# Frogs & Toads > Fire Belly Toads (Bombina) >  Uh Oh.  Gonna have babies

## alane

This afternoon I examine my tank.  I'm trying to remove all of the mosquitofish from my tank so that the shrimp can breed without getting eaten.  I've gotten five of them, the sixth is elusive.

I've seen my six toads mount each other before in dominance displays.

Last night was a little different. The result was frog eggs.

The 'yolk' is about 2-3mm in diameter, there appear to be two transparent encapsulations making the overall sphere about 4mm in diameter.
I can see maybe 20 eggs.  There are no doubt a handful I cannot see.
I figure they are probably fertile, as I have plenty of males.  I still haven't worked out which one(s) is a female.

Uh.  Wow.

I can't really effectively move my adults from the main tank somewhere else.  But I could take out tadpoles and put them into a small 'satellite' tank.
Since I don't think I want 20+ frogs, I have a feeling that these newcomers are all destined to be eaten in some way at some point.

I feel proud to have provided my frogs an environment where they feel comfortable enough to do tha nasty.


Any advice?

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## Joshheitkemper

I would probably move the adult and eggs to a different tank, but do you want the extra toads?

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## emily0616

Just wondering what kind of frogs, I don't know if i keep skipping over it or if it's mentioned. But definitely separate babies and parents.

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## emily0616

Just kidding, I see now that it's in a fire belly toad section or whatever this is, lol I just started using this sorry

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## alane

Fire Belly Toads.  I got them about seven weeks ago or so.  Put 'em into a 30 gallon tank with 11 gallons of water, lots of interesting habitat.  Added some cherry shrimp to the bottom of the tank to help clean up, which they do well.

I'm torn.  I've never been through this process.
I want to see the little ones emerge because I know they will be so cute.
But I don't have space for keeping all of them, so...I guess nature will take it's course in some way.  Which probably means a meal for the adults.
But the little froglets will be so cute and the whole process will be fascinating to watch.
Until they get eaten.

I suppose I could devote my entire house to fire belly toad aquariums.  ah, the process of impending madness.

I do have a second 5 gallon tank attached to the first via a siphon.  Currently it has only vegetation in it.  So I do have a 'hatchery' of sorts all set up and ready to go; I would eventually need to add some sort of haul-out by the time they transformed.

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## Joshheitkemper

Yeah. The babies will prob eat fish food and tetra discs or something like that. I don't much about fire bellies and if you should keep the eggs with the adults or not. I usuallly deal with bullfrogs or painted frogs.

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## Joshheitkemper

What I would do is seperate the eggs and wait till they hatch and then give em to the local pet store.

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## alane

Ideally, I would leave the eggs alone, remove all of the adults into another tank.  I do not have that other tank that can fit six adults.

Since they apparently like to hump my Elodea sprigs, I traded eggy sprigs for non-eggy sprigs.  Now the 4 gallon satellite tank has three eggy sprigs (about 15 eggs) and no adults.  And there are fresh sprigs in the main tank if they want to lay more eggs on them.  There's gotta be at least 10 more eggs i'll not be able to get to, so when they become free swimming, I'll try to net them.
Same water, same temperature, so no shock there, I hope.

There are lots of good help sheets out there.  Including one on this website.  I can see that if I continue down this path, i'll need special foods and a different enclosure for the little frogs at some point.

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## alane

Eggs:

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## alane

24 hours later, most eggs are no longer spherical.  This backlit image shows the various egg encapsulations well.

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## Xavier

Sorry I haven't gotten to this sooner! Yes, that last picture is definetly proof those eggs are fertile. Here's a link to a care-sheet that has info on raising tadpoles of this species: http://www.frogforum.net/content.php...-and-relatives

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## alane

They were making quite a racket last night.

And now there are about 50 more eggs.

Good lord.

Do they stop laying eggs?


The eggs laid a few days ago have developed more:  I see a spine, eye spots; a little miniature tadpole with a yolk sac.  Also, they twitch once on a while now.
[edit] they are hatching or within hours of hatching.  I see a few tadpoles no longer in an egg.  Some are very close to emerging from the egg.  They still have a little bit of yolk left, they are not actively seeking food yet; they are mostly motionless but once once in a while they vibrate.  They seem to remain attached to the location where they were an egg.  The care sheets say that they'll finish off their yolk first before venturing forth.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## privet01

Do you think a change in the overall tank temperature may have sparked the breeding?  Did the temperature you try to maintain it at go from a lower temp to a higher temp?

Just curious.  Trying to see if I can come up with any evidence that may re-assure me that I might be able to exercise some controls to their environment that might keep them out of the mood to mate should I decide to get more FBT's.

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## alane

I've done a few things that could have stimulated them to breed.

Weekly water changes:  Although I let the water warm to room temperature, my tank slightly heated to be a little above room temperature.  So on a water change, i'll drop from 76 to 73 degrees, sometimes more.  The first water change I did dropped the temperature quite a bit.  The frogs did not seem to mind, in fact they seem to like changes to their environment.  Far from hiding, it kind of gives them energy to explore.

Rain mode:  To clean the tank, I can reconfigure the water return to "rain on things".

Both of these things, i've heard, can stimulate them to breed.


I count about twenty five tadpoles.  The first brood hatched.  The second clutch of eggs is also obviously fertile.

Their behavior is odd; they don't move.  They pick an out-of-the-way spot, hang motionless, vertically, head up and tail down.  I read that they have to fully consume their yolk first before they start eating for real.  Don't know how many days that'll take.
Fortunately, the mosquito fish in my tank are not large enough to eat these tadpoles.

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## alane

Egg, mid to late development.


A tiny little free tadpole.  1cm head to tail.

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## Froggie85

This is exciting . I wish I could have babies I dont understand why I have not yet . There temp is perfect! SO CUTE!!! im jelly

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## alane

The tadpoles in the satellite tank are not doing as well as the ones in the adult tank.  I believe this is because the mosquito fish were harassing them and nipping at their tails.  At least one tadpole died, some have nips out of their tail.  I removed the mosquito fish and put them back into their outside pond, where they came from.  The tadpoles and eggs in the satellite tank are now all alone.

The tadpoles in the adult tank are doing well.  The first group that hatched out appears to be scavenging and eating, and are visibly larger merely 24 hours later.  The second group of eggs has hatched, and the first set of tadpoles is twice the size of the second set already.  The second set of eggs were more numerous, all fertile with very few or no failures during growth, and smaller.  There appears to have been a very minor third egg laying as well, just a few.  When an egg fails during development, development stops and it turns cloudy.

