# Frogs & Toads > Tree Frogs >  Cruziohyla calcarifer

## Leonel

Hi,

I just took some pictures of a couple of Cruziohyla calcarifer i got a few days ago, i will be moving them into a bigger tank later to breed them.

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## Carlos

Gorgeous tree frog!  Should take a nice pic of one and enter in the monthly photo contest.  Good luck with your breeding project  :Smile:  !

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## exasperatus2002

Georgeous frog. Great choice. I was looking into getting some from understory enterprises, until I saw the price tag.

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## Heather

Beautiful!  :Smile:

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## Leonel

> Georgeous frog. Great choice. I was looking into getting some from understory enterprises, until I saw the price tag.


Thanks! for how much UE sell them?

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## exasperatus2002

glad I saved the email for reference, it was dated june 7th 2012. I'd like to buy from them but Im on a tight budget. 

Hi Scott,
Here are the current prices:
Cruziohyla calcarifer - $385 - limited numbers ready for June
Agalychnis spurrelli – gliding tree frog - $175 each – just arrived from Ecuador

  We are going to be bringing frogs into the US ourselves and then
once they are safely in the US, they will be shipped  directly to
customers by UPS Next Day Air.
There will be a $15 box/import fee per order (to help cover, the cost
of heat packs, gel packs & shipping boxes and related import fees)
plus whatever UPS charges for the shipping. The UPS charge to 18103
will be $42 or $55 depending on the size of the box we need to use.


Our next shipment will be in June but I have already applied for the
CITES for that so we can not add any more CITES frogs for that
shipment.
This means that I can not bring in the A. spurrelli in June  but it is
still possible to bring in the calcarifer if we can finalize all
details by the 11th.
We will be bringing in another shipment in early September.
A 25% non-refundable deposit now will hold the frogs for you until
that shipment.

Thanks for your inquiry.

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## Leonel

> Hi Scott,
> Here are the current prices:
> Cruziohyla calcarifer - $385


Wow that's crazy! now i feel extremely lucky i got my frogs for free, but well UE began this breeding project with frogs from the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center and now every 50% of the sales go to the reserve which is a great way to help with conservation. This frogs are very rare species here in my country in the wild they are almost impossible to see, also they are not easy to breed as they will only lay their eggs on vines or roots overhanging a deposit of water on trees, but there's a reserve here called " Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center" they introduced some plastic tubes into the forest to simulate this deposites around 2003 i believe, now this is one of the few places where you can see this frogs almost every year. I am planning to use this same method to breed them.

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## exasperatus2002

Best of luck to you. Its because of that 50% that I wouldnt mind paying them extra but thats just to far out of my league at this time with out hitting the lottery (time = over my wifes lifespan). lol




> Wow that's crazy! now i feel extremely lucky i got my frogs for free, but well UE began this breeding project with frogs from the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center and now every 50% of the sales go to the reserve which is a great way to help with conservation. This frogs are very rare species here in my country in the wild they are almost impossible to see, also they are not easy to breed as they will only lay their eggs on vines or roots overhanging a deposit of water on trees, but there's a reserve here called " Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center" they introduced some plastic tubes into the forest to simulate this deposites around 2003 i believe, now this is one of the few places where you can see this frogs almost every year. I am planning to use this same method to breed them.

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## Lisa

They are gorgeous. They are on my dream frog list. I wish u the best of luck with breeding. Keep us posted on your progress.

 .:* Lisa *:.
laissez le bon temps roulet! :-)

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## Carlos

> ... This frogs are very rare species here in my country in the wild they are almost impossible to see, also they are not easy to breed as they will only lay their eggs on vines or roots overhanging a deposit of water on trees, but there's a reserve here called " Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center" they introduced some plastic tubes into the forest to simulate this deposites around 2003 i believe, now this is one of the few places where you can see this frogs almost every year. I am planning to use this same method to breed them.


Hi Leon!  I'm glad the Costa Rica Amphibian Research Center is doing good work helping out the frog's populations.  Found their website and will read all info later today.  Please do share with us pics of your breeding set-up with those plastic tubes you mentioned.  Very few of us can obtain and keep those frogs, so we love to see them, even if only in photos.  Take care and good luck with your projects  :Smile:  .

