Tips on Discoglossus pictus raising

[Discopictus]

Hi!

Well, I'm new here and seems that I need some help I'm doing research with Discoglossus pictus in lab (with the larvae), and we'd like to see if I can make them grow, cause the others ones that tried, weren't succesful (the frogs died all the times). I have experience in keeping reptiles, but although I like amphibians, haven't kept, so I'm not a completely newbie in taking care of herps.
The thing is I would like to ask for some tips for the keeping of the metamorphic frogs.

What I'll do, is buying some pinheads and Drosophila, Dendrobaena too. The pinheads will be dusted with calcium, and with the drosophila will try too, but with the earth worms won't, they'll be served sliced according to the size of the frog (actually, very tiny). I'll look for some springtails too, if I can get them in any shop. That's everything about the food, I'd really appreciate some comments about this, especially because it's seems to be the main reason of the dead.

Here I put 2 images, one of the size of the little froggies, and the other one is the 'tank' I have them. Any tip on that, would be fantastic!



These are not the ones in the second photo, but they are the same size.



I have the tank with no extra temp. cause they are from my country, and they do really well on low temp., but do you think it'd be bad if i put some heat on 1/10 of the tank? In the left part, only in case they want some extra heat. For the ground, I have coconout fiber (would be better if I take some soil-sand from where they actually live?), and some dried Fagus leaves.

I'm sorry for my english, and thanks!

[Mentat]

Myself would not raise tadpoles in that type of set-up. I would use a seasoned aquarium according to tadpole size (5 to 10 gal. is OK for yours) filled around 1/4 of the height with dechlorinated tap water. An air driven matured foam filter will help reduce toxic ammonia and nitrites the tadpoles produce. Few live plants would help with that too and also provide security for tadpoles. With a seasoned filter you need to change 25% of the water once a week (with same temperature dechlorinated tap). If no filter; need to change 25% daily and it's more stressful to tadpoles.

Once they start getting all 4 legs you need to lower the water level. Then either slant the aquarium so there is a dry area or provide enough plants and a floating piece of cork so froglets can climb and get out of water if desired. Tadpoles can drown or dry-up at this stage. Best recommendation is to keep them in daily changed damp unprinted paper towel (use dechlorinated tap) for the first few weeks. If a water dish is used, try something very shallow (a lid?) filled with dechlorinated tap to frog's chin level and at least change daily.

You can feed food that is mouth size (same size as distance between frog eyes. In 3-4 weeks froglets will be ready to move into a half wet/half dry type enclosure. Hope this helps and good luck !

[Discopictus]

Hi!

In here I have only frogs (they have all 4 legs and jump, you can see in the 2nd image), there's only one froglet in the water, but all the others are frogs. For the tadpoles we use simple aquariums with nothing more (thousands and thousands of tadpoles have done so well that way), and feeding with rabbit food. So, the tadpoles are no problem.
They are frogs that breed in temporary ponds, so that's why I put a big floor space (humid) and a 'pond' (in the photo you can't see, but I put later a paper for helping the froglet to get out if he would).

Here I put a photo, so you can see they are actually frogs (it's been like 2 or 3 weeks since they reabsorbed the tail)



So the problem seems to be the food, cause the other people who tried to raise the frogs, fed them on springtails and pinheads, and they died. That's why I'd like to focus on that point.

P.S: As a little abstract: The problem is the surviving of the frogs, not tadpoles or froglets.

Thank you very much for your time!