The better tadpole development in the adult tank may be a result of simply having a better environment to live in; many more places to hide, lots of food, no other animals picking on them.

It's hard to believe that these things are gonna turn into fire belly toads.  I wonder at what point do they turn green and become cute.  I'll be sure to post photos.

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## alane

This is one of the most mature tadpoles, posing on the glass for me.  Check out the video on YouTube, below.

They have a sucker mouth and eat on almost any surface.  They love algae.
You can see the beating heart in the video quite clearly.
And it's mostly intestines!  Eats poops and grows 24-7.



Video of tadpole.  A mouth, a heart, a tail, and a lot of intestines with food.
https://youtu.be/oy6N-7Ii41s

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## privet01

I'm impressed.  No wonder so many have to be hatched for a few to make it in nature.  They are just a snack waiting for bigger things to come snap them up.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

My tank has rather a lot of activity now.  One would _never_ throw this many fishes into a tank this size.  But now i've got a whole bunch of little tadpole swimmers that are cleaning the tank out and growing like weeds.

I'm glad I chose to put some sort of media on the bottom of the tank.  I chose dark blue glass pellets.  This apparently gives me just a ton of hidey-holes that collect food as well as provide a favored shelter for tadpoles.  It is also a good background to view cherry shrimp.
I suspect the cherry shrimp are bummed at this point to see so many tadpoles invading the place.

One odd behavior.  Some of them will race to the top, take a gulp of air, then race back down to the bottom.  They don't have lungs yet.  I wonder why some of them do that?

Very few of the first generation of eggs survived, but that handful of tadpoles are huge compared to the main population.
There are just a few eggs left to hatch of the third clutch but they will.  The second, most numerous clutch hatched with almost 100% viability.

Fascinating to watch.

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## alane

I had to remove the reptile waterfall from the tank.  It was trouble for two reasons:

1) It is a death trap for fast growing animals.  Tadpoles go into the intake holes, eat on the filter, and grow until they can no longer get back out.
2) It's a snail haven.

Fortunately, I caught it early and most of the tadpoles that had been captured by this thing were still alive and doing well.  I believe I saw three dead and maybe twenty live.  The bigger they are, the more likely they are to survive stuff like this, it seems.

I noticed the problem because the pump inside of the waterfall started sucking air.  So many critters had gotten into it, that it's filter was no longer working well.

The remaining water intake is covered in plenty of filter media material, so the water flow is very slow and will not disturb even the smallest of critters.  Also this intake serves as a prime feeding ground.

All of the tadpoles are in 24-7 eat/poop mode.  The biggest are about 25mm long now.  like a flattened grayish jellybean with a tail.

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## alane

I've got a pair of frogs that's been in amplexus for hours.  A receptive female.  I wonder if i'm going to get another brood of eggs tonight.  I guess in the wild, it's breeding for the whole season.  Ouch.

I saw one of the bigger tadpoles feeding close to the surface.  An adult snapped at it and missed.  It would have been an enormous mouthful for this toad, the tadpoles have grown.  So I can see how if you want to avoid casualties, you separate the adults from the rest.  However, I believe that the number of tadpoles and the growth rate will outweigh any such losses.

I'm hoping to raise a frog or three to help replace the one that I neglectfully killed by leaving the top of the cage open.  *snif*

Here is a pic of the largest tadpole as of today.  You can see tiny little itty bitty froggy legs starting to develop.

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## alane

More eggs were laid in my tank last night.

So, basically, tadpoles are going to be a constant thing in this tank.

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CritterGirl

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## alane

These eggs are also fertile.  With all of the medium sized tadpoles constantly feeding, the tank is a less friendly environment to this new wave.

At night, the tadpoles get active.  I peeked in on the tank at midnight with a flashlight.  So much activity.

The cherry shrimp in this tank also had babies, but those babies are so microscopic, they are hard to see let alone photograph.

I believe I am about two to three weeks away from emergence according to things i've read.

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## privet01

Are you leaving the tads in the same tank as the parents?  I'm guessing that's a good way to minimize the population explosion.  All thoughts on that will be interesting if anyone cares to comment.
Keep the pic's coming when you can.  They are interesting to see.

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## WhitesTreeFrog

I would suggest giving them to pet store if u dont want them but you might want to keep a few. However if the adults start eating them which i dont think they will, you should remove the babies not the adults. figure out a safe way. also that wold mean you need a smaller second tank because adults need more space then babies. You could also try putting them up for sale on this website in the for sale section. but if u do you should add where to get them because shipping frogs = bad idea.

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## alane

I found a nifty way to move the tadpoles into my side-tank.  I replaced the small siphon hose with much larger one and removed the filter...it's big enough to fit a tadpole; I've seen one go through.  Over time, I expect i'll catch quite a few in the side tank.  The side tank's pump returns water to the main tank, so the siphon is what moves water from the main tank to the side tank. 

With the tadpoles emerging on a floating platform in the side tank, I don't have to worry about adults eating them.  But I sure do have to make the lid secure!

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## alane

Boy have they progressed.  I fished about 20 of them out of the tank and into a nursery box where I can feed them fruit flies.

The rest are emerging in the adult tank.  Little toadlets.  Everywhere.

Even when I try hard to make a good environment, there's a certain mortality.  The nursery is a critter keeper with a little water in it and a reptomat for them to climb out onto.  Also, a few abalone shells to climb out of the water entirely if they want to.  Well, one got 'stuck' under the mat and drowned.  One 'dried out' and got stuck to the abalone shell and died there.  So, two died in the nursery but there's 20 more thriving.

They are not eating yet.  I expect the most mature one might start eating tomorrow, his tail is gone, he is a toadlet.

I've not seen my adults successfully get a toadlet, but i'm looking at my adults and wondering how they got so fat.

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## privet01

welcome back.  Glad the four or so days of "database error" didn't cause you to "forget" us.  I do enjoy the continuing saga.  Keep it coming.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Even though i've seen the adults 'trigger' once or twice on a toadlet, they seem to coexist way, way better than I had imagined.

I even let them get a little hungry, not feeding them crickets for a few days.  The toadlets can do a dance in front of an adult frog and not trigger it.

But good lord, put a handful of crickets in the cage when they haven't eaten for a few days.  Angry Brawl.  Everyone got fed, but not until some food aggression got worked out.

