Finally had some success with my B. terrestris

[SethD]

They spent two nights in a rain chamber and then laid eggs in this bin I moved them into while I was at work today. I am tickled because the father is a interesting specimen and North american toads are quite difficult to breed. Hopefully the eggs and tads will do well.

[Kurt]

That's awesome. Good luck.

[John]

Congratulations Seth. This is a very nice achievement. Did you time the rain chamber period with local weather at all?

[SethD]

Congratulations Seth. This is a very nice achievement. Did you time the rain chamber period with local weather at all?

Today and yesterday we had scattered showers so yes. As much of a pain as it has been to get these guys to breed I have been trying to stack as many cards in my favor as possible. The male has never been a problem, just keep him real dry for three or four months followed by the rain chamber and it was easy to get amplexus. The issue was getting females to develop and lay eggs naturally without hormone injections. While there may well be a certain amount of luck involved, It feels like a real achievement to get eggs after two years of trying different things and fiddling around with such a hard to breed species. Finally that xanthic male I have can have some offspring assuming some eggs, tad's, and toadlets survive.

[SethD]

Progression...

[lnaminneci]

Great pictures of the new baby frogs! They look very healthy. I hope they are doing well.

The father is beautiful, love his coloring!

[John]

Wow that was quick. Very well done to you, sir. What are you going to do with the froglets?

I was just thinking about your breeding efforts the other day when I saw dartsami selling captive bred stelzneri over on dendroboard, then reading his thread. Those guys owe you a lot of credit.

[SethD]

Wow that was quick. Very well done to you, sir. What are you going to do with the froglets?

Well I didn't even try to raise out the whole batch, but of the ones I did raise out I plan to keep some and then give a few to EdK and maybe a few other people that I get along with and consider advanced hobbyists with a decent chance of breeding them once they mature. I am more comfortable when all the eggs aren't in one basket so to speak. I would like to see this morph become established in the hobby as it is a nice morph and I think there would be a demand for them.

I was just thinking about your breeding efforts the other day when I saw dartsami selling captive bred stelzneri over on dendroboard, then reading his thread. Those guys owe you a lot of credit.

lol, I in turn owe a lot to some early keepers and breeders of non dart frogs in Europe like Zimmermann and so on. I read their books as a kid and some of the general principles in those books started me out in the right direction on breeding a number of different things. I am tickled that dartsami had success breeding the melanophryniscus this year. I only hope enough people have success with breeding them to allow the species to remain readily available when the imports again dry up as they are bound to do sooner or later.

[Ebony]

Well done Seth, They look perfect.

[Kurt]

Big time congratulations! I can't tell from the picture, but do any of the toadlets possess the father's coloration?

[SethD]

Big time congratulations! I can't tell from the picture, but do any of the toadlets possess the father's coloration?

No, they are all wild type. It is probably safe to assume it is a simple recessive trait. These offspring will need to be raised up and bred before any toads showing the fathers xanthic leucistic trait are produced. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish that in one or two years if all goes well.

[Kurt]

Good luck.

[Eel Noob]

Major grats on the breeding


I'm one of the many that would be interested in specimens like the father *drools*

[SethD]

Toadlets certainly are capable of extreme growth rates with a sufficient food supply. These started out at around 7mm at metamorphosis.


At one month...


At nearly two months...





At this rate I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them reach adult size in as little as five or six months total.





....and just for kicks some other toads I recently decided to take a chance on because I was able to get a good deal...





The reason I consider it taking a chance is due to the fact that others have had problems with this line of albinos in the past, hidden genetic defects causing death before adulthood in many specimens may be a possibility. However given the symptoms I have heard described in previous years prior to losses of toads in this line it sounds to me like it could also be a case of most keepers offering insufficient vitamin A and the deaths resulting from that. Nutrition is critical in young toads given the speed at which they are growing. A insufficient diet can lead to rapid death. I intend to offer a sufficient amount of vitamin A and will see how they do I suppose, it is worth a chance to me at least.

[Ebony]

Wow, Seth, Very impressive. Good luck with your albino babies. I think they are looking great so far.

[Kurt]

Good luck with the woodhousii!

[tgampper]

Very nice toadlets, congrats!

[Rat The Unloved]

Absolute best of luck to you!

Incidentally, I've seen a few wild toads here in Oklahoma with a surprisingly pale coloration that resemble your "daddy". Given that they were all around the same pond I'm sure the ones I saw were all related.

[Greg M]

How are the albino Woodhouse's toads doing? I have been thinking about getting some, but was nervous because of the reported difficulties in raising them. I have no problem with regular Woodhouse's toads (amen on the vitamin A comment), but I was still nervous about the possibility of genetic issues...

[SethD]

How are the albino Woodhouse's toads doing? I have been thinking about getting some, but was nervous because of the reported difficulties in raising them. I have no problem with regular Woodhouse's toads (amen on the vitamin A comment), but I was still nervous about the possibility of genetic issues...

Well I originally picked up ten for 30$ each. Within the first two weeks I lost one, but it was the smallest one by far and didn't appear to be growing much so no great surprise there. It was just dead one morning with no other symptoms. About two weeks after that I lost another one. This one had symptoms similar to the problems others have described in the past. It got bloated, stopped eating, and died after about 4 days. I am pretty sure vitamin A was not the issue with that one since all the toadlets were receiving what should have been a sufficient amount. Not exactly sure of the cause. The other eight are still doing fine and so far have showed no signs of problems. The three largest have grown to around an inch and three quarters while the others range from around an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half. So far I consider my results inconclusive. I will not make up my mind until the remainder of the toads reach adulthood if they indeed do survive to adulthood. At the moment I am inclined to think they are somewhat more delicate and prone to problems than normals(not a uncommon issue with albinos) but that they should be workable. They are probably a bit inbred too and there is a decent chance hardiness could be improved with outcrossing.

Here is a current pic of a couple of the albinos, they are a bit dull, dirty, and nasty looking because they were dug up for the pic. Right after a shed though they are really pretty.



And here is a pic of a couple of the southern toad "toadlets" in this thread that are now well on their way to adulthood. For scale those are large superworms in the pic, the larger "toadlets" are around three inches long. Males have nupital pads and have been calling, but I probably won't try to breed them till next spring.