First time for tadpoles... Worried that they are not going to survive.

[Kyryah]

I have 3 1/2 day old ACF tads. From what I understand, at this point they should be clinging to the sides of the container - they are not. They appear to be developing correctly but are laying at the bottom of the bin. There is an airstone in the bin, but it is small and I have a knot tied in the airline to reduce the flow to almost nothing.

From what I can see and from looking at the photos from this site - Xenopus laevis stage series: complete - Xenbase | A Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis resource - they are somewhere in the 39th to 41st stage of development.

I added a small amount of hydrated (with tank water) spirulina powder to the bin today, but I am not sure how much to use. I have golden pearls on order but they have not arrived yet.

I'm afraid that I am doing something wrong and killing them. I have removed any undeveloped eggs and dying/twisted or malformed tads right away. I am doing daily 25% water changes with a turkey baster, using water that has been treated with Seachem Prime and left sitting for 24 hours.

Any suggestions? I culled my numbers down to 25. I didn't want to get overwhelmed caring for too many. However, judging by the looks of my female tonight, I bet there will be more eggs in the morning. I may remove some and let them develop as well. My male and female are unrelated, and she is albino and he is green. I know they have produced viable offspring in the past, I have one of their youngsters (I was given these three together.) I have another albino male as well. The female is as large as my hand, they are fat and healthy looking and very active.

Big fat momma frog



The tads, taken earlier today.



Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.