I suppose that the tadpole side-tank was still very useful, as the tadpoles wreak havoc on a tank and every other living creature in it.  For the 24-7 feeding period of a tadpole, it's better they feed on their own.  But once they stop eating, they are better off in the adult tank.  The environment seems much better for them, highly varied.

Even though I have a few fruit fly cultures going, I don't have enough flies to feed them all, and feeding gnats to the little ones in the adult tank will be very wasteful.

I was kind of hoping that the adults would snap some of them up and I wouldn't be left with a lot of lingering starving froglets.

Pics.  Yes I know.  I'll get right on that.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Here's two pictures.  Sorry the first one is blurry, but it's my smallest, most micro toadlet riding on the head of an adult.



Everyone likes fruit flies.  The adults totally don't mind getting piled on.


I've seen a toadlet get snapped at...but the toad that snapped at the toadlet then got accosted by another adult.  I know they are hungry, but they just don't seem to trigger on the babies.

Now put a cricket in there after a few days of fasting?  Wow.  Never fails to amaze.  Bedlam.

The adults like fruit flies as much as the babies.

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## alane

It's surprising to me that the best environment for these little toadlets is the adult aquarium enclosure.  They integrate very well with the adults and don't get eaten or even harmed.  At least in my case.

I have one 'critter keeper' lined with a wet paper towel, frog moss, covered in saran wrap to keep the flies in.  In this enclosure are about ten toadlets i'm keeping separate from the rest.  I have to hydrate them daily.

The rest of the froglets are in the adult enclosure.  I do nothing for them except dump fruit flies in.  They swim when they want to and seem to have no problem with the adults.  In fact, the little toadlets tend to ride on the adults heads.  It's super cute.  They are of all sizes and ages at this point.  There's a few under developed super tiny toadlets that are ultra cute.

I've had a few unexplained deaths in the critter keeper.  But in the adult tank, i've not seen a single issue.

I guess i've got quite a few weeks before the toadlets get so large that i've got a crowding problem in the tank.

Right now, they are so small that they are hidden away everywhere and it does not appear to be an overcrowding situation...yet...


I was able to keep my main tank pretty clean with the use of that side siphon tank.  I was able to gently coax all of those tadpoles into the side tank and feed them there.  All of the **** ended up in the side tank and my main tank remained cleaner than it would have.

Over all, I put ONE POUND of spinach into my aquarium.  !!!


I guess the advantages of the adult enclosure over the critter keeper are:  Better humidity.  More water.  More consistent temperature.  More natural environment.

I guess the critter keeper advantage would be that I can assure that the frogs get more consistently fed.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

remarkably, the little toadlets, smaller than a large cricket...will strike at a large cricket.  such a prey drive!

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## alane

I must have a hundred toadlets by now of all sizes.  Just dumped a thousand flies into the tank.  Somehow the water quality is still good.  And the adults are still laying eggs.  Sheesh.

The mortality rate is very low as I have not seen a single dead toad.

I'm not going to be feeding the new tadpoles as I did the old.  It's just too much.  I almost killed my bio-filters when I put 5 pounds of spinach in the tank to feed the first batch (not all at once obviously but still, that's a lot of spinach).

They will unfortunately have to 'fend' and won't be as large or healthy as the first.

The largest toadlets are now about a quarter of the size of an adult and their bellies are starting to turn orange.  They start out white.

Boy am I greeted enthusiastically when I come by.  Food on their minds.

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## alane

I kind of ran out of flies...i've got a new batch growing to feed my toadlets, but right now they are starving hungry.

I've seen only one dead toadlet, a super small one that I guess was on the edge of viability in the first place.

The five adults are consigned to being furniture for the myriad toadlets of various sizes.

I still have a handful of tadpoles as well.

The cherry shrimp have grown in population dramatically.  Now when a cricket drowns, it's ripped apart and in 24 hours, it's gone.  Some of the female shrimp have too many eggs to hold onto and they spend their time juggling three too many eggs.

I had an explosion of snails from some stuff I got at PetSmart.  I added five assassin snails.  They do their job well.  Now I see only an occasional snail, mostly assassin snails.

And there is now some planaria in my tank, feasting on a layer of goo at the bottom.


I was initially fearful that vinegar would upset the chemistry in the tank and now I understand that it's largely neutral and actually a food for the bacteria.  So a wipe down with a vinegar rag has kept the glass pretty clean.

I'm using tap water with a touch of acid buffer to bump the pH down closer to 7.  The water is full of minerals; highly buffered and stable as heck considering how many froggies I have.

Once I get a good load of flies going, I expect a few months I can start them on small crickets.  Then maybe I can find homes for them.

But right now they are pretty hungry, awaiting my batches of flies to mature.  This time, I know to start new cultures more aggressively lest they mostly die on me and leave me with just enough flies to start new cultures but not enough flies for food.

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## alane

Well, I now have enough flies to keep my tank full of F. B. Toadlets gorged.

I lost two of the tiniest toadlets.  Of all of the tadpoles I had, most were fed well but a few were not and developed into micro-toads anyway.  These are the ones that are the least viable.
They didn't last long...I've got cherry shrimp and...believe it or not...more tadpoles.  Those make short work of anything that dies and sinks to the bottom of the tank.
The last batch of tadpoles are very fat and their back legs just formed, so it won't be long before they stop eating and morph.

Some time late in the season i'm gonna have a lot of FBTs to find homes for.  A lot.

I caught a male grabbing my female and I looked right at them and told them in my most stern voice "no more.  stop."

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Bryce

Wow, sounds like Firebellies toads are pretty eager breeders. You should get pictures up!

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Yeah, next post i'll put up pics.

A big heat wave is coming this week, it'll put my tank well above the safe temperature for these frogs.

I've found that water changes does not help much.  Evaporation only helps a bit.

I'm gonna make big ice cubes out of dechlorinated water.  Frogs are gonna get ice for the first time this coming week.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Well, okay, i'm putting dechlorinated ice cubes into the tank.  Woe to the toadlet that rafts on these.  They try, and then when they hop off, they find that their legs only half work.  They warm up immediately when they get back into the water.

But a lot of ice cubes reduces the temperature only slightly.

It occurs to me that I cannot stay home every nice warm weekend, throwing ice cubes into my damn frog tank.  Not sustainable.

