Breeding RETF's

[Andry]

I think I'm finally to the point where I am ready to breed my Red Eye Tree Frogs. I have 4.2.0 set. I am going to start building my Rain chamber in a 40 gallon tank. I have 2.1.0 to a tank.

1 - Should I got ahead and combine them so they can start getting to know each other? I had them separate because I bought the second trio in oct and they were in quarantine and being treated for runny poop/parasites which has been successful. I don't know if to just keep them separate and only combine when going into the rain chamber? Or go ahead and combine them all while I start their cycle? Or combine the males and separate the females? Any suggestions would be great!

2 - I have links to sites where there are instructions on breeding. But I was wondering, since it's already getting warmer and they have been through a cool and very dry period, do I still need to do that period again? Should I go through it this time doing heavier feeding + doing the photo period cycle which I haven't done or paid any attention too? And I don't know how much heavier to feed. I already feed only what they will eat. I don't like having all the extra crickets crawling around because there are too many.

My plan is to start cycling them, which if I understand correctly means, feeding heavier, lowering temperature/8hr photo period and keeping dry, then increasing temprature by increasing photo period to up to 12 hours and increasing humidity/misting during this time as well. All of this should happen between an 8-10 week period. Am I right? At this point I should see the females become gravid and the males start to call more and at this point they are ready for the rain chamber. If I start this process on the 1st of April, I should be ready to move them to the rain chamber in June, right?

[bshmerlie]

Andry...im really sorry you haven't gotten a response. The problem is not everyone reads every post. What I would like to suggest is a couple of names which you probably will recognize from this forum but also from your more frequent hang out. . Anyway why don't you try giving Mike Novey a call or even pm Tony Casler. Tony has just recently gotten some eggs and im sure he up to his ears in tadpoles right now. Both guys are very informative and im sure they could answer all you questions. Give them a try and thanks for stopping by.

[Andry]

Thank you Cheri, I have spoken to Mike Novey a few times in the past. I'll give him a call. I also found some more links online that will hopefully help me. Thanks for your references. I'll give them a try.

Andry

[teenyfrogs]

Hi.
I have just seen your thread. I am new to this forum, but i will try to help if i can.
Im in the UK so methods may need to be adjusted for your climate.
With your first question. If you have had your frogs longer than 8 weeks, and you have seen no symptoms that are suspicious, then it is best to put your frogs all together. This is because the males need to call to each other. Its kinda like my call is higher in pitch than yours so i have the better genes. The males need to do this to impress the females, and the winner gets to mate with the females. We have found also downloading retf calls off the internet, and playing them back to ours also gets them calling.
With your second question. We do ours a little different. We keep ours dry most the year (but our day time temps never usually above 30 degrees c). We spray once in the evening, but if your climate is hot then i would spray once in the morning and then just before the lights go out. With the photo period then ours is always 12 hours from 9am-9pm. This is because the light is a big factor in stress with these, and retf really dont like change. Adults cope better with change but can still get stressed over the silliest of things (wimps).
As i said ours are dry most of the year, this is for 2 reasons 1) the wetter the terraium the more bacteria breed thus more problems occur in future 2) we can start te breeding process almost instantly.
This year we are trying something different, and just heavily spraying 4-5 times a day. The rain chamber is a good invention but our thinking is that we can get almost the same effect without stressing the frogs out, but we will have to wait and see if this works.
The usual for breeding is a dry period of 8 weeks then in the rain chamber till amplexing occurs. You may find that spawn is left on the sides of the tank but just gently scrape off and fix onto a leaf over some water.
When you get your tads, it would be better to seperate them because they are prone to cannabolism.
Kind regards Tina x