Grey Tree Frog tadpoles (I hope!) and some questions

[dfreas]

Well, since no one ever answered any of the questions I asked I guess I'll go ahead and answer them now in case someone finds this thread in the future and has a similar situation.

First off, yes they are gray tree frogs.

And yes, there is a huge amount of variation in how green the tadpoles get when they get all four legs. Some turn bright green right away, others stay completely gray.

Tail absorption varies quite a bit from frog to frog, but generally seems to take in the 3-4 day range. Once the fins of the tail disappear the frog is pretty much ready to come out of the water so if all that is left of the tail is the central line and the frog isn't making any attempt to get to land you may want to push him up to the edge of the water line so he gets some air and maybe gets the idea to get out. I lost one frog to drowning because he never made any attempt at all to get out of the water. After that I watched them more closely and "encouraged" any that didn't seem to be getting out on their own when the time came.

Sinking spirulina pellets sold at any pet store are perfect food for the tadpole stage and don't really foul the water much if they don't get eaten right away. Hydei fruit flies are perfect for the newly formed frogs and very easy to culture.

As for an alternative to crickets I decided to go with green banana roaches. They stay relatively small for a roach, have soft bodies, and don't look gross. Plus they won't make a ton of noise or smell horrible like crickets would and any escapees will die in a day or two since the local environment is not suitable for them. Seems like the perfect feeder to me. It'll be a while before I need them but I went ahead and ordered everything I need to set up a colony anyway so they'll be ready when the time comes.

[KayJoh]

Its such a shame that you never had anyone reply to your post. I have put several posts on and not had any replies, its very frustrating. I haven't had my frogs (whites tree frogs) all that long, I'm a beginner with frogs and I really value any help. Sometimes there are questions that you just cant find answers to on the internet and need the help of someone with experience but saying that as you said you seem to have worked it all out yourself. But anyway, your little tadpoles are look as though they are doing great. I used to love watching tadpoles change into frogs as a child.
I love the picture of the little froggie with all its 4 legs, so cute.
I found your post really interesting.
Just wish we had more frogs native to the UK, I think we have only got about three types here and I have only ever seen one type and common toads.
Did you release them or keep them?
I am hoping to get a couple of grey tree frogs at some point in the future.
These frogs seem to be addictive, I love them, such little characters.

[dfreas]

I still have them for now. I intend to keep at least some as pets - probably no less than 4, and may end up keeping all of them depending on how it goes. If I do decide to release some of them it probably won't be for at least another month or so. I want to be sure that any I do release have a very good chance of survival. Right now they are in a 5.5 gallon aquarium with a pothos plant and eating hydei fruit flies and bean beetles. I dust their food regularly with rep-cal vitamin and calcium supplements and they seem to be doing very well. A couple of the last to develop are still a little clumsy and often miss their prey, but the faster developers are starting to act more and more like adult frogs. In another couple weeks when I'm confident they are all capable hunters I will move them over into my 56 gallon aquarium that I'll be converting to a palludarium. For now, I'm keeping them in the smaller tank so I can keep a close eye on them and make sure everyone is eating. Attached a couple of photos that I just took - they seem to like to hang out together.

[KayJoh]

Thanks for sharing those photos, I love that first picture the way the little grey one looks like he's landed with his legs all over the place. Quite surprised by the colour difference of them both.
They're so sweet.

[dfreas]

Yeah, the color changes are quite surprising. I knew they could change, but I didn't think it would be such a difference. A couple of them almost always stay green - like the green one in that first picture, I don't think I've ever seen that one any other color than how it looks in that photo, but most of them swing back and forth between gray and green. The pale colored one in the second photo is about as light as they get but they can really do a lot of colors in between. Dark grays and browns, olive green, and sometimes all pale with a green spot right in the middle of their back - I suspect that happens when I catch them mid change.

[KayJoh]

I'm so excited, I have been wanting grey tree frogs for so long but there has been none available in absolutely ages. After talking to you and reading your posts it has just made me want them even more and just yesterday I was looking on a website that I bought one of my whites tree frogs from and they have just advertised grey tree frogs. They are an absolutely fantastic company, they really care about the animals that they sell and their animals are delivered very carefully packaged and are very healthy. I have ordered 2 so today I went out and bought them a lovely big vivarium. They will be going into a quarantine tank first of all but I am going to set up their tank as a bioactive set up and that will be cycling while they are being quarantined. They should arrange delivery for next Thursday.
I have really enjoyed reading about your babies and can't wait to get mine now.

[dfreas]

Awesome! My wife fell in love with them just seeing them in the back yard - we had one in particular that decided to take up residence in the collapsible shade umbrella on our deck. Every day she would go out and see if he was still there and for about two weeks he lived there (he left when the days got really hot). When I collected the eggs we were both really hoping they would turn out to be greys for that reason but since we had only seen a few of them around at that point I figured it would be more likely that we would get an american toad or a chorus frog which are both very common here as well. She was thrilled when they started developing and matched all the pictures I could find of grey tadpoles. Now that we're sure, I've been working on setting up a more permanent place for them. I also plan on doing a bioactive setup - that's how I've always done my freshwater aquariums, with heavy loads of plants and invertebrates with relatively few fish, so doing the same thing for the frogs just makes sense. I'm working on my isopod cultures now and getting the lighting and substrate in the tank just right. It takes a long time to do it right, but it's worth it in the long run. I've had bioactive fishtanks that I've run for years without changing the water or cleaning them at all and the water always tested perfect. Hopefully I'll be able to do the same for the frogs.