# Frogs & Toads > Aquatic Clawed Frogs >  Breeding Xenopus laevis

## SanderB

How do you breed them?
I have heard that you need to take the male away for a periode of time and then but him back or can you do something with the watertemprature?
And if you have an albino male and a reticulted albino female, what will the offspring be like?

Here are my frogs:

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## clownonfire

Sander, you might want to write Jenste. She'll be able to give you a few pointers.

Eric

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## Terry

Sander, very impressed with your reticulated albino frogs! Contact Jenste. She has both reticulated and piebald frogs.

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## Jen

Hi Saunders - - Lovely frogs!!!

When breeding an albino and a reticulated albino (gorgeous one btw!)  you will most likely see a mostly reticulated batch, a few albinos and possibly a few natural colorations. 

For a successful breeding, wait until they are atleast 1-1.5 years old.

You will need two tanks - one for the parents and one for the eggs/tadpoles/froglets.  The parents will eat the eggs, tads and froglets - you will also see the female start eating the eggs even while they are mating!

for two adults, their tank should be atleast 20 gallons for them to live in.

I have had success getting them to breed in a 10 gallon - - here is how I set it up

* thermometer, heater, aerator with airline tubing and airstone.

put the male in the 10 gallon. have the heater and aerator off.
keep  female separate in the adult tank and feed earthworms (bought from a baitshop - do not use wild caught for fear of contact with pesticides or fertilizers) and frozen bloodworms .

after about 10-14 days,  lower the water level in the ten gallon to about 3 inches.(2.5 gallons or so)  In 2 days, fill the ten gallon back up with water about 10-15*F COOLER than the water the male currently was in and add the female. This will make the male think the rainy season has come and that is their breeding season.


With in a week you should have had happy amplexing frogs. (repeat if needed to get the mood right)

As soon as they have finished mating, remove them immediately back to the adult tank.

Now your focus is on the eggs -   turn on the heater and the aerator ON LOW.  Heat should be about 78-80*F.  This will stay constant throughout the entire morphing process.  Should be about 8-12 weeks total (every batch is unique!)


within three days the eggs should become "c" shaped - any non fertlized eggs will develop a fungus - these should be removed immediately to keep them from polluting the water 





about 24-48 hours after they become "c" shaped they will become silver clingers - tear drop shaped and clinging to any surface - decor or walls




with in another 48 hours they will become free swimming in a head down position - this is when you start feeding - - I personally like to feed them ground up/powdered ReptoMin sticks and HBH frog and tadpole bites (use a mortar and pester to make it very fine - they are filter feeders so the powder needs to dissolve into the water for them to filter it). Feed 3-4 times a day, enough powder so that you can see their little tummies darken with food but the water does not become cloudy.  Once a day/every other day feed "bloodworm broth" - take a cube of frozen bloodworms, defrost in a cup of water then out into a blender and press "liquify" - - blend 60 seconds and use tweezers to remove any chunks of bloodworm. Do daily 25% water changes - best to use airline tubbing so you can control the area being sucked out to reduce the chance of sucking up a tadpole. Always check the bucket of sucked out water for little eyes swimming around!





With in the next four - six weeks, first they will grow whiskers, then back legs



With in the next 7-14 days, front legs (excuse the tad pooing)




With in the next week, their big bubble head (for lack of a better term) will condense and they will start absorbing their tail. When they are absorbing their tail they will stop eating, so cutback on feeding. 



two days later....


Next day - will now be a hungry little froglet and ready for his first meal of frozen bloodworms!   ( will not be able to eat a frog/tadpole pellet for a few weeks but will devour the bloodworms!

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## SanderB

Thanks for the information. Now I just have to figure out what gallon and °F is in l and °C  :Big Grin: 

Do they need movement in the water when they are tadpoles?

I don´t think we have special food for tadpoles in Belgium. But can I use fish food, spirulina or algeawafers grinded into dust?

This is the reticulated albino, she is now in a tank of a friend of my, but I am gonna try to get here back to here, maybe only for breeding, then he can have her back. He said she has more spots now.

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## SanderB

Very nice photo btw.

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## Tony

> Thanks for the information. Now I just have to figure out what gallon and °F is in l and °C


A gallon is 3.8 liters, and here is a tool for °F/°C conversion.   :Big Grin:

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## SanderB

> A gallon is 3.8 liters, and here is a tool for °F/°C conversion.