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## Leonel

> Please do share with us pics of your breeding set-up with those plastic tubes you mentioned.


Sure i will share some pictures soon!

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## Leonel

I finally moved them into their breeding set up, you can see a video here: Cruziohyla calcarifer. - YouTube

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## earthtiger

Have you cycled them in any way for breeding, before you put them in the breeding setup?

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## Leonel

What do you mean with cycled them?

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## earthtiger

Getting them in breeding mood and prepare them for breeding. e.g. playing with temperature and humidity (dry vs. humid period), feeding heavily, that the femals build up eggs and ovulate. 

The frogs look a bid skinny to me. I wouldn't put such skinny frogs in a rainchamber.

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## Leonel

I never did anything of that before when breeding my other frogs (Agalychnis annae & Agalychnis callidryas) because they get all this conditions in a natural way, all my thanks are kept on my backyard as i live far away from the city the rain doesn't harm the frogs skin with acids. I always try to keep my frogs very fat even when they are not in the rainy season, i've been feeding this two a lot with big gut loaded grasshoppers and i don't stop feeding them when they are in their breeding tank but they are not that fat yet though they are not as skinny as you mentioned, they will get to that point soon is just about patience, the male has been calling a lot but the rainy season is not that strong yet so i will just wait for the rains to get heavier and the frogs to get ready.

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## ecologic

> I never did anything of that before when breeding my other frogs (Agalychnis annae & Agalychnis callidryas) because they get all this conditions in a natural way, all my thanks are kept on my backyard as i live far away from the city the rain doesn't harm the frogs skin with acids. I always try to keep my frogs very fat even when they are not in the rainy season, i've been feeding this two a lot with big gut loaded grasshoppers and i don't stop feeding them when they are in their breeding tank but they are not that fat yet though they are not as skinny as you mentioned, they will get to that point soon is just about patience, the male has been calling a lot but the rainy season is not that strong yet so i will just wait for the rains to get heavier and the frogs to get ready.


Your frogs look great.  If you have bred Agalychnis annae, I am sure you will have no problem breeding these. If you have any questions breeding them outside, you might consult Brian at the CRARC. He has worked with this species.

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## Leonel

Thanks! the problem i have right now is that i'ts not raining here at all, which is something that worries me cause we are in the rainy season. So i think i will just move the frogs to a smaller tank were they can be feed easily and i will adapt the big tank with a rain chamber to move them in two weeks or so.

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## Leonel

The frogs are starting to get fat, i will move them into the big tank in a couple of weeks as the rain chamber is now ready.

Female and male:

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## Leonel

Yesterday was their first night at the rain chamber and found the couple in amplexus this morning. I hope to get eggs tomorrow morning but i don't know if the female has already laid eggs before, so it can take at least 5 attempts more before the female gets ready, we'll see what happen tomorrow!

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## Carlos

Congrats Leon, quick amplexus is good  :Big Applause:  !  Hope you get eggs soon!  Tried to watch video (Post no. 12) but appears either it was removed or link is broken  :Frown:  .

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## Leonel

> Congrats Leon, quick amplexus is good  !  Hope you get eggs soon!  Tried to watch video (Post no. 12) but appears either it was removed or link is broken  .


Thanks! yes the video was removed but i took a quick video this morning of the rain chamber Cruziohyla calcarifer breeding - YouTube

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## Croakin

If you get any extra froglets you want to sell PM me. good Luck!

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## Leonel

Some updates on my C. calcarifer breeding project. since the female didn't lay eggs last time i decided to cycle them for a long period of time until i can be sure she is full of eggs, fortunately after around 2 months she is looking gravid, i am doing some adjustments here and there with the rain chamber cause the rain was a little heavy and i will also add a mist system in there, i hope i can finish everything for the next month, i'm very hopeful that i will get eggs this time. Pictures:

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## earthtiger

Indeed, this time she looks much better and promising! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

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## Leonel

> Indeed, this time she looks much better and promising! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!


