Uh Oh. Gonna have babies

[alane]

The biggest tadpoles now have little 'nubs' where their front legs will emerge. Their rear legs have emerged and are growing and i've seen them kick once in a while. They still swim side-to-side with their tail, and they are all eating constantly.
The more numerous smaller tadpoles have yet to sprout legs.
And i'm wondering if another batch of eggs is going to be laid.

I am almost through a one pound bag of spinach.

I have not seen a dead tadpole yet. Last year, occasionally, one would 'burst open' and that's that.

Unfortunately, the snails are also getting lots of food, so i'm getting lots of snails.

I changed the tank water yesterday and it's very difficult to siphon five gallons of water and not suck up at least one tadpole. The one that went through the siphon tube was a very large one and he even got stuck at one point, willy wonka style. But it went through and I netted it back into the tank.
The waste water was quite green in color, cause by the spinach.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz...0UzlVeMRg/live

[alane]

One of the tadpoles is far more advanced than the rest. It has fully formed front and rear legs and is now 'emerging'. It spends its time near the surface, breathing air most of the time now.

It's also way smaller than it's peers. This particular tadpole decided to stop eating early and develop quick. super micro froglet.

i'm going to be getting the 'hydei' flies. those will be a mouthful for a frog this small but i think they can do it!

what the heck am i going to do with this many frogs? thats what i said last year and i kept them all. well this year i cannot do that. i suppose i need to post a for-sale message in the appropriate forum.

[alane]

here is a photo of the first toadlet to emerge. the little one is many many days ahead of the rest.



you cannot see it in this photo but the little one still has quite a tail.

i believe he has been 'nipped' at by hungry adults. as the toadlet emerges at the margin of the water, it can be very tempting for a nearby frog to strike.
but these frogs have no teeth and although i've seen them get another frog, it always gets coughed back up in short order.
amazingly, even with the adults, they seem to emerge just fine in this tank.

i expect the bulk of this froglets egg-batch siblings to emerge in about a week, so far ahead is this one toadlet. amazing that one decided to develop real fast.

it takes so long for their skin to develop. the full-adults have a fairly coarse pattern to their bumps. the sub-adults still have a more fine-grained texture. the babies, in comparison, are gelatinous.