Tadpoles - water changing

[TommyBoi]

Hey I wanted to know..as for replacing the water that I siphon out..I use "Stress Coat" when replacing the water in the tanks of my adult clawed frogs...I add the required amount of Stress Coat to the bucket, as I'm filling it with water...seems to be just fine for the adults. I have no storage containers or anything of the sort....so, when I change the tadpoles' water, can i add the Stress Coat to the new water, then put it in the aquarium right away? As I have no extra space to let water sit for a day or more...thanks everyone!

[Jenste]

water shock can kill tadpoles

you should invest in a 2-3 gallon bucket. Petsmart has them, home depot has them, dollar stores have buckets - - they are definitely out there!


Always make sure tadpole temperature is about 78-82* for optimal growth. Always use tap water conditioner / stress coat. It is important that the water sit for a bit before being very very slowly poured into the tadpole tank - make sure you match the temperatures!

I usually put my hand right at/above the water line and slowly pour water from the bucket into my open palm so it disperses the water flowing into the tank.


A good way to siphon out water is with airline tubing - it takes longer but you can avoid sucking up any tadpoles much easier. This is also a good way to put water back into the tank - - use a chair or table to sit the bucket with new water on, and use an airline to drip water into the tadpole tank.

[TommyBoi]

Hey Jenna, thanks for the info!! Yesterday I actually used airline tubing to siphon out the fungus from the unhatched eggs, etc...and i then used the airline tubing to siphon the stress coat water, back into the tank, and it did not disturb the tads!! And so far, looks like they're doing fine, they're starting to swim a bit more today. I've counted up to 125+ tads so far ;o) In a couple hours, I will be getting my 4 new pairs, of 4 more species of Xenopus!!!

[Jenste]

sounds good!!! what size tank do you have the tads in?

[TommyBoi]

Hey Jenna, sorry for my absence the past couple weeks. Literally, the day my new frogs arrived, a lot of heavy personal issues happened, and I have been dealing with them. I made a couple posts earlier today, and added a couple video clips as well! The tads are doing just fine so far, and as of today, the only tadpole deaths, have been the ones I've taken out, to feed to the froglets, and also, so that the tad tank has more room for the larger tads to grow. Right now, there's about 50+ in the 20g tank. Burley at XenEx said I might want to keep only 1 tadpole per gallon. But I've decided, that since they are all doing so well, to let them stay in there, and as any metamorphoses start occuring, I will then do some more thinning out of the smaller/non-metamorphosing tads. This is the first timer I've ever had this much luck raising a batch of tads, they ALL have their hind leg buds already, and a couple of the larger ones actually have some pigmentation starting to show on the hind leg buds.