I'm gonna have to purchase a chiller.  No way around it.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Something interesting about the toxins these fellow produce:

When I first got them, I was very sensitive to their toxins.  Touching the frogs, even touching the water could make my skin dry, crack, bleed.  It took weeks to heal.  Terrible.  I avoided contact best I could.

Well, months later I am now realizing that I don't have any reaction anymore when touching the water or handling the frogs, dealing with the filters, etc.  Apparently, it's a toxin that it fairly easy to develop resistance to.
Either that or my FBTs have become non toxic.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Bryce

Wow, the toxins thing is really interesting. I didn't know they were even toxic to such an extent, and the developed immunity is interesting, and pretty quickly developed. I've been thinking about getting some, so it's good to know lol

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## alane

Well, the heat wave is over.  Adding ice to the tank only reduces the temperature for under one hour, then it goes right back up.

The hottest temperature I saw was 87 degrees.  It stayed at that temperature for 36 hours.  I was very worried.  Everything I did...ice and water changes...worked for a bit, but it went right back to 87F.  Toadlets are stupid about rafting on ice cubes.  The ones that do end up in quite a torpor.
 There is no direct sunlight involved so the water temp was 87F...outside of the water, in the breeze of the fan, I suspect it is much cooler for them.

Froggies did not even lose their appetite or change their cute behavior in any way.

I've left the top of the tank open with a fan blowing.  Lost a whole gallon of water to evaporation.

I don't think I need a chiller after all.

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## alane

The cherry shrimp are thriving in this tank.  They appear to be able to handle FBT water in the long term.

But not everything can...I tried a dwarf crayfish...those did not last long at all.

I added some assassin snails to try and cope with an outbreak of other nuisance snails...the assassin snails cannot survive very long in a Fire Belly Toad tank; they are all dead after two months.  The nuisance snail is still there, but in lower numbers.

So...
Mosquito fish and cherry shrimp and some sort of snail that I got from petsmart - no problem in an FBT tank
Assassin snails or dwarf crayfish - soon dead

It's hit and miss.  I feel like Doctor Frankenstein, mixing creatures from around the world in my experimental tank.

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## sambal

With great interest I have read this thread. It was very entertaining to follow your whole proces. Even more so because end of April my own toads also surprised me with eggs. I would be very curious to see how yours look like now, would it be possible to post some more photos?
Here some videos of mine because for some reason I cannot upload any images, jpg or png, does anyone else experience this problem too?




And a more explicit one...

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Just added a chiller to my frog tank.  Now, instead of a hot ambient temperature, close to a dangerous temperature...

it's whatever I want.  74F is what it is now.

one of my frogs, over-night, turned a bright lime green in response.  they do seem more active at this temperature.

and I no longer have to worry about heat waves and plopping ice into the tank.

i need to 'focus' on pictures next.


that twerking video is hilarious!

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

The chiller works great.  The frogs are very happy.  The males are calling loudly and many batches of eggs have been laid in the past week.

But the interesting thing is...the eggs are 0% viable.  Earlier in the season it was closer to 100%.  And now?  Every single one of them fails.

I am not complaining.  I don't need any more toadlets.  But it is a mystery and i'd like to know why.

I dealt with a worm issue in my tank by adding a dose of fenbenzadole.  The worms, I believe, came from my outdoor pond.  Planaria + two other species of filament like worms.  Five days later, all gone.  Very effective and targeted medicine.

I don't know if that has anything to do with the egg issue.  I have added a bunch of activated charcoal to my filter system to try and absorb any problem chemicals in the water.  A basic test kit says my water is fine...no ammonia, no nitrite, 7.6 pH.  And lots of nitrates, but that is typical for a tank loaded with frogs.

The toadlets are growing enough such that the adults are starting to interact with them.  I saw one adult grab a toadlet.  More like wrapped completely around it, lol.  Toadlet Did Not Want This and was able to swim away eventually, for they are squishy escape artists and hard to hold for long.  Such is the life of a frog I guess.

The chiller is a huge load off of my mind.  I can go on vacation and not worry about a stinking hot pool of death when I come back home.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

well, i'm being lazy on the photos.  i need to spend some time to clean up the glass on my tank.  good lord my water is hard.

My frogs lay eggs about every week.  But the last few months, all eggs have been sterile.  i do not know why.  could be the high temperatures i had before the chiller was added.  could be a toxin i cannot detect with my test kit.  could be a sterile frog.

i was concerned that there was a water quality issue even though a basic test kit showed no problems.
in response to the dead eggs i've been getting, I added some activated charcoal and some "de-nitrate" to my filter.

one week later...i have live eggs...i expect to get some 'clinger' tadpoles this evening as they hatch out.  my tank has developed enough algae that i suspect they will have plenty to eat and i look forward to getting the algae cleaned up in a natural manner.

I do not know whether or not there was a water quality issue.  A frog was either shooting blanks, or I had something in the water that did not show up on the test kit...and was removed by the activated charcoal.

either way, i'm down to about 30 froggies.  most of them are originals from the first batch of eggs.  they are 1/3rd the size of the adults and would probably develop faster if I fed them at a maximum rate.  many of the latter and smaller toadlets didn't get fed enough and they started to die off.  if i had fed them all, i'd be at over 100 toadlets.  there's a population of cherry shrimp on the bottom of this tank that'll eat a dead froglet in one day.

there is a balance between water quality and how much food i throw into this tank.  so i don't max out the food.  wish i could save them all, but then i'd be up to my eyeballs in toadlets and would be branded, rightfully so, a crazy frog person.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Bryce

Wow. At that rate you could probably sell CB firebellies lol

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

they sell at the local pet store for $3.  :O

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## Bryce

Wow. In my area it's usually 6 or so dollars. Still, if you have have excess you can offer them on Craigslist for a couple bucks each and still make a bit of money, but it's  probably not worth it lol

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## alane

I started feeding them nightcrawlers.  I have to cut the worm into pieces.  The first feeding was hilarious:

I put the worm in the middle of the tank.  All five adults came up to look at it.  None would eat.  They were all daring each other to go first.
Eventually one ate it, tentatively.

Now, I find that one of my adults simply does not like worms.  Three of them will eat them willingly.  One of them goes absolutely nuts for worms and will snap excitedly and randomly whenever one comes near.  A good worm meal makes 'em go catatonic in the sense that they'll just stare at space blankly nomatter what you do.

I try to feed the adults worms first before I throw in the crickets.  The small crickets are supposed to be for the toadlets.