Thanks a lot! i will be posting more pictures of the rain chamber and the frogs as soon as everything is finished.

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## Michael Novy

One oc my person favs. Good luck! Don't keep them too wet for too long and the should do well.

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## earthtiger

Leonel, any (positive) updates?

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## Leonel

Hi,

No attempts to breed them yet, i'm waiting for my payment to build a new rain chamber, my old rain chamber was 1,30m tall so i was using a very strong pump which make the rain very strong, i will build a smaller one and will also order a mist system from MistKing. I hope everything will be ready by the end of this month, i will be posting pictures when the rain chamber is ready, thanks for your interest!

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## Leonel

> Leonel, any (positive) updates?


I got some great news for you, i will post some pictures in the night!

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## earthtiger

> I got some great news for you, i will post some pictures in the night!


do you want to tease us with this comment!? ...here it is two hours before mid*night* => Where are the photos! =;-)

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## Leonel

After half a year of trying to breed my couple of C. calcarifer i finally have success! i was too bussy with job last week to post some pictures of the rain chamber, this time i managed to make the rain as real as possible. I moved the frogs to the rain chamber this monday in the morning, the female was looking very gravid. The first night the male started calling very lately in the night (around 11:00PM - 12:00PM) but no amplexus, the second night he started calling a lot early (around 5:00PM - 6:00PM) after a couple of hours the male stopped calling, so i assumed they were in amplexus ( i didn't want to bother the frogs  with any kind of light and the rain chamber was covered with a black blanket) This morning i came back from work and i found this huge egg mass, considering C. calcarifer only lay one mass of around 10 - 20 eggs i was very surprised with this one as it was around 30 - 40 blue eggs. I've bred A. annae and A. callidryas before, but i got to say this is one of the most curious leaf frogs regarding breeding habits, i will be definitely writing an article on the breeding habits of this animal probably for next year. If someone is interested on knowing more details i will gladly get back to you via PM. Now some pictures, the first ones are from the last week when the tank was without the rain system and without water:

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## Croakin

> After half a year of trying to breed my couple of C. calcarifer i finally have success! i was too bussy with job last week to post some pictures of the rain chamber, this time i managed to make the rain as real as possible. I moved the frogs to the rain chamber this monday in the morning, the female was looking very gravid. The first night the male started calling very lately in the night (around 11:00PM - 12:00PM) but no amplexus, the second night he started calling a lot early (around 5:00PM - 6:00PM) after a couple of hours the male stopped calling, so i assumed they were in amplexus ( i didn't want to bother the frogs  with any kind of light and the rain chamber was covered with a black blanket) This morning i came back from work and i found this huge egg mass, considering C. calcarifer only lay one mass of around 10 - 20 eggs i was very surprised with this one as it was around 30 - 40 blue eggs. I've bred A. annae and A. callidryas before, but i got to say this is one of the most curious leaf frogs regarding breeding habits, i will be definitely writing an article on the breeding habits of this animal probably for next year. If someone is interested on knowing more details i will gladly get back to you via PM. Now some pictures, the first ones are from the last week when the tank was without the rain system and without water:


congratulations on your success,  you've accomplished something exceptional that few frog breeders have been able to do.

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## earthtiger

Leon, Chapeau! and congrats - great job you did there! And thanks for posting the photos! 




> This morning i came back from work and i found this huge egg mass, considering C. calcarifer only lay one mass of around 10 - 20 eggs i was very surprised with this one as it was around 30 - 40 blue eggs.


According to the literature, the clutches consist of 10 to 54 eggs, layed in a short time frame in the morning before 10.00 am.

BTW, don't be afraid when the egg mass gets "cloudy". That is normal for this species.





> I've bred A. annae and A. callidryas before, but i got to say this is one of the most curious leaf frogs regarding breeding habits, i will be definitely writing an article on the breeding habits of this animal probably for next year. If someone is interested on knowing more details i will gladly get back to you via PM.


yes we are interested in getting more infos how you got them to clutch - at least I am! =:-)

...and please keep us updated on the development of the eggs, tadpoles and froglets! =:-)

kind regards,
Martin

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## Leonel

> According to the literature, the clutches consist of 10 to 54 eggs, layed in a short time frame in the morning before 10.00 am.
> 
> BTW, don't be afraid when the egg mass gets "cloudy". That is normal for this species.


