Varadero tadpoles metamorphosing

[John]

"It's morphin' time"....

This tadpole is the first offspring of this pair of "Varadero" race Ranitmeya imitator frogs.

This first photo was taken in the terrarium on June 29th. The tadpole is in a white film canister attached to the side of the terrarium with a suction cup:



This was taken on the night of July 7th 2010 in a small deli cup (Click the photo to enlarge):



You can see the colors of the frog coming in - even the legs are starting to get a little. I'll admit I'm quite worried about this tadpole because, being the first, it's the most likely to have Spindly Leg Syndrome (SLS), a malformation of the front limbs caused by a nutritional deficiency in young dart frog parents, often seen in their first few tadpoles. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'll keep you updated.

[Ebony]

Very nice photo's John, The colouring is really prominent. I can see the arms are going to pop out soon. I hope you are worrying for nothing.

[John]

For comparison, here's that last photo again:



And now the same tadpole 48 hours later (taken just a few minutes ago):

[Ebony]

Looks to me like the arms and legs have grown significantly. It might be the photo but the colouring seems brighter too. Looking pretty positive I think. Mind you, that's going by what frogs I breed. How long does it take for these tadpoles to morph?

[John]

Yes, the colors are starting to come through now, definitely - the blue on the legs is more noticeable. The front right arm is bigger too. They take a while to metamorphose. He will probably pop the legs in the next 48 hours, then it'll be 4 more days or so I think.

[Kurt]

Very cool.