The temprature is now 16°C=61°F

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## Jen

that temperature is quite low for getting them to breed, you want it higher most of the time anyway, right around 70* is preferable - - considering you want to lower it 10-15*F like I stated above, you don't want to freeze them! they definitely will not be in the mood then!!! the temperature you have now is just about the temp I LOWER mine to to get them to breed.   I would invest in a heater



and as for water movement in the tadpole tank - -  I did advise that you always have an aerator on - -  set on LOW - - this helps with water circulation, and airation, but keeps the tadpoles from being blown about.

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## SanderB

Ok thanks.

The male wants to breed but i think the female isn´t ready yet.



My temporary set up:

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## Jen

once males hit maturity - they will always want to breed. you must wait until the female is older for a higher chance of healthier eggs.

and again, it is best to have them breed in one tank and then move the parents to another to live.

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## Terry

If you listen carefully, you may hear a duet between your frogs. The male has at least 4 different calls and the female has 2. The female will respond to the male's advertisement call depending her readiness to mate. If the female is ready, she will emit a rapping call that is very similar to the male. If she is not ready, she will emit a quiet sound (much like that of a ticking clock), when the male hears the tick, he will immediately stop calling. If they both rap, you may have some little ones on the way  :Smile:

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## SanderB

Last night my Clawed frogs have layed eggs.

What should I feed te tadpoles? Can I use crushed spirulinatablets (I eat/swalow it to) and algeatablets?

Some photo´s

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## SanderB

Some have already hatched, can i feed them pure algea to? I counted only 7 fertile ones.

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## Jen

take the parent's reptomin sticks and hbh/zoomed frog bites and grind them with a mortar and pestle until they are a very fine dust.   This is a great tadpole food

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## SanderB

> take the parent's reptomin sticks and hbh/zoomed frog bites and grind them with a mortar and pestle until they are a very fine dust.   This is a great tadpole food


But I dont´t have that, I don´t know if they sell it in Belgium. In my books about frogs they say, grinded algea, grinded nettle and grinded fishfood.

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## SanderB

I have at least 9 tadpoles, I removed the bad eggs. I am gonna try the spirulina and algeatablets, will grind them to dust. So I need to start feeding when they start swimming? I have some white ones but most are dark in colour.

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## SanderB

It looks like they are growing well. I have 6 dark ones and 4 white ones. Are the white ones albino or is this a new colour, leucistic?

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## Tony

The dark one in the pic on the top row middle looks like it has 4 eyes.

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## Jen

It is way to early to know but the white ones, if they have black eyes, are going to be either reticulated albinos or leucistic.   They will morph with little pink bodies and any reticulation, if there is going to be any, will start appearing after a few weeks/couple months.   

Think of them like little dalmations....they reveal their patterns in time.   

If any have pink/clear/red eyes then they will be regular albinos.

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## SanderB

They al have dark eyes and some have some pigment on the backs. But we will see. The male is albino and the female a wild type.
They are growing well, so the mix of spirulina and algeatablets is working fine I supose.

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## SanderB

They are growing very well.

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## corientalis

I have X. tadpoles the first time too! They look the same but a bit larger. The largest ones already have little whiskers. Both parents are wild type but I got some white, black eyed tads too! I wanted to ask what color morphs they will be as frogs just before I read this thread :Smile:  I feed them with spinach on one day and JBL turtle granulate on the other which I hope negates the ill effects of feeding spinach.

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## SanderB

My tadpoles are starting to develope hind leggs. Here is a video, I wil try to make some new photo´s too.

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## SanderB

Their hind leggs are starting to move.

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## SanderB

Now the front leggs are starting to develop.

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## SanderB

Some of them are almost frogs.


Any idea what the white/yellow ones will be? The father realy has albino eyes but these still have dark eyes.

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## xxianxx

> I have X. tadpoles the first time too! They look the same but a bit larger. The largest ones already have little whiskers. Both parents are wild type but I got some white, black eyed tads too! I wanted to ask what color morphs they will be as frogs just before I read this thread I feed them with spinach on one day and JBL turtle granulate on the other which I hope negates the ill effects of feeding spinach.