A really short worm segment can be swallowed by a toadlet.  However, not all at once.  And this typically results in two frogs struggling to eat the same worm.  If two frogs get the same worm, they do anything they can to wrench the worm out of the other frogs mouth.  they both start flailing wildly.  poor worm.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Bryce

Wow, brutal! :Frog Surprise: 
Interesting to find out about the one toad not liking worms. Everybody has preferences, right?

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

The bottom of my tank has a population of cherry shrimp.  about the time i had a ton of tadpoles, my intake filter (some filter material simply wrapped around the intake) clogged due to all of the food going into the tank, so I removed it.

Many weeks later, I noticed that there were zero shrimp babies.

I put an intake filter back on two weeks ago.

And today, the number of tiny baby shrimp is... countless...  good lord they are everywhere.

the intake filter is an important thing as far as not sucking up all of the baby shrimp.

sweet.  this is an intensely effective cleanup crew.  I dropped a worm fragment the other day, went to the bottom.  The assassin snails and the cherry shrimp loved it.  gone in hours.

the shrimp are interesting to watch, they 'fly' around everywhere and land on any surface and pick at it.  The females have so many eggs in their clutch that they end up spending their time juggling eggs.  a few too many to just grab at once, they sort of constantly lose a few and grab em back.

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## alane

Ok, well, i'm going to make a confession.  I feel that some folks will take this poorly, but I feel I should share anyway.

It is common knowledge that Fire Belly Toads are poisonous, mildly so.

It's common knowledge that PacMan frogs will readily eat another frog.

I had a tank with a hundred FBTs.

I reasoned this way:  Perhaps the FBTs do not develop their poison until they grow up.

So....  (you can see where this is going)


On a day where Doug, the Pacman frog was hungry, i put some toadlets in a container next to him.  He wanted them.

So, I gave him the smallest.  He ate 'em up, no problem.  NOM!  Doug the Pacman will eat two at a time.

Well, the next week I fed Doug, and being wary of the poison toadlets, I gave him a toadlet that was four weeks old.  Not a freshly hatched one.

And.... (i'm not proud of this by the way)

Bubbles.  Bubbles came out of my Pacman frog's nose after he ate it.

Ugh.  Oops.  That was the end of that experiment.

This was many many months ago, my Pacman frog is still growing like a weed.  That incident did not seem to cause lasting damage.

And I still got a tank of FBTs, but more like 30 and not 100.

I am going with nightcrawlers right now for both species of frog (and small crickets for the FBT toadlets).  This sort of food fattens them up good.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Bryce

Real talk, I understand how people could find this outrageous or offensive, but I understand. My Woodhouse's Toads would stare and even lunge at the side of the tank while their enclosure was situated next to that of my Pacific Treefrogs. I considered offering them(and my pacman) some tadpoles or young frogs, since I had/have so many. While in the end I decided not to, for multiple reasons, it's not unreasonable in my opinion. Pacman frogs regularly eat other frogs in the wild, anyway. The major arguments against it are usually passing on parisites(Shouldn't be an issue with your captive bred toads, anyway.), the moral dilemma of feeding a frog to another frog, and possible toxins. Personally, I think what you did isn't too big a deal. I even caught an adult Pacific Treefrog chowing down on a baby one once, and had to seperate them, which kinda changed my views on frogs eating eachother. Also, I've no experience with FBTs, but I have(accidentally) kept a Rough skinned or California newt larvae, for a short period of time. Both species are HIGHLY neurotoxic, but after some checking I found out the larvae are not poisonous, and that they only begin producing toxins after metamorphosis.(These newts were returned to their original habitat soon after, just for the record. I wasn't comfortable with them in my house.) While not really similar species, it's possible they are the same in terms of toxin production. Oh, and I'm glad Doug is fine.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Well, my babies are still slowly growing.  We went through a pretty awful heat wave, temps were over 107F.  I don't really know, as I fled to the coast...i'm not going to stew in that heat if I can help it...and the chiller on my aquarium kept my frog colony alive and healthy at 72F.  My PacMan frog can take the heat easily it seems, I figured as much as he's a tropical kind of frog.

The FBT tank has been a regulated 72F for some time now and my frogs, who used to sing all the time, have stopped entirely.  Dead quiet.  They otherwise appear happy, healthy and hungry.

It's interesting that I do, quite often, see an adult frog get a small frog in its mouth.  But these frogs seem to have no teeth at all, and every time it has happened, the little frog gets gummed for a while and then spit out.  I've not seen any toadlets that have been harmed by this.  Although occasionally the toadlet is so irritated from being swallowed by an adult that they go on a very fast swim, back and forth the length of the tank about three times before settling down.  No missing legs detected so far.  The one time one 'bit' my finger, i hardly felt a thing.
And yet, with crickets, these frogs are quick, accurate and deadly.

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## sambal

I have to admit I was rather sceptical when you first said that the adults won't eat their toadlets, since I know them for stricking at ANYTHING that would fit into their mouths. However, I've been keeping a small amount of tiny toadlets from the latest batch together with the adults for a while now and indeed not a single toadlet has been swallowed! I've seen an adult strike at a toadlet twice but this was only when the toadlet got startled by me and made a huge jump landing right in front of an adult but in both cases the adult seemed less 'motivated' to actually catch it if that makes any sense. For the rest the toadlets can roam the tank freely crawling in front of the adults without any problem, the adults do not seem interested at all. Very interesting! I did not expect these frogs to have such cognitive abilities.

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daybr4ke

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## Bryce

This is interesting. I kept a lot of Pacific Treefrog froglets in a tank with two adults. I guess they aren't as smart as Firebellies, because those adults ate at least a few of the smaller froglets. With the Firebellies, I wonder if a part of it is due to their toxicity. Maybe even the toadlets taste a little bad so if they snatch one on accident they know immediately?

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## alane

I think FBTs may be on the 'smart' scale of things.

They are curious such that if one changes their environment, they check it out.

If I put a food they have not seen much, such as a worm, they'll come up to it, stare at it, dare each other to strike at it.  Eventually one will.  But it is tentative.

Put a cricket in the tank?  They can catch them before they even hit the floor.  They have been known to jump the length of the tank immediately and accurately.  They love looking at the shadow of a cricket under a leaf; they will all jump to get it.  The cricket either gets ate or goes flying.  They are nutz for crickets.  No hesitation.

Put a toadlet in the tank?  The adults let them ride on their backs.

