Raising ACF tadpoles

[Gemma]

Can anyone offer any advice on raising african clawed frog tadpoles? Any information at all would be a huge help because I've never done it before. I can only find a few information pages online and they give mixed information.

2 of the tadpoles hatched a week ago today. Most hatched 5 days ago. 10 hatched today, and there's another 10-15 that are about to hatch within the next few hours (I can see the fully-formed tadpoles inside the eggs). The reason they're at different stages is because my male frog was insatiable for a few nights!

Here's what I'm doing so far:

• Temperature - I've got all the tadpoles and eggs in a tub of water which I'm maintaining at around 23 degrees celsius with a heater and thermometer.
• Food - I can't find powdered egg anywhere (just powdered egg whites, which I'm not sure is suitable?) so I've been feeding the free-swimming tadpoles fish flakes ground to fine powder. I've been adding the powder to a cup of tank water and pouring it into the tank. I'm not sure how much I should be feeding them. I've read online that I should aim to give each tadpole the amount of powder that can loosely cover a 14 point capital O, but it's hard to judge how much this is when you're trying to cater for so many free-swimming tadpoles. I've read elsewhere that the ideal amount will cloud the water and take the tadpoles one hour to clear. Well the flake powder doesn't really seem to cloud the water a noticeable amount, no matter how much I put in, and it rests on the bottom after a few seconds, so I have to keep stirring it back up so that the tadpoles can filter it out of the water. Any advice? Also, some websites say to feed them twice and day and some say once. I've stuck with once for the sake of the water quality.
• Water changes - It's difficult to change the water at the moment because of the eggs and newly hatched tadpoles resting on the bottom of the tank. I want to siphon the stuff off the bottom of the tank but I can't at the moment because I don't want to disturb the eggs or accidentally suck up a tadpole that's not yet free swimming. So what I've been doing is changing about 60% of the water daily from the top, cup by cup to make sure I don't get any tadpoles. I'll start siphoning the water out from the bottom once the eggs and tadpoles that are currently on the bottom start free swimming. Is this ok? I'm worried about the water quality in the mean time. I'm replacing the water with temp matched water which I'm conditioning before adding to the tank. I've been performing water changes a couple of hours after feeding. Some websites say to do 90% changes. Would this be better?
• Oxygen - Is an airstone necessary? The pump that I have, which is the only one that I could in find in any shops near here, creates too much turbulence in the water. I tried it today and the poor tadpoles couldn't swim against it, so I removed it straight away. If I'm performing water changes every day, is an airstone definitely still necessary? If so, could anyone think of any ways I could adapt the airstone/airline so that the airstream is less powerful (maybe diverting some of the air out of the water, somehow?).
• Space - The tadpoles are currently in a tub that's only 25 litres. I'm aware that this is way too small, so I'm going to buy another tub and heater this week, and that way I'll have 2 tubs so I can separate tadpoles from newly morphed frogs when they reach that stage. I was thinking of buying an 80 litre tub with a 60cm by 40cm surface area on the bottom. Will this be large enough once the tadpoles get bigger, bearing in mind I'll still have the 25 litre tub too? Could I get away with a tub that's any smaller? I'm a bit worried because I've read the reviews for some of the plastic tubs online and some people say they're prone to cracking with household items in them, so I'm concerned about a larger one breaking from the force of so much water :/ I think I've got about 60 - 70 tadpoles.

Thanks.

[Jenste]

Welcome to the forum!

Oh the fun of raising tadpoles - - work but oh so worth it in the end!

Ok, going to go through the bullet points and offer my suggestions.

Firstly, Temperature. I would raise this by 2-3 degrees C. I have always had more success with slightly warmer water. It speeds up the metabolism which in turn makes them grow faster.

Second, feeding. Fish flake is not the best choice as frogs (and therefore tadpoles) have different dietary needs than fish. Pick up some HBH or Zoomed frog bites or Reptomin sticks and use a mortar and pestle to grind these to a very, very fine powder. Feed 2-3 times a day. You can also make what I call "Bloodworm Broth" - take a cube of frozen bloodworm and defrost in 2/3 - 1 cup of water and liquify in a blender. Pour the mix right into the tank. Only use this to supplement up to 1 feeding a day.

Next, Water Changes. These are of the highest importance. Foul water can quickly wipe out tadpoles, especially in a small container. The best way I have found for changing water is to use an air hose to siphon from the bottom of the tank. I can not stress enough to siphon from the bottom - this is where fouling food and waste will collect, not so much in the water column. A turkey baster is also extremely useful. Do 30% water change daily, or 10% after each feeding. Make sure to treat the water with a conditioner to remove chlorine and match the temperature as best as you can.

