Gray tree frog tadpoles

[Crunchy Frog]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Been sort of busy.

I have more vids, but none that are particularly interesting or relevant to the issue of raising tadpoles. I can post details about what I did, along with some mistakes I made, and how you can avoid them.

How many tads do you think you will be keeping? I had mine in two 10 gallon tanks, so about 30 to a tank. I kept the tanks just under halfway full, each with a small filter running. This is what my setup looked like.



My tadpoles would start to turn green shortly before popping their front legs.

I don't know if it was their diet, but many of my young frogs retained a brilliant green color for a few months after morphing. The six that I kept eventually completely lost the green, and stayed completely gray all the time. At some point I decided to experiment with adding a color enhancer, Repashy's Superpig, to their dusting regimen. I also started feeding their leftover tadpole food, Elive Algae Wafers, to the crickets. Eventually the frogs started getting much of their green color back. I have at least a couple that pretty regularly have some pretty brilliant green coloration. I can post some pics of them later.

I'll post some info on my tadpole feeding regime later, hopefully tonight.

[irThumper]

Loving this and looking forward to more info... You should do a care sheet for tad raising to be posted here on FF!

[Franzy22]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Been sort of busy.

I have more vids, but none that are particularly interesting or relevant to the issue of raising tadpoles. I can post details about what I did, along with some mistakes I made, and how you can avoid them.

How many tads do you think you will be keeping? I had mine in two 10 gallon tanks, so about 30 to a tank. I kept the tanks just under halfway full, each with a small filter running. This is what my setup looked like.



My tadpoles would start to turn green shortly before popping their front legs.

I don't know if it was their diet, but many of my young frogs retained a brilliant green color for a few months after morphing. The six that I kept eventually completely lost the green, and stayed completely gray all the time. At some point I decided to experiment with adding a color enhancer, Repashy's Superpig, to their dusting regimen. I also started feeding their leftover tadpole food, Elive Algae Wafers, to the crickets. Eventually the frogs started getting much of their green color back. I have at least a couple that pretty regularly have some pretty brilliant green coloration. I can post some pics of them later.

I'll post some info on my tadpole feeding regime later, hopefully tonight.

i am putting two tadpoles in a ten gallon

[irThumper]

Yeah that real estate won't be over crowded

[Franzy22]

Why do people get so many tadpoles to they keep them all let them go or breed them how long can u have them to let them go

[irThumper]

Why do people get so many tadpoles to they keep them all let them go or breed them how long can u have them to let them go

Well, to reiterate, Crunchy said he rescued his tads... if I remember right from previous posts about them, I think the area where they were was drying up (??) so he brought them the 60 that were there in and raised them up until they morphed into froglets, then he released all but 6, which he kept for pets, as he's already mentioned.

I think you need to release them fairly soon after they have absorbed their tails and are able to eat small insects. You want them to keep their instincts to hunt in the wild and not start relying on humans for their food.

[ColleenT]

Grey Tree Frogs often lay their eggs in swimming pool covers. No one wants to kill the tadpoles, so they raise them to release them.

[Crunchy Frog]

Well, to reiterate, Crunchy said he rescued his tads... if I remember right from previous posts about them, I think the area where they were was drying up (??) so he brought them the 60 that were there in and raised them up until they morphed into froglets, then he released all but 6, which he kept for pets, as he's already mentioned.

I think you need to release them fairly soon after they have absorbed their tails and are able to eat small insects. You want them to keep their instincts to hunt in the wild and not start relying on humans for their food.

Crunchy is a she, at least I'm pretty sure.

My tadpoles were rescued tadpoles. They were originally from someone's free standing swimming pool that was in the process of being drained and dismantled. I rescued as many of those as I could, probably several hundred of them, and released them into our backyard pond. Unfortunately, it turned out that the pond had become overrun with tiny but very aggressive leeches. I didn't realize how bad the problem was at first, and thought that at least a percentage of them could survive, despite the predation, and they would still be better off than they would have been as lawn fertilizer.

Over the following several days, I watched the population density of the tadpoles decline dramatically, saw many tadpoles being attacked by leeches, and became more aware of just how severely overrun the pond was.

I finally realized that they couldn't survive in the pond, and decided to salvage what I could. I actually had to pull leeches off the faces of several tadpoles, and surprisingly, all but a couple of them survived the operation. Even the healthy, vigorous looking tads showed signs of leech bites, mostly in the form of reddened areas around their noses, and leech bitten areas on their tails. One of the smallest tads actually had an eye sucked out, which I didn't notice for a couple of weeks. This is why I now have a one eyed frog.

I ultimately ended up with 59 healthy tads, but lost one of them to a siphoning accident. I would recommend using a turkey baster for cleaning and water changes, rather than a siphon.

I actually decided not to release them very early, as I believe the vast majority of newly morphed froglets end up getting eaten. I released mine after a few weeks, when they were bigger and stronger, seemed more aware of their surroundings, and were able to take larger prey items.

To the original poster, I would probably go with more than 2, like maybe 5 or 6. As a novice, you can probably anticipate some losses. Any frogs that you end up with, in excess of what you want, can be released. I would also go with a smaller tank, like maybe a 5 gallon, for easier maintenance and keeping better track of your tads. That is still a very low population density, and with a filter and some live plants, you shouldn't have to do alot of cleaning or frequent water changes.

And yes, I believe that the vast majority of people who raise large numbers of tads are dealing with rescues.

[irThumper]

Leeches! Gross!!! Wow, that's even more dramatic of a rescue than a drying up puddle! Good job, and glad your little one-eye froggy made it ^_^ So we're going with Crunchy the Frog likely being a girl, but is Crunchy the Frogger a guy or a girl?

irThumper (moi) is a girl by the way, lol!