Has anyone successfully breed there pixies?

[demon amphibians]

Has anyone ever successfully breed there Pixies?
Is there a special thing to know or do if anyone wanted to try.
(If we had more people breeding there is a better chance of an albino popping up)

breeding africans can be a difficult task but it is very possible if one did their research and had the equipment to accommodate breeding. I have not bred them but i have done tons of research on the subject. In a nut shell you will need several bullfrogs that are sexually mature. The natural process is they hibernate for 6-12 months. you wake them with artificial rain. This means you will need to construct a rain chamber and a large one at that. you will need at least 3 males and 4 females or vise-versa to even have a shot at this once they breed you will need an ample size tank for the tadpoles. I did leave out a lot of in betweens in this process but this is how they do it in the wild. when i buy my house i will attempt this and i will use a small swimming pool to do this. So it is a little hint of the amount of space they will need. I have never heard of them breeding in anything small. when i say small i mean a 100 gallon tank or less. but if you have the space, frogs and the money to get equipment i can give you my rain chamber construction ideas. It wouldnt be expensive seeing is you can get a decent size kids pool for 30 bucks that will suffice. Others may have better advice but what i know is what i gathered from people who do breed them.

[Buck Rogers]

breeding africans can be a difficult task but it is very possible if one did their research and had the equipment to accommodate breeding. I have not bred them but i have done tons of research on the subject. In a nut shell you will need several bullfrogs that are sexually mature. The natural process is they hibernate for 6-12 months. you wake them with artificial rain. This means you will need to construct a rain chamber and a large one at that. you will need at least 3 males and 4 females or vise-versa to even have a shot at this once they breed you will need an ample size tank for the tadpoles. I did leave out a lot of in betweens in this process but this is how they do it in the wild. when i buy my house i will attempt this and i will use a small swimming pool to do this. So it is a little hint of the amount of space they will need. I have never heard of them breeding in anything small. when i say small i mean a 100 gallon tank or less. but if you have the space, frogs and the money to get equipment i can give you my rain chamber construction ideas. It wouldnt be expensive seeing is you can get a decent size kids pool for 30 bucks that will suffice. Others may have better advice but what i know is what i gathered from people who do breed them.

Just wanted to add to this from my experience of living in South Africa and documenting Pixies in the wild for the last 4 years. I am not an expert in the field and I have never tried to breed them. But a 6-12 month hibernation is way too long. I have found Pixies active from mid September (early spring) all the way until March/April (Autumn). There are different variables that can come into play, but the main variable is the rainfall. If we have early summer showers in September this is enough for them to emerge from hibernation, although the heavy rains will only start October - but once again it is a variable because we may only have showers Jan/Feb which is almost the end of the Summer season. Our winter temps are also unpredictable, but our winter day time highs usually sit inbetween 13-19 degrees Celsius and night temps drop to 0-6 degrees.

You would need a lot more males to females, more like a ratio of 2 females to 5+ males, for maximum competition. Usually what happens is we have a day of heavy, heavy rains (50mm in 24 hours) that is when all the frogs start looking for water pans. An open veld (grassland) will fill with water that is usually only fill for a few months, because these are water pans its deep in the middle and shallower on the edges. These will fill with many males that will fight for the females to breed with, which there will be a lot less of. I have been trying to find this happening now for many years with no luck, but I think I found a reliable water pan this year. Apparently the breeding will take place in the day time, but we only hear the calling from 8-10pm at nights, and usually we hear 3-5 different males calling in one particular area. In a larger water pan I could identify 20 different males, the sound was earth shattering and chaotic. A little piece of useless information, but because water pans are so temporary in Africa the frogs have developed different calling times and at different intervals. So this gives each species a chance to breed, this also varies through out the year, like the toads will be very early on, then the Pixies and other species follow them - like a pecking order almost.

I honestly think it is not that difficult to breed the Pixies compared to other species, the problem is that it will take a lot of space and a lot of trial and error. I have a running post here which will help in many ways: http://www.frogforum.net/fieldwork/2...e-release.html

[Buck Rogers]

Sorry just an additional though to this. I think the main thing that could be a factor to help with breeding is one extremely heavy rainfall session as apposed to small rain falls sessions. I am busy with my White's Tree Frogs at the moment and when I put them in the rain chamber I will leave the rain running for 4 hours a night for 2 weeks, but this is the complete opposite for Pixies. We will have rain which will be mild downpours that will wet the soil and bring insects, rodents, reptiles and amphibians out and hunting, but there still will be very few water pans and they will be small and shallow. I think the right way to do it it to almost fill a rain chamber from a shallow to 50mm over a 4 hour cycle and then have smaller showers there after cycling the water already in the rain chamber. Does that make sense?