Oxygen. Use an aerator with an air stone on a low setting. You don't need a high flow. The bubbles themselves do not add oxygen to the water but the surface disturbance does.

Space. You would do much better with a 40 liter (10 gallon tank). The size increase adds a greater volume to dilute waste which is your biggest enemy. Fouling water is the main culprit with tadpole death. Next is poor diet.

I have used 20 and 30 gallon (80-120 liter) plastic tubs when raising multiple batches. I fill about halfway and have never had an issue. I have found that the round bins handle the pressure better than the rectangular bins.

Welcome - Share some pictures!!! For pictures and more info about tadpoles, feel free to check out my page on ACF - Jenste Frogs. On the left hand side you will see a navigation bar. Under "Breeding" you will find some helpful hints.

[Gemma]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for your reply. It's very useful!

I've taken your advice and raised the temperature to 25 degrees

Second, feeding. Fish flake is not the best choice as frogs (and therefore tadpoles) have different dietary needs than fish. Pick up some HBH or Zoomed frog bites or Reptomin sticks and use a mortar and pestle to grind these to a very, very fine powder. Feed 2-3 times a day. You can also make what I call "Bloodworm Broth" - take a cube of frozen bloodworm and defrost in 2/3 - 1 cup of water and liquify in a blender. Pour the mix right into the tank. Only use this to supplement up to 1 feeding a day.

I did think it was a bit odd that every page I found about raising ACF tadpoles said fish flakes were OK, as I knew you couldn't feed them to froglets/adult frogs! I hadn't even thought about grinding reptomin sticks! I have loads of them that my adult frogs won't touch, so I'll start feeding them these tomorrow. I have a freezer full of bloodworms too but my blender's hard to clean at the best of times so I might give them a miss!

The best way I have found for changing water is to use an air hose to siphon from the bottom of the tank. I can not stress enough to siphon from the bottom - this is where fouling food and waste will collect, not so much in the water column. A turkey baster is also extremely useful. Do 30% water change daily, or 10% after each feeding.

Do you have any tips on how to siphon the water from the bottom without sucking up any tadpoles? I just accidentally sucked one up - the poor little thing Thankfully he's OK but I was being as careful as I could not to suck any up and he just got sucked up out of nowhere. After I sucked him up, I decided to remove all of the tadpoles (with a cup) and put them in a large bowl while I changed the water, but it took me an hour to catch them all, by which time their bowl of water had changed temperature and it must have been stressful for them. Do you recommend removing the tadpoles for water changes, or is there a way of siphoning the water without sucking them up?

My air pump is way too powerful, even though it's only a cheap one. It's the only one they had in both fish shops near me, so I'll have to look online for an adjustable one. Will the tadpoles be OK in the mean time without until it comes in the post?

Thanks again for the advice I'll take a look at your website and post some pictures/videos soon.

[Jenste]

Hi Gemma!

With the airline I do a two handed approach when the tads are really little. I use one hand to hold and guide the airline tubing along the bottom of the tank and the other hand to "shoo" away the tads. I have the airline empty out into a bucket and this is where the turkey baster really comes in handy - - any tads who end up going for a ride are easy to suck up from the bucket and put back into the tank. I never removed the tads during water changes. If they are hovering in one spot that I really want to siphon I tap gently a few times in the area and they swim to the opposite side of the tank.

If your air pump is too powerful then put a knot in the airline. You can loosen/tighten it as needed until you have a flow you are comfortable with. You can also disperse the flow a bit by putting on a spliter as if you were going to attach multiple airlines, they can either be used to run multiple tanks at once or simply left open to release some of the air pressure.

[Gemma]

Thanks Jen. I'll try that tomorrow when I change the water again, and I'll buy a turkey baster asap. The buckets that I empty the water into when I'm doing water changes are black so it's hard to see if I've sucked any tadpoles up. I'm going to have to buy a white one I think. If tying a knot in the pump's airline doesn't work I'll cut a little hole in it until I can get a splitter.

There's something wrong with one of my tadpoles I just noticed him lying on his side on the bottom. I thought he was dead, but then he tried swimming up to the top. He keeps sinking back to the bottom every time he tries to swim. He can't stay in the middle of the water at all. What could be wrong? He wasn't like this earlier because I had all of the free-swimming tadpoles in a bowl and none of them were resting on the surface. He looks about the same size as the one I sucked up, so I'm wondering if it's the same tadpole and I've hurt him, or if it's more likely to be something else?

[Jenste]

Could be dietary problems, water changing problems, ammonia levels, genetic deficiency ....who knows. Roughly 60% of tadpoles actually make it to frog stage. The rest die off from any number of problems.