# Frogs & Toads > Dart Frogs (Dendrobatidae) > Dart Frog Health & Illness >  Dendrobates auratus tadpole not leaving the water?

## T3RR1B1L15

I would like to begin by saying that I am relatively new to breeding dendrobatid frogs. I still have only raised one to the froglet stage, and it ended up having SLS.

Okay, I've had thousands of things to do with the frogs recently: feeding them, starting up the pump system to mist them, feeding the tadpoles, changing the tadpoles' water, checking for new eggs, and checking for tadpoles. I found two azureus eggs this evening, but I usually leave them in the vivarium until they begin to hatch (I've had much more success that way). Anyway, I'm a bit worried about the largest of my auratus tadpoles. It has all four legs and its colours are clearly present, but it isn't leaving the water. It took a long time for his front legs to pop, so my first impression was possible SLS, but after taking a closer look at the tadpole's front legs, they look perfectly fine to me. They're positioned more or less perfectly, and he doesn't look anything like what my first tadpole (the one with SLS) did. His front legs are looking quite muscular, actually. Looking at them now, they do look like they're positioned almost _too_ far forward...I can't get any pictures at the moment because the tadpole is hiding under his bed of moss, but I'll do my best to describe it: The front legs are almost a perfect L-shape coming out from the body. They look healthy to me, compared to the auratus froglet with SLS, and pretty well-muscled. They look almost too straight to me, and that combined with the fact that the tadpole has not left the water has got me worried. If anyone has an opinion on this, it would be much appreciated. 


Sorry for the lack of pictures; the tadpole is pretty shy and is hiding 
beneath his moss right now. I will post some pictures as soon as I can. 


Thanks for any opinions.

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