looking to get a Surinam Toad (Pipa pipa) have ?

[David Pinckney]

From the June 2012 Reptiles magazine article by David Lass BEYOND WEIRD Care for the unusually odd Surinam underwater toad.

“SUTs are fairly undemanding to keep. My current pair are in a 29-gallon tank, and I also have 10 of them in a 110-gallon tank, which is a very tall tank. I have never tried them with any kind of substrate, but I have always kept a few pots of plants with them… My water is very soft and acid, and by keeping gypsum and pieces of coral rock in the tanks, I manage to maintain around a neutral PH and moderate hardness. I keep the tank temperature in the mid 70’s, but it gets warmer in the summer and the SUTs have been just fine. They are from South America, but the waters they live in probably do not get much above the high 80’s. I have only one instance of a SUT jumping out of the tank, and fortunately I was right in front of the tank when the toad went airborne. Ever since then, I have always kept their tanks covered. I use outside canister filters on my toad tanks, and maintaining excellent water quality is required to maintain health for these, or any other, aquatic animal.

… I feed my SUTs earthworms and feeder goldfish. Given that I am in the wholesale tropical fish business, I am fortunate to be able to buy boxes of feeder comets and keep them in big tubs. I feed them well, and keep them in good water conditions… SUTs do best without any other tankmates, as eventually they will make a meal of anything in the tank with them.

While I have not yet been fortunate enough to have SUTs pair off and reproduce from the beginning in my tanks, the literature seems to agree that they require tall tanks to execute their “amplexus rise”… and part of their breeding is to be able to have plenty of vertical space.

While I have never had SUTs breed from the get-go for me, I have been fortunate enough to have a female who was carrying babies on her back in various stages of development.

The mother SUT popped out a dozen our more babies over a period of a week or so.

The babies seemed to stay at the water surface, and I removed them to a separate tank to try and rear them. Initially, I did not have much success because I had them in too large a tank and didn’t really know what to feed them. I finally settled on a small plastic goldfish bowl that holds maybe a quart of water. I have been feeding them freeze-dried plankton and finely ground fish food, but the real success came from feeding them baby guppies, the smallest I can find. Every day, I change their water, using water from the parents’ tank. A few of the babies have made it over the hump and now are really doing well, just about doubling in size in tow week period.”

Again, this is not my advice, but rather, excerpts from some written material that I had lying around the house.

[Jaysommers]

From the June 2012 Reptiles magazine article by David Lass BEYOND WEIRD Care for the unusually odd Surinam underwater toad.

“SUTs are fairly undemanding to keep. My current pair are in a 29-gallon tank, and I also have 10 of them in a 110-gallon tank, which is a very tall tank. I have never tried them with any kind of substrate, but I have always kept a few pots of plants with them… My water is very soft and acid, and by keeping gypsum and pieces of coral rock in the tanks, I manage to maintain around a neutral PH and moderate hardness. I keep the tank temperature in the mid 70’s, but it gets warmer in the summer and the SUTs have been just fine. They are from South America, but the waters they live in probably do not get much above the high 80’s. I have only one instance of a SUT jumping out of the tank, and fortunately I was right in front of the tank when the toad went airborne. Ever since then, I have always kept their tanks covered. I use outside canister filters on my toad tanks, and maintaining excellent water quality is required to maintain health for these, or any other, aquatic animal.

… I feed my SUTs earthworms and feeder goldfish. Given that I am in the wholesale tropical fish business, I am fortunate to be able to buy boxes of feeder comets and keep them in big tubs. I feed them well, and keep them in good water conditions… SUTs do best without any other tankmates, as eventually they will make a meal of anything in the tank with them.

While I have not yet been fortunate enough to have SUTs pair off and reproduce from the beginning in my tanks, the literature seems to agree that they require tall tanks to execute their “amplexus rise”… and part of their breeding is to be able to have plenty of vertical space.

While I have never had SUTs breed from the get-go for me, I have been fortunate enough to have a female who was carrying babies on her back in various stages of development.

The mother SUT popped out a dozen our more babies over a period of a week or so.

The babies seemed to stay at the water surface, and I removed them to a separate tank to try and rear them. Initially, I did not have much success because I had them in too large a tank and didn’t really know what to feed them. I finally settled on a small plastic goldfish bowl that holds maybe a quart of water. I have been feeding them freeze-dried plankton and finely ground fish food, but the real success came from feeding them baby guppies, the smallest I can find. Every day, I change their water, using water from the parents’ tank. A few of the babies have made it over the hump and now are really doing well, just about doubling in size in tow week period.”

Again, this is not my advice, but rather, excerpts from some written material that I had lying around the house.

I don't know who's more to blame for that ridiculous article.Reptiles magazine or the author. Why the author felt he was qualified to write an article on Pipa pipa is beyond me. Why Reptiles Mag published it is not.They are desperate for articles and apparently will publish anything regardless of it's quality. Crushed fish flakes for a carnivorous froglet? A real problem in the hobby.Too many people think they are qualified(who aren't) to write articles and care sheets. It's not that there are not qualified individuals it's that there isn't a quality publication in the U.S. ,that has mass distribution, to put the article in. That is changing though. There is a mag. that is growing and they appear to be dong something right.

[David Pinckney]

It's not that there are not qualified individuals it's that there isn't a quality publication in the U.S. ,that has mass distribution, to put the article in. That is changing though. There is a mag. that is growing and they appear to be dong something right.

Okay and what mag is that? I looked at a webpage that listed several dozen herp magazines that exist, or at least existed in the past twenty five years or so, before I bought my subscription for Reptiles. I was hoping for one that focuses on amphibians, but I’m unaware of one.

[SkeletalFrog]

I don't know who's more to blame for that ridiculous article.Reptiles magazine or the author. Why the author felt he was qualified to write an article on Pipa pipa is beyond me. Why Reptiles Mag published it is not.They are desperate for articles and apparently will publish anything regardless of it's quality. Crushed fish flakes for a carnivorous froglet? A real problem in the hobby.Too many people think they are qualified(who aren't) to write articles and care sheets. It's not that there are not qualified individuals it's that there isn't a quality publication in the U.S. ,that has mass distribution, to put the article in. That is changing though. There is a mag. that is growing and they appear to be dong something right.

If you can give instructions for both reliably and somewhat easily reproducing pipa pipa in captivity, you can probably submit a write-up to one of the herpetology journals like Herpetological Reviews. Granted most hobbyists don't read it, but it could be really useful - pipa pipa could be a good laboratory species, especially for the developmental biology folks (it's probably close enough to Xenopus for various antibodies etc to work in both).

No idea about hobbyist magazines, though I sorely miss The Vivarium.

[fluffypanda]

I have a male pipa pipa. Ive been trying to get a female. I found a guy with one and it died just hours before I got there to pick her up. Jaysommers could you sell me a female? or know where I could get a good one?

[NatureLady]

These guys are on my bucket list of frogs to own! Such amazing frogs!!!!! Thanks for the quality info Jaysommers.