[mattfish]

Just wanted to add to this from my experience of living in South Africa and documenting Pixies in the wild for the last 4 years. I am not an expert in the field and I have never tried to breed them. But a 6-12 month hibernation is way too long. I have found Pixies active from mid September (early spring) all the way until March/April (Autumn). There are different variables that can come into play, but the main variable is the rainfall. If we have early summer showers in September this is enough for them to emerge from hibernation, although the heavy rains will only start October - but once again it is a variable because we may only have showers Jan/Feb which is almost the end of the Summer season. Our winter temps are also unpredictable, but our winter day time highs usually sit inbetween 13-19 degrees Celsius and night temps drop to 0-6 degrees.

You would need a lot more males to females, more like a ratio of 2 females to 5+ males, for maximum competition. Usually what happens is we have a day of heavy, heavy rains (50mm in 24 hours) that is when all the frogs start looking for water pans. An open veld (grassland) will fill with water that is usually only fill for a few months, because these are water pans its deep in the middle and shallower on the edges. These will fill with many males that will fight for the females to breed with, which there will be a lot less of. I have been trying to find this happening now for many years with no luck, but I think I found a reliable water pan this year. Apparently the breeding will take place in the day time, but we only hear the calling from 8-10pm at nights, and usually we hear 3-5 different males calling in one particular area. In a larger water pan I could identify 20 different males, the sound was earth shattering and chaotic. A little piece of useless information, but because water pans are so temporary in Africa the frogs have developed different calling times and at different intervals. So this gives each species a chance to breed, this also varies through out the year, like the toads will be very early on, then the Pixies and other species follow them - like a pecking order almost.

I honestly think it is not that difficult to breed the Pixies compared to other species, the problem is that it will take a lot of space and a lot of trial and error. I have a running post here which will help in many ways: http://www.frogforum.net/fieldwork/2...e-release.html

thank you so much for this posting! love to hear from someone who lives near these awesome frogs!

I have one question for you, do you find these frogs living mainly out in deep water or in the shallows or in muddy ground?
thank you again.
Dr. Matt

[Buck Rogers]

I've never found Pixies in water, I only ever find them on roads. This is because as you know from keeping them they like to hide in mud, or under the cover of a plant, when these pans fill in Spring there are a number of thick bushes and grasses that are now half way under water. Don't think of the pans as a dam, when we have our rainy seasons again I will get some more pics to demonstrate this. Another reason is because there are animals and insects warming them selves on the roads at night and all the predators will move to the roads to hunt, and this is the best way to find them.

[mattfish]

I've never found Pixies in water, I only ever find them on roads. This is because as you know from keeping them they like to hide in mud, or under the cover of a plant, when these pans fill in Spring there are a number of thick bushes and grasses that are now half way under water. Don't think of the pans as a dam, when we have our rainy seasons again I will get some more pics to demonstrate this. Another reason is because there are animals and insects warming them selves on the roads at night and all the predators will move to the roads to hunt, and this is the best way to find them.

Buck,
thank you for that info. How much standing water(puddles, ponds, lakes, rivers) is in this area when its not the rainy season?
besides when they hibernate, how dry is this area these frogs live?
thank you so much for your first hand information!!!
Matt

[Buck Rogers]

Have a look at this post http://www.frogforum.net/fieldwork/2...e-release.html the most recent photos from August are from our winter (dry season). Those photos are the same location and the same water holes. There is absolutely no water what so ever. There will still be damns and man made ponds and a few small flowing rivers, but the Pixies will not be anywhere near these areas. They only are near these seasonal water pans.

[mattfish]

Have a look at this post http://www.frogforum.net/fieldwork/2...e-release.html the most recent photos from August are from our winter (dry season). Those photos are the same location and the same water holes. There is absolutely no water what so ever. There will still be damns and man made ponds and a few small flowing rivers, but the Pixies will not be anywhere near these areas. They only are near these seasonal water pans.

Thanks Buck! Sounds like these frogs love the muck. I had a feeling that they did. i know they like water too but they seem to like to chill in any kind of moist substrate more often. It seems like they prefer water when they need to shed, because once my frog sheds he wants to get out of water.

Keep looking for albinos. They would be a great way to get rich quick especially if you got breeding albinos.

Matt

[mattfish]

Have a look at this post http://www.frogforum.net/fieldwork/2...e-release.html the most recent photos from August are from our winter (dry season). Those photos are the same location and the same water holes. There is absolutely no water what so ever. There will still be damns and man made ponds and a few small flowing rivers, but the Pixies will not be anywhere near these areas. They only are near these seasonal water pans.

Hey Buck, dont forget to get some pictures of the area during the rainy season for all of us. I look forward to you finding a few albinos soon! (: