Fire bellies mating or bullying

[cobra1264]

I have 4 fire bellies of a few different sizes one very large female 2 moderate sized males and a young female. The medium size male has grabbed on the female and hasn't let go for a while he lets her sit near the surface to breathe but I can't tell if he's being a jerk or trying to mate. Their both about 2yrs old and the male is 1/2 an inch shorter then her and she's about 2 1/2 inches long with a girth of 1 1/2 inch body. Lately the male has been barking but she normally bullies every one out of the way for first dibs on crickets. So this is kinda new to me with them

[privet01]

male on male, it's positioning for social status (bullying). Male on female, might be mating, but could also be positioning for social status. It's what they do in nature. It looks rough, but it's harmless. Even if one is holding the other underwater.

[Krispy]

If its male on male, one will be the barker(agressor), and the other(being wrapped up) will let out almost a growl noise to signify submission, and that hes not a female. We have 10, and this is just part of their pecking order... funny buggers...

[cobra1264]

Okay just had to make sure and its definitely a male wrapped on a female for several hours now but she's far stronger and pulling him where she wants to go. And I just took a look in the tank by my count I see over 3 dozen eggs in the Anubia roots. The issue with that is I am not sure how many are fertile and how to care for that many

[Krispy]

Awwwww! I wanna see!!!!!

Man, youre lucky. Im guna have to divide mine into teams to breed. The only time we found eggs, well, they were lunch for the frogs first. Were rootin for the 3-4 little tads we did find not to get eaten... They are too sneaky to catch and i dont wanna suck them out with the aquarium sweeper... We are very excited for you and wish we could get some o them eggies!!!! Lol ill trade ya for some pa. bullfrog eggs(lmao)


Can you post pics of them?

[cobra1264]

Sadly I can't get a good snap of them their in the rocks and in the roots. The set up I have is a in tank 90gph filter, one floating ornament for them to congregate on, 7 aubia nana, large river rocks for bedding, 1 25 watt bulb for heat, 1 cfl 10 watt blue and white fish UVB bulb and about 5" deep of water. I let the water evaporate to 3" then refilled to close to 6" deep of warm water and increased their food supply of small crickets and increased the photo period from 7hrs to 13hrs a day. Accidental breeding yes but may try again if this batch doesn't hatch and the tank water stays sound 78 with out a heater. Any one who tries this with success could end up with dozens of baby frogs gonna try to get a photo of a small cluster tomorrow their just so sticky and small it's hard to tell where the are unless in the plant roots. If you follow 2 males to every female unlike with guppies you can have success and strong genes remember if they wrestle to mate they won't hurt each other horribly like if it where bull frogs