grow on the terrestrial part and can become a weed (I have to prune it frequently)
The mosses on the filter are a mix between Taiwan moss and spicky moss. I don't know exactly where they come from, I have them since a long time and there is a continuous exchange with my aquarium. In the water there are also Riccia fluitans, Lomariopsis lineata, Eleocharis acicularis, Anubias barteri and Microsorum pteropus
On the terrestrial part there are different mosses and sphagnum. The big fern on the branch is Lecanopteris lomarioides (ant fern); the smallest are Polypodium vulgare. I also have a Nepenthes in a pot hidden in the substrate.
This is, more or less, the flora of the paludarium...

[Aaron Boswell]

Love the tank I will be ordering some Hydrocharis morsus ranae (Frogbit) will replace the plants that have been broken in the first few days of FBT ownership

[RobynSYR]

Nice setup!

[Sunshine]

I love your tank!!!

[boaman]

nice tank. love the lilypads.

[FriedrichsFrogs]

that tank is the shiz! great ideas for my next tank setup. how often do u have to clean a tank like that? do u keep a filter in it?

[Marco Caccianiga]

Thank you for the replies!
There's a filter under the bark in the rear right. I change half of the water every month; some further change occurs because of the monsoon misting system which adds clean water daily. I make some deeper cleaning occasionally and once a year a complete cleaning, also of te terrestrial part. Plants help a lot in keeping the water clean and stop algae. Basically, is a low maintenance tank..
PS my babies are growing.. rear legs are almost done! I'll let you know when metamorphosis is over!

[Sunshine]

Will you post pics of the babies?

[Marco Caccianiga]

Here they are!
Here some pictures of my tadpoles at various ages (now the legs are bigger, almost complete) and one of the toadlets of the previous breeding (hatched in july, metamorphosed in august).

I tried to count them, but I gave up.. they were 90, more or less, but now they move too fast!

[Sunshine]

Awww! They are cute! What are you going to do with all of the babies?

[FrogFriend]

Wish you could do my tank! I keep trying to find ways to make my tank more FBT friendly and low maintenance. Will have to keep this in mind.

[MantisMan]

hey nice job with breeding them! i too bred mine and posted pics of their life cycle here! they r getting ready to hibernate again even though moaper looks like she doesnt need to to lay more eggs but its for good measure
toadlet mortality is high but i'd really like to learn your method and can u please send me maybe 5 or 10 toadlets? i'd like to get some new blood in my group...

[Marco Caccianiga]

Thank you! I have some mortality among tadpoles, particularly when they eat too much too fast. For metamorphosis, I start to lower the water level ad to put flat stones when tads fully develop hind legs (I did it yesterday..) and just wait. When they develop front legs and start to stay outside the water I let them alone till the tail is gone. Then I start to feed them with wingles fruitflies and their larvae. I keep the setup simple and open so they can easily spot the preys, at the beginning they are not good at all in hunting. If they are too many I move them in separate tanks, particularly if someone is weaker and less able to hunt. After one month more or less I start with small crickets.
That's all.. I have the highest mortality with tadpoles, I lost only one toadlet.
It would be nice to exchange some "blood".. But I think sending toadlets from Italy to US would be hard...

[MantisMan]

yeah i didnt know an italian started the thread at first lol
i thought it was the guy from arizona who posted in this topic a few times

[Ribbity]

Hi i was wondering how deep the water in your tank is?

great job BTW!

[Marco Caccianiga]

Hi
In the main tank, water is c 10 cm deep, but there are lot of stones, wood and plants. My toads seem to like to touch alwys something solid with their toes... The toadlet tank has only 2-5 cm of water, with many stones.
BTW, Last update: metamorphosis is over: starting from 99 eggs, I have finally 70 toadlets!

[kroberts009]

in the very beginning you mentioned something about two golden fbt's, you didnt literally mean they were golden in color right? you meant... lol their breeding success?

[Marco Caccianiga]

They are the so-called "golden" form, which is actually golden brown or somewhat bronze. There are many opinions about the meaning of this form: geographic variant, subspecies or just a color variant. Here some (bad, sorry) pictures: one of them and a moment of friendship with a green pal...
.