Once, I saw one that looked like it had a bloated belly.  I carefully picked him up.  He deflated...just trying to float...no problem.
But then something remarkable happened.  As I had this frog upside down, he struggled a bit as one would expect...then he went limp.  It was not an unken reflex.  Froggy just relaxed and let all four legs droop down.  I'm holding the frog upside down, mind you, and it relaxes completely.  I was a little worried until I put him back into the tank, where he woke up and hopped away.

I know you are not supposed to touch them, and at first, I had a bad skin reaction whenever I as much as touched the water.  But i've gotten used to it and can apparently handle one without any reaction now.  little upside down relaxed frog in my hand was just a pool of jello.  as if it had no bones at all.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## sambal

When observing their behaviour I would also say they are rather smart (for a frog), however they are in fact one of the most primitive species of frogs, which would suggest the opposite.. I have never had any other species in captivity so I have nothing to compare them to but with firebellies I have always been surprised by how much 'personality' they have. 

About the 'jello frog'; Frogs in general can get completely paralysed when handled; take any type of frog and put it on its' back and gently hold it down for a few seconds. After that slowly remove your hand and the frog will remain on its' back for a long time. Years ago I filmed this behaviour with one of my firebellies for a school project, I found the video and uploaded it to youtube to share it with you:




In the first place this is a defence mechanism to confuse predators but I have noticed that when my firebellies are in a exceptionally horny mood they also seem to get very passive when handled. They can just be scooped out of the water and just seem mellow and can't be bothered and will remain in any position that you put them in.

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Cliygh and Mia 2, daybr4ke

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## sambal

Oh yes and about the toxicity; I don't think one of my adults has ever had one of the toadlets in its' mouth, let alone all seven of the adults. And still they all seem to ignore them as food. Of course it is very possible that they did in fact all tasted one and learned from their mistakes or even that they smell or sense in any other way the toxicity of the toadlets. I am not sure though if toadlets of this age have already developed their toxins, I'm talking straight out of the water with a tail toadlets.. It would be an interesting experiment to put some toadlets of another species in the tank and see if the adults react any different to those.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Daily check on the tank...the chiller is running.  It's thermostat isn't working right.  The chiller thermostat says 77F.  My tank thermometer is at 65F.  It's supposed to be at 73F.

So.  Chiller gets turned off until I can fix or replace its thermostat.

Frogs dont seem to mind at all.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## Xavier

Sorry, I haven't been online that much frequently, been very busy with life and school. This is an interesting read, as I was considering attempting to breed this species someday in the future. Do you have any homes planned out for all the juveniles yet?

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## alane

Well, the chiller is okay.  It malfunctioned due to low flow in the filter/pump system.  It was time to overhaul the filter and pump system, which I did.  Full flow restored and correct cooling too.  And now, my tank is in 'rain configuration' and it's raining heartily on the frogs.

In celebration of this basic maintenance victory, I set the cooler down a few degrees to simulate 'winter' for the little fellows.

I gotta say those 'razor blade on a handle' tank cleaners work great for removing any sort of stuff on your glass, both above and below water.  hard water deposits come right off.  cool.

No plans for the juveniles as of yet.  they are so cool to listen to now, the little ones 'beep' a few octaves above the adults now.

The cherry shrimp are thriving on the bottom.  I am so tempted to add african dwarf frogs to this tank but I suspect I should just enjoy what i got.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

I am buying them exclusively large crickets, as I find the small crickets just are not much of a meal.  I still have some smallish toadlets, in fact some are quite small and apparently are behind the others.  Yet...I see that these smallest of my toadlets have no problem downing the largest of crickets.  It's comical and somewhat frightful.  You'd think that a toad that is about the size of a cricket could not do it.  But the toadlet stretches.  I have seen only one toadlet 'abort' a meal that was too large.  I am stunned at how they can expand to fit their food.

One interesting fact is that the frog/toad is the "lowest" animal that evolved a vomit reflex.  This is the first animal that could puke.
No doubt this is a survival instinct to be able to puke up either items that are too large or are not digestible.

But, my, these things do love their crickets.  Much, much more so than any other food.

Some of the adults do not like the dusted crickets.  These adults get extra vitamins, as they always end up with a mouthful of dust whether or not they swallowed the prey.

The PacMan frog I had was "is he gonna eat today".  The FBT tank is "how many are you willing to feed them because they'll eat it if you give it to em".

They will occasionally get excited about food and strike at my fingers.  Cute little mouths with no teeth and a sticky tongue.

I am getting lots of enjoyment out of this tank of frogs.

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Cliygh and Mia 2

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## alane

Well, it must be Easter.  My one female has gotten fat...my frogs are making a racket...and this morning I see a few eggs.

The first set of eggs she laid was last year, they were highly fertile and I have 20 subadults still from last year.  Many more laying sessions last season became less and less fertile until she laid eggs that all failed.

I was astounded that the 40 or so tadpoles I got ended up eating about five pounds of spinach.  It all went into my filters as nasty smelling green goo.  I lost about half of them, the ones that didn't do well coming at the end of the season.

It looks like I need to keep a close eye on a few round blobs to see whether or not they develop.

I sure do not need any more frogs in this tank and will have to cull them all.  But they are so cute.  Kills me.
I need a fish that'll eat eggs but somehow leave my cherry shrimp alone.  Sigh.

I read recently that a good way to lower pH is with tannin.  I have very mineralized basic tap water.  So, it seems that throwing a pinecone into my tank is a good way to lower the pH.  The tannins do not seem to have hurt any of the residents.

Good lord that poor female.  She has four males grabbing her.

The sub-adult toadlets are also practicing amplexus but they are not good at it yet.

It was hilarious to see an adult try to amplexus a sub-adult.  One frog just completely wraps around another frog.  Looks unpleasant for the subject.  The eternal struggle.  Legs go every which way.  LOL!

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## alane

Not a whole lot of eggs laid, I can count maybe eight.  I suspect I can see only half of them, froggies hide them well.

They are developing quickly.  Yesterday they were spheres.  Today they are elongated crescents and I can tell which end is the head.

It is quite amazing to watch the progress.

I have quite a buildup of algae in places.  If these fellows hatch out, they will probably strip the tank clean like they did last time.

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## alane

The first tadpole of this year is now free of it's egg.  I suspect the rest will follow soon.  Just 3 days for the egg to hatch!

I look forward to the tadpole-eats-algae phase, where they munch non-stop on anything green for many weeks.

They eventually get very active and the tank becomes bedlam with 'little dark colored grapes' swimming constantly every which way.

