Starry Night Reed Frogs

[Tzunu un]

You mentioned a "small colony".... around six ?
Are you going to have a water feature for them to breed/spawn?

I had a colony that started with six in a 18 x 18 x 24 with a water feature.

1.) If you remove the eggs and raise separately , you will have hundreds ! of offspring being produced.

2.) If you leave the eggs in the tank/water feature you will still have many offspring (assuming you feed the tadpoles and provide fruit flies for the small frogs) but fewer offspring than above as the larger tadpoles will eat the newer eggs.

When I tore down my viv, I counted 48 frogs in different stages of development (under scenario 2).



Larger viv is better, so of your two vivs I would say the 18 x 18 x 18.

Josh's Frogs site recommends four in a 12 x 12 x 18.
The "Starry Nights" are great group frogs (no aggression, etc) of smaller size so (IMO) even the 12 x 12 x 18 could work for a group of six, where normally for most frogs you would want a much larger space.
That being said, the 12 x 12 x 18 may work in the beginning for six frogs, but if you don't actively work to keep your frog numbers in check (sell or give away offspring) then it would get crowded for more than six "Starry Nights".


Josh's Frogs site states that the normal lifespan may be 2-5yrs.
Note that with active breeding, they have a lifespan of 1-2 yrs.....so shorter than many other frogs....perhaps tied to the high reproductive rate and stresses associated with it. So be sure to hold back some offspring to maintain the colony if actively breeding.


I no longer have "Starry Nights" as I needed to concentrate on other efforts.
The "Starry Nights" were way too prolific for me...lol

[acpart]

THanks for the response. I was thinking of 4-6 with a water feature and prepared for breeding without separating the offspring so I don't drown in frogs. I'm primarily a gecko breeder which keeps me quite busy, but at least I'm used to bringing creatures to reptile shows. Until I figure out a place to put an enclosure that size (I have about 30 enclosures in my living room and dining room, though it doesn't look like that much until you start counting) it will remain a nice dream.

Aliza

[Tzunu un]

Sounds good.

Let me know if you have any other questions once you commit to setting up.