Raising ACF tadpoles

[Gemma]

For anyone struggling to vacuum the bottom of the tank without sucking tadpoles up, I've found a solution. It takes a bit longer, but it's worth it.

I got a long a piece of standard-width airline tubing (the stuff you use for air pumps/airstones, etc) and created a vacuum with it. To do this, I took the pipe to the bathroom and held one end under the running tap. I waited until there was a steady flow of water coming out of the other end, then I put my thumb over the end with the water coming out of it and kept water running into the opposite end until all the air bubbles had gone from inside the pipe. I then blocked this end with my thumb too and brought the pipe back to the tank, still blocking both ends with my thumbs. I held one end of the pipe in the bucket below the tadpole tank and the other end in the tank, and released both of my thumbs to create a steady flow of water coming from the tank.

I managed to clean the bottom of the tank thoroughly and avoid hurting any tadpoles! Because the water comes out much slower, even if the tadpoles swum close to the tube, they didn't get sucked up. The larger tadpoles probably wouldn't even fit in the tube, and even if the smaller ones did get sucked up they'd have a much smoother ride than being forced through the grids and bumpy plastic of the gravel vacuum at high speeds. After cleaning the bottom, I just used a cup to get out the rest of the water that I wanted to remove.

[Gemma]

I love seeing how much the tadpoles grow and change every day The smallest ones which hatched a few days ago all started free-swimming today. They're tiny and it's hard to imagine that the largest ones were exactly the same size as them just under a week ago. The larger ones are getting little barbs starting to emerge. I can see their little hearts beating inside them, and they're getting more pigments on their backs. I have 81 tadpoles now (I found 2 newly hatched ones hanging around in the tank with their father a couple of days ago) and no more have died Most of them hatched a week ago today. I can't wait to see how much they will have changed by this time next week!

[Jenste]

So glad to hear your babies are doing well!!!

[Gemma]

So glad to hear your babies are doing well!!!

:D I'll try to get some pictures/videos up soon!

[Gemma]

Just a quick update:

Most of the tadpoles have little legs now! Their legs have been developing for about a week but I wasn't sure if they were just strings of poo until the legs got a bit bigger and I noticed their little feet!
Most of the tadpoles are growing quickly. One of them is tiny though. She's the same size as the others were when they were two days old but she's over 2 weeks old now (from hatching)! She rests on the bottom a lot and every day I expect her to be dead but somehow she's still alive! I don't think she's going to make it to the froglet stage but I hope she surprises me. I still have 80 tadpoles in total. I can't wait for their arms to grow :D

[Gemma]

I have a few questions, if anyone can help:

1) I've noticed a few of my larger tadpoles coming up to the surface of the water for air a few times. They don't do this often, but I've noticed it happening 3 or 4 times over the last few days. They seem healthy, I'm doing regular water changes and I have an air pump in there on a low setting. I know that eventually they will be breathing at the surface, but they've only just developed their back legs so I'm not sure if it's normal for them to be doing this already. Does anybody know?

2) Once some of them have morphed into frogs and I have separated them from their tadpole siblings, is this when I should introduce a filter to the tank, rather than just an airstone? The reason I'm asking is because I only have one air pump, so I'm wondering if I'll have to buy a new one for the newly morphed froglets, or if I can just use a filter with an air pump attachment? They don't even have arms yet, but I just want to be prepared.

3) The videos and photos of ACF tadpoles that I've seen online always have a thin coating of food (and tadpole waste) on the bottom of the tank. My tank never looks like this. I was feeding them twice a day up until they developed legs a few days ago. Now I'm feeding them 3 times per day, but there's never food resting on the bottom. Should there be? I haven't read anywhere that the food should coat the bottom, but all the pictures/videos that I've seen are like that. 70% of the tadpoles are large and growing very quickly, but the other 30% are a lot smaller than the larger ones were at their age. They are growing, but nowhere near as quickly as the larger ones. I'm not sure if this is just a case of individual tadpoles developing at different rates, or if the larger ones are filtering out all the food so the smaller ones aren't eating enough?

Thanks.

[Gemma]

One of the tadpoles has arms now :) The rest of the largest ones are getting arm buds!