Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

[alane]

Well, the chiller is okay. It malfunctioned due to low flow in the filter/pump system. It was time to overhaul the filter and pump system, which I did. Full flow restored and correct cooling too. And now, my tank is in 'rain configuration' and it's raining heartily on the frogs.

In celebration of this basic maintenance victory, I set the cooler down a few degrees to simulate 'winter' for the little fellows.

I gotta say those 'razor blade on a handle' tank cleaners work great for removing any sort of stuff on your glass, both above and below water. hard water deposits come right off. cool.

No plans for the juveniles as of yet. they are so cool to listen to now, the little ones 'beep' a few octaves above the adults now.

The cherry shrimp are thriving on the bottom. I am so tempted to add african dwarf frogs to this tank but I suspect I should just enjoy what i got.

[alane]

I am buying them exclusively large crickets, as I find the small crickets just are not much of a meal. I still have some smallish toadlets, in fact some are quite small and apparently are behind the others. Yet...I see that these smallest of my toadlets have no problem downing the largest of crickets. It's comical and somewhat frightful. You'd think that a toad that is about the size of a cricket could not do it. But the toadlet stretches. I have seen only one toadlet 'abort' a meal that was too large. I am stunned at how they can expand to fit their food.

One interesting fact is that the frog/toad is the "lowest" animal that evolved a vomit reflex. This is the first animal that could puke.
No doubt this is a survival instinct to be able to puke up either items that are too large or are not digestible.

But, my, these things do love their crickets. Much, much more so than any other food.

Some of the adults do not like the dusted crickets. These adults get extra vitamins, as they always end up with a mouthful of dust whether or not they swallowed the prey.

The PacMan frog I had was "is he gonna eat today". The FBT tank is "how many are you willing to feed them because they'll eat it if you give it to em".

They will occasionally get excited about food and strike at my fingers. Cute little mouths with no teeth and a sticky tongue.

I am getting lots of enjoyment out of this tank of frogs.

[alane]

Well, it must be Easter. My one female has gotten fat...my frogs are making a racket...and this morning I see a few eggs.

The first set of eggs she laid was last year, they were highly fertile and I have 20 subadults still from last year. Many more laying sessions last season became less and less fertile until she laid eggs that all failed.

I was astounded that the 40 or so tadpoles I got ended up eating about five pounds of spinach. It all went into my filters as nasty smelling green goo. I lost about half of them, the ones that didn't do well coming at the end of the season.

It looks like I need to keep a close eye on a few round blobs to see whether or not they develop.

I sure do not need any more frogs in this tank and will have to cull them all. But they are so cute. Kills me.
I need a fish that'll eat eggs but somehow leave my cherry shrimp alone. Sigh.

I read recently that a good way to lower pH is with tannin. I have very mineralized basic tap water. So, it seems that throwing a pinecone into my tank is a good way to lower the pH. The tannins do not seem to have hurt any of the residents.

Good lord that poor female. She has four males grabbing her.

The sub-adult toadlets are also practicing amplexus but they are not good at it yet.

It was hilarious to see an adult try to amplexus a sub-adult. One frog just completely wraps around another frog. Looks unpleasant for the subject. The eternal struggle. Legs go every which way. LOL!

[alane]

Not a whole lot of eggs laid, I can count maybe eight. I suspect I can see only half of them, froggies hide them well.

They are developing quickly. Yesterday they were spheres. Today they are elongated crescents and I can tell which end is the head.

It is quite amazing to watch the progress.

I have quite a buildup of algae in places. If these fellows hatch out, they will probably strip the tank clean like they did last time.

[alane]

The first tadpole of this year is now free of it's egg. I suspect the rest will follow soon. Just 3 days for the egg to hatch!

I look forward to the tadpole-eats-algae phase, where they munch non-stop on anything green for many weeks.

They eventually get very active and the tank becomes bedlam with 'little dark colored grapes' swimming constantly every which way.

I'm hoping to set up a security camera to watch this tank for the next few weeks. An edited video of 12 weeks of development compressed into a minute might be interesting.

I have one male who _really_ wants to go. But I have only one egg laying female in a tank of five adults and fifteen subadults. So he ends up grabbing the Wrong Frog most of the time. Poor things. To be grabbed underwater and held there, underwater, whilst you are struggling to get away looks kind of scary to us humans. Nightmare fuel actually. But that's what these creatures do. Never seen one drown.

[alane]

this morning i can count six 'clinger' tadpoles. A few more eggs yet to hatch. And a new batch of a few eggs laid.

Last year had only a small population of cherry shrimp. But now I have a maximum population and it makes it hard to count anything.

I am surprised that they are coming in less than 'ten' at a time. I am gratified that it's not 'hundreds'.

As I recall, it's a few days before a clinger starts eating the algae on the side of the tank.

And two toads in solid 24/7 amplexus, probably gonna be like that for a week.

They love their crickets so much. The other day was not feeding time, but a cricket leg was floating in the water. One of the toadlets noticed this, got into position to hunt down this floating leg. It struck accurately. *gulp*. My they love their crickets, even the drumsticks.

[alane]

Well, they are free swimming now and eating all the time. I've started to put a few leaves of wilted spinach in the tank and they eat it up, as well as the algae. the 'coil' of their intestines is now apparent and they are a continual food processing machine. It's very hard to get an accurate count but I believe I counted twelve the other day.

It looks like the first batch of eggs is super healthy and 100% viable. no further eggs yet. but i've been feeding my tank well and my frogs are phat.