I'm hoping to set up a security camera to watch this tank for the next few weeks.  An edited video of 12 weeks of development compressed into a minute might be interesting.

I have one male who _really_ wants to go.  But I have only one egg laying female in a tank of five adults and fifteen subadults.  So he ends up grabbing the Wrong Frog most of the time.  Poor things.  To be grabbed underwater and held there, underwater, whilst you are struggling to get away looks kind of scary to us humans.  Nightmare fuel actually.  But that's what these creatures do.  Never seen one drown.

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## alane

this morning i can count six 'clinger' tadpoles.  A few more eggs yet to hatch.  And a new batch of a few eggs laid.

Last year had only a small population of cherry shrimp.  But now I have a maximum population and it makes it hard to count anything.

I am surprised that they are coming in less than 'ten' at a time.  I am gratified that it's not 'hundreds'.

As I recall, it's a few days before a clinger starts eating the algae on the side of the tank. 

And two toads in solid 24/7 amplexus, probably gonna be like that for a week.

They love their crickets so much.  The other day was not feeding time, but a cricket leg was floating in the water.  One of the toadlets noticed this, got into position to hunt down this floating leg.  It struck accurately.  *gulp*.  My they love their crickets, even the drumsticks.

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## alane

Well, they are free swimming now and eating all the time.  I've started to put a few leaves of wilted spinach in the tank and they eat it up, as well as the algae.  the 'coil' of their intestines is now apparent and they are a continual food processing machine.  It's very hard to get an accurate count but I believe I counted twelve the other day.

It looks like the first batch of eggs is super healthy and 100% viable.  no further eggs yet.  but i've been feeding my tank well and my frogs are phat.

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## alane

Twelve or so tadpoles are doing fine.

Last night, quite a racket from the tank.  I know what that means.
They are all over the place...
This morning, I figure at least 25 more eggs have been laid.

Yes, I saw that my female was way, way fat last night.  But I didn't say anything so as to not hurt her feelings.  I told her this morning she looked Very Slim Indeed!

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## sambal

Very nice that they're getting it on again! Mine are still a bit slow, it's rather cold here for the time of the year so I guess they don't have that spring feeling yet. Please consider raising the tadpoles to toadlets and selling those. I learned that almost all fire bellies sold at pet shops are actually wild caught.  I think it's great if we can saturate the market with captive bread frogs so the wild populations can be left alone! In my area a lot of pet shops were interested as well as private individuals. I ended up selling about 60 juveniles over the time span of just a month. Also sold another 50 or so tadpoles. Btw; I am curious how your one year olds look like now, could you post some photos? You show me yours I'll show you mine!

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## alane

Yes, I believe I have to sell them.  I've got one mailer from Josh's Frogs and there's enough unpacking videos on youtube that'll show me how to best pack these little fellows.
I'd better sell a few before I am overrun.  Right now, my frogs are still comfortable at their population density.

I am accumulating pictures, but let my 'creative cloud' subscription expire.  So I need to renew my familiar editing/publishing software to edit these pics.  I've definitely been holding out as far as pics go, and should apologize to the forum for that.

Last year, I tried various forms of nursery tanks.  The end result was that the tads that ate and frogs that emerged in the main adult tank were far healthier.  Even after they emerged, the babies did better in the adult tank than on their own.  It's just that when it came to fly feeding time, everyone eats.  And the adults eat a lot.  So you have to put LOTS of flies in the tank to keep them all fed.  LOTS of flies.  too many, really.  *shudder*

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## alane

my female frog has deflated

uncountable quantites of eggs are visible.  50?  100?

:O

better get a five pound bag of spinach.

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## alane

Testing to see if frog pics work...

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## Hill111

I just read this whole thread and it was amazing!! Keep the pics coming, I love the babies <3  :Embarrassment:

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## zakdat

Id love to see some pics of your current setup. Sounds like you have some happy froggies. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## alane

Two more pics:





In the second photo, you can see some clingers in the upper left and a tadpole of the 'first generation', not quite the size of a jelly bean.

you can see my tank uses acrylic stands to elevate a hollow log feature so that it's half way out of the water.
moss balls.  Plenty of little nooks.
also, frogs and shrimp and snails.
the blue thing in the background is an intake filter to keep the babies alive.  I just buy filter material in bulk, it has to be replaced weekly.

so many eggs yet to hatch.  there are only a few eggs that have failed.  there are tons of clingers and rather a lot of eggs that will hatch shortly.

soon the tank will be 'bedlam'.  when the tadpoles get larger, they are really active, especially at night.

I put shrimp pellets in, a few leaves of wilted spinach.  Any cricket that sinks also gets eaten rapidly.  I found last year that the environment and diet of this adult tank is way better than the isolated tank approach I tried.

Last year I hooked up a side tank with a siphon that basically, over time, gently shuttled all of the tadpoles into a nursery tank via the siphon hose.  Although I could observe them easier, they failed at a significantly higher rate.  I saw no 'floating dead tadpoles' in the adult tank at all.

when they emerge in many weeks, i am considering a second enclosure of some sort.  if I start setting it up now, that would be good.  lol.

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## alane

Developing eggs, and a cherry shrimp in the corner...



the cherry shrimp will pick over the eggs and maybe eat something stuck to them, but they don't harm the eggs at all.

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## alane

One minute movie of the underwater half of my frog tank!

https://youtu.be/W8gSAX8AIO4

You can see a few of the 'first generation' tadpoles, at about three weeks of age.  eating algae on the glass.  half head, half gut.  and half tail.
You can see a handful of 'clingers' hanging vertically near the top of the frame...there is a great hatching going on right now.  tiny little things will absorb their yolk before starting to eat.
You can hear one of the adult frogs calling softly.
Cherry shrimp fly here and there.

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## zakdat

Thanks for sharing!  Your tank is really pleasant to watch. Love the mini ecosystem 


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## alane

well, the hatching appears to be over.  maybe a hundred clinger tadpoles.  impossible to count accurately.  almost all of the eggs hatched.
my tank will be swarming with activity in a few weeks.
good lord so many little ones.

it'll take some time to figure it all out but if my internet connection is good enough, i hope to put up a frog tank webcam soon.

