Female RETF swollen with eggs?

[Zhuisky45]

Hello everyone,

I have been monitoring my RETF lately and one of my females looks very large and swollen. I just recently moved them into a new tank that has a running waterfall and is a lot more humid than their old tank. The male has been calling more frequently and the female looks like she is swollen! They are approximately 8 months old. (A little young to be producing eggs?) Is she swollen with eggs or is there a different health concern that I should be worried about? Or is it natural? Here is a picture of her next to another female. Any advice, comments, or answers would be nice.

[mrzoggs]

My female gets fat like that after eating. I have also seen her change in girth due to humidity changes. Do you know the humidity in the tank?

[Zhuisky45]

I have my fogger set to kick on when it falls bellow 75% RH. I assume its higher than that with the waterfall running during the night. I also am cutting back on how often I feed them. I know I have been feeding them to often. I also have another question. When my frogs sleep during the day and receive any type of direct exposure to my UVB light they start turning white in color only where they are directly exposed. Any thoughts on why this is? Should I be concerned?

[mrzoggs]

They don't need any light. Lights would only be good for plants. You can simulate day/night for them but it doesn't need to be a uvb bulb.

For some reason my female seemed to get fat when the humidity was less than normal. I feel like she was holding in more water weight to make up for it. I am not sure if that's what it is because that is just something I made from my own observation. I have never looked into it. When I would up the humidity for her, she wouldn't buldge as much out the sides.


But also, take it from me. Your frogs will breed without a rain chamber. My humidity was too high in their viv and I have a large pond area and they bred 3 times. Just the humidity made them breed.

[Zhuisky45]

The reason I have UVB is because of all my live plants and mosses. I got a smaller watt bulb so we'll see if that helps. I feel like my female is fine just maybe some water weight or had a bit to much to eat. How old before your frogs started breeding?


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[Mentat]

The reason I have UVB is because of all my live plants and mosses...

Plants need bulbs with max output at a color temperature of around 5,600K . They do not need UVB and neither do frogs.

[mrzoggs]

I have no idea because I don't know how old they were when they got them. I am sure they would've bred a lot earlier than they did had I put them in a rain chamber. They were only in the vivarium a few weeks before they decided to lay eggs. It was a shocker to me. I had to drill some big holes in the lid to stop them from breeding. Hopefully it works

[Zhuisky45]

Sounds like you have a population control problem. Do you raise all those tadpoles and sell them or how do you manage that? Im looking forward to maybe breeding mine over the summer sometime if my frogs are mature enough.

[mrzoggs]

Well the first two batches didn't make it due to the humidity. The eggs wouldn't stick to the glass so after they started forming in the egg, the whole sack fell off. I dropped the humidity on the third batch and took the frogs out so they would stop breeding until I got my humidity straight. As of now, I have 57 retf froglets eating and pooping like crazy. It is almost time to find homes for them, just want to make sure they are old enough before I do. I have a thread up here somewhere with some pictures

[Zhuisky45]

Interesting. I didn't know to much humidity was a bad thing. So one egg clutch produced 57 tadpoles?

[mrzoggs]

Yes and that egg clutch wasn't as big as the first two. The first two were probably about 75. I haven't lost a single tadpole or froglet either, they have all been perfect.

Humidity can definitely cause problems. Red eyes need proper air flow. It can cause bacterial issues and probably respiratory issues. I have dart frogs also which require a higher humidity which is perfectly acceptable for them, but the same doesn't go for red eyes.

[Zhuisky45]

Haha that's a lot of frogs! I have one make and two females so I'm hopping they both don't get bred by my male.

So to create airflow in your tank do you use a fan? Or do the vents do the job?


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[mrzoggs]

Just proper ventilation is all I've needed. My darts don't get much ventilation at all. I have about 80 frogs total with more coming out of the water. Hard to get an exact number lol

[Zhuisky45]

What kind of Darts do you have? What kind of tank? I've been looking at getting a dart set up.


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[mrzoggs]

Varadero, tarapoto, intermedius, and cobalts. I have many many tanks lol

[mrzoggs]

Earlier was a bad pic. Also have 55 froglets in the closet :P

[Zhuisky45]

That's quite the set up. My goal someday is to have my own frog room. I'm also studying to be a teacher and look forward to bringing these guys into the classroom!


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[mrzoggs]

I would like to teach kids but I wouldn't know where to begin once I got in a classroom

[Zhuisky45]

That's why I'm in college. I have a lot to learn about kids. It's a lot of fun tho. I brought me Red Eye and PAC Man into a classroom I had been helping out and taught a lesson on animal defenses and camouflage. The kids loved it!

Mentat, thanks for the tip! I put a different bulb in and the frogs and plants are doing much better!


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