 What are the "ill effects of feeding spinach" ? I have raised whole batches with few fatalities on de stalked and liquidized spinach

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## SanderB

New photos and clip.

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## SwimminSteve

I think it might be tough to tell eye color on the little "albino" ones. I was in the fish store the other day and they had some newly morphed albino froglets. I stared at their eyes for a good 5 minutes trying to decide if they were red or not. I decided they must just be regular albinos, their eyes looked dark at first glance, but if you looked hard enough there was a slight reddish hue. 
Their eyes may turn more red in the next few weeks, especially if dad is a regular albino. 
I have a strange albino that has red eyes, but some darker pigment on his back. I'm still not sure if he's reticulated or not. I thought that reticulateds had dark eyes. 
That's him on the left.

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## SanderB

Yes, I think the eye colour will change too. The most developed one already has some reddish in his eyes.
It´s kinda strange cause with axolotls you can tell on day 1 if they are white or albino.

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## SanderB

The frogs are growing well:

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## corientalis

Congrats! Mine started to morph too. But unlike yours they are quite thin at this time, only  a few weeks later become fat/muscular. I think maybe the tadpole food is not nutritious enough (?) (spinatch, turtle food, krill and green asparagus liquidized). Also the fully morphed ones attack and kill ones with tail (I have a separate tank for froglets, but I put almost morphed "frogpoles" in it too until the first lethal attack). I got hundreds of tadpoles but even if I separated them into several tanks and containers with adequate water parameters, many of then doesn't grow and slowly die off. Next time I may try to save only a handful (I could sell them all if all thousand animals would have stayed alive until and after morphing, that's not a problem). My light coloured ones are seem to be golden albinos with black eyes.

xxianxx: some people say their tads died off caused by malnutrion/liver problems because spinatch, but some say it's ok. I thought it won't hurt to combine it with some seemingly nutritious stuff.

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## SanderB

I fed my tadpoles spirulina tablets and algea tablets crushed into powder.
Once they become little frogs I feed them frozen bloodworms.

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## Tony

> I think it might be tough to tell eye color on the little "albino" ones. I was in the fish store the other day and they had some newly morphed albino froglets. I stared at their eyes for a good 5 minutes trying to decide if they were red or not. I decided they must just be regular albinos, their eyes looked dark at first glance, but if you looked hard enough there was a slight reddish hue. 
> Their eyes may turn more red in the next few weeks, especially if dad is a regular albino. 
> I have a strange albino that has red eyes, but some darker pigment on his back. I'm still not sure if he's reticulated or not. I thought that reticulateds had dark eyes. 
> That's him on the left.



Reticulated only refers to an albino animal having a pattern. Yours is a reticulated albino(and quite handsome too). Black eyes would be a whole new thing.

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## Tony

Sander your guys are look damn good. I knew the algae type diet would be stellar. That's all they would get as a filter feeder in the wild  anyway. Algae is packed with protein.

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## Michael

> Yes, I think the eye colour will change too. The most developed one already has some reddish in his eyes.
> It´s kinda strange cause with axolotls you can tell on day 1 if they are white or albino.


Okay I am a little confused do ACF come in white AND albino, these are classified as separate types yes? My 'albino' is white and he has black eyes (well not, not red at least) though.

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## SanderB

> Okay I am a little confused do ACF come in white AND albino, these are classified as separate types yes? My 'albino' is white and he has black eyes (well not, not red at least) though.


That is a normal albino.

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## Michael

> That is a normal albino.


I see, I wonder why some have red eyes and others black? Mine definitely does not have red eyes.

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## SanderB

Albino means they have no pigment, the red is just the blood you see through the cells.

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## SanderB

I have good and bad news.
The bad news: the white ones are not leucistics.
The good news: they are reticulated albinos.

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## SanderB

An update, sold the wildtypes and now I am planning to keep 1 couple of the reticulated ones, I think they are 2 females and 2 males. The wildtype I bought is a male.

Photos:

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## Gemma

They're lovely!  :Big Grin:  This thread has got me all excited. Some of my tadpoles have just started to develop their back legs.

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## SanderB

It´s easter so: eggs  :Smile:

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## SanderB

The eggs are hatching.

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## SanderB

Larvea  :Smile: 
This time more then 10  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## SanderB

Free swimming



And the adults have laid eggs once again. But I have enough tadpoles  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## SanderB

Video

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