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## alane

well, there are no more clingers tadpoles as of yesterday.  they are all swimmer tadpoles now and all eating constantly.

food:
I toss a few leaves of spinach into a pan of boiling water, wilt it, then the spinach goes into the tank.  When the spinach is gone, more.
I still have a few shrimp tablets from when i bought the cherry shrimp.  I throw in two tabs at a time.  When the tabs are gone, more.
The tads also spend lots of time eating the algae off the glass.
They spend time chowing on the slime on the bottom of the tank.

later on as more spinach gets eaten, I can expect my pump intake filter to become quickly clogged with green foul smelling goo.

now when a frog 'startles' and swims and hides in the bottom of the tank, it ends up disturbing a handful of tadpoles, who go swimming and end up disturbing more tadpoles.  very very active tank with about 12 large tadpoles and maybe 75 small ones.  everyone seems super healthy and active so far, and developing quite fast.

it is interesting to me that as soon as the tadpoles start eating, they also develop a 'gulp a bubble of air at the surface, then swim down and let it go' behavior.

no webcam for now.  but later i will post more movies.

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## alane

I cannot promise how long this will last...but I think I got it working:

LIVE video of my frog tank on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuHdSE6YCA0

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## alane

Here's a better URL:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz...0UzlVeMRg/live

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## alane

One thing i've noticed about the tadpoles...when they get large enough, they eat all the snail eggs they can find.

The tadpole poop, after a snail egg meal, ends up just like a string of eggs.

The snails are going to have a hard time in the coming weeks.
good.

If I know my fat female frog, she's not done laying eggs yet.  But she's not quite ready for a new batch either.  Like last year, I expect the later batches to get worse and worse as far as viability...i hope...

The live video goes down now and then, I put it back up when I can.  I watch it from work, and I also record it.  There's a few things I caught today that I should edit into a video.  Although it's mainly a tadpole cam, there is some serious frog on frog :O action once in a while.

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## alane

the biggest tadpoles now have tiny little back legs just budding out from the base of their tail.  super cute little tiny legs.  soon they will be kicking around rather than just swimming.  next is the front legs.

very soon i will need a supply of flies.  its probably time to set up an area of the house for fly breeding and put in an order to Josh's.

the amount of food my tank eats is through the roof.  today i noticed that the pump barely works at all.  intake filter completely clogged.  replaced intake filter and now i'm back to full flow.  fortunately, the filters inside of the pump itself do not clog like that and I can leave my pump alone...otherwise i would constantly have to crack it open and wring out the filters.  There is a great deal of ammonia and nitrite to process, i'm sure!



My frog tank video for your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz...0UzlVeMRg/live

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## zakdat

So cool!  I checked in on. Your tank earlier today. Thanks for setting that up. Its really fascinating. 


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## alane

I think I found the magic command line option that keeps the live stream going.  Previously, it would stop within about an hour of me starting it up.

They are all doing great!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz...0UzlVeMRg/live

Maybe in the evening, I can switch the video to a night vision top-view.

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zakdat

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## alane

The biggest tadpoles now have little 'nubs' where their front legs will emerge.  Their rear legs have emerged and are growing and i've seen them kick once in a while.  They still swim side-to-side with their tail, and they are all eating constantly.
The more numerous smaller tadpoles have yet to sprout legs.
And i'm wondering if another batch of eggs is going to be laid.

I am almost through a one pound bag of spinach.

I have not seen a dead tadpole yet.  Last year, occasionally, one would 'burst open' and that's that.

Unfortunately, the snails are also getting lots of food, so i'm getting lots of snails.

I changed the tank water yesterday and it's very difficult to siphon five gallons of water and not suck up at least one tadpole.  The one that went through the siphon tube was a very large one and he even got stuck at one point, willy wonka style.  But it went through and I netted it back into the tank.
The waste water was quite green in color, cause by the spinach.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTz...0UzlVeMRg/live

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## alane

One of the tadpoles is far more advanced than the rest.  It has fully formed front and rear legs and is now 'emerging'.  It spends its time near the surface, breathing air most of the time now.

It's also way smaller than it's peers.  This particular tadpole decided to stop eating early and develop quick.  super micro froglet.

i'm going to be getting the 'hydei' flies.  those will be a mouthful for a frog this small but i think they can do it!

what the heck am i going to do with this many frogs?  thats what i said last year and i kept them all.  well this year i cannot do that.  i suppose i need to post a for-sale message in the appropriate forum.

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zakdat

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## alane

here is a photo of the first toadlet to emerge.  the little one is many many days ahead of the rest.



you cannot see it in this photo but the little one still has quite a tail.

i believe he has been 'nipped' at by hungry adults.  as the toadlet emerges at the margin of the water, it can be very tempting for a nearby frog to strike.
but these frogs have no teeth and although i've seen them get another frog, it always gets coughed back up in short order.
amazingly, even with the adults, they seem to emerge just fine in this tank.

i expect the bulk of this froglets egg-batch siblings to emerge in about a week, so far ahead is this one toadlet.  amazing that one decided to develop real fast.

it takes so long for their skin to develop.  the full-adults have a fairly coarse pattern to their bumps.  the sub-adults still have a more fine-grained texture.  the babies, in comparison, are gelatinous.

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## zakdat

This is really fascinating. I love the pic of the froglet - too cute. Look forward to seeing the rest of the clutch emerge. 


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## alane

now every time i visit my tank, i count the little frogs.

each time, i count more.  it is the week of mass emergence.

lol.

fire belly toads have little white dots at the tip of their toes, even as adults.  they have this coloration from the very beginning.  you can kind of see in the photo how the very tips of the froglets toes are white.  for some reason, this seems super cute.  i'll try to highlight it in a photo later on.

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## alane

a dozen emerged tiny toadlets.  they huddle in groups and have found their safe spots in the tank.  most have tail remnants.

i wave something in front of the most advanced toadlet.  it snaps at it.  little tiny froggy is ready to eat flies.  i have nothing for him today...

good thing that i ordered melanogaster flies and they are arriving tomorrow.  

I wonder how to get a video of them eating flies.  It's a challenge as the toadlets are so small!

my scheme is to feed the adults first and try to get them all full of crickets...so that the flies end up going mostly to the little tykes.

the small toadlets seem so small and fragile that an adult could easily screw one up.  but i've never seen that happen.  worst i've seen is a froglet getting snapped at...then getting spit back out unharmed.  these frogs have no teeth, nor do they clamp down hard.  so even if one does a mistake and eats a baby, it all ends well...so far anyway.

so far, literally 100% viability.

i gotta find homes for some of these subadults or i gotta start a second tank.

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