Dendrobates imitator - first egg!

[John]

One of my Imitating Dart Frog pairs (Dendrobates or Ranitomeya imitator) laid their first egg, just one in January. Here it is, and as you can see it is developing. Sorry for the quality of the photo - they laid it at the base of recessed bromeliad leaf and I couldn't actually look at it directly, had to hold the camera inside the terrarium! Oh, my imitators are the Tarapoto race (as in Tarapoto, Peru).

[John]

I think that's algae growing on the egg. Anyhow, here's the egg 2 weeks later, before it hatched:



I really like how you can see the yolk in the belly.

[John]

A couple of days later I spotted him in a central bromeliad pool. Father must have dropped him off but I missed it.

[John]

Here he is a few weeks later. Notice how the white yolk in the gut is gone - that's real food now!

[1beataway]

Those photos are fantastic. And that must be something amazing to see.

[John]

Thanks Elaine. I'm really getting a kick out of watching this pair do their thing - they lay a clutch a week, between 2 and 4 eggs each time, and the eggs hatch in 2 weeks, so things are getting hectic!