Yes that's correct, i remember reading this as well, but i've seen some pictures of C calcarifer clutches and they are always around 10-20 eggs, like this one: http://www.herpnation.com/wp-content...rifer-eggs.png

I was very worried this last 2 days, i was starting to think they were infertile but today i came back from work and you can finally see the embryos on the clutch starting to develop (around 20-25 are fertile)




> yes we are interested in getting more infos how you got them to clutch - at least I am! =:-)


I will gladly drop you a PM with all the details of the whole process as soon as possible.

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## Leonel

Day 4, today i counted 24 fertile eggs and 25 infertile. The embryos are starting to move very slowly:




Some pictures of the male:

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## Leonel

Day 7, this are definitely slower developers than Agalychnis annae and Agalychnis callidryas which always hatch around the 7-8 day. This species on the contrary are supposed to hatch in a period of 10 days.

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## Carlos

Thanks for sharing pics Leon  :Smile:  !  What do you plan to feed tadpoles?

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## Lynn

> Day 4, today i counted 24 fertile eggs and 25 infertile. The embryos are starting to move very slowly:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Some pictures of the male:


How exciting !

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## Lynn

> Day 7, this are definitely slower developers than Agalychnis annae and Agalychnis callidryas which always hatch around the 7-8 day. This species on the contrary are supposed to hatch in a period of 10 days.


Photo 4 is great !
I count 21 or 22 developing on that leaf?
 :Butterfly:

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## Leonel

> Thanks for sharing pics Leon  ! What do you plan to feed tadpoles?


You are welcome! I was feeding my A. annae and A. callidryas tadpoles "Tetramin Tropical Flakes" but i'm not sure if i will be feeding this ones the same.




> Photo 4 is great !
> I count 21 or 22 developing on that leaf?


Thank you! The first time i counted 24 fertile eggs but now that they are more developed if you look carefully you can count 23.

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## Lynn

What are your plans? 
Any organized conservation programs to help you release them, safely ?

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## Leonel

> What are your plans? 
> Any organized conservation programs to help you release them, safely ?


To be honest with you, i will have to wait and see in the next months, they are very few and right now i only have 2 adults to keep this breeding & conservation project ongoing. I'm planning to keep most of them at this moment, but you can be sure the next generations will be released in the wild. I have some good friends in the south caribean (Puerto Viejo) that were very interested in this project and they are also working on the conservation of this frogs in-situ, so there is the perfect place for them to be released, it is called "Jaguar Rescue Center" if you want to know more about this place you can go here: English - jaguarrescues Webseite!

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## earthtiger

IMHO, since there is a larger and a smaller variant of this species, allegedly with slightly different breeding strategies, therefore I think they only should be released in the area where the parents have been collected.

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## Lynn

> To be honest with you, i will have to wait and see in the next months, they are very few and right now i only have 2 adults to keep this breeding & conservation project ongoing. I'm planning to keep most of them at this moment, but you can be sure the next generations will be released in the wild. I have some good friends in the south caribean (Puerto Viejo) that were very interested in this project and they are also working on the conservation of this frogs in-situ, so there is the perfect place for them to be released, it is called "Jaguar Rescue Center" if you want to know more about this place you can go here: English - jaguarrescues Webseite!


Thank You
I look forward to looking at the website!
Lynn

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## Leonel

> IMHO, since there is a larger and a smaller variant of this species, allegedly with slightly different breeding strategies, therefore I think they only should be released in the area where the parents have been collected.


Yes, you are right Martin i agree a 100% with you, that's the reason why i chose this place for them. The variety of frogs i keep are from the South Caribean (Puerto Viejo to be specific) apparently they are typically bigger than their counterparts. When i release a group of frogs in the wild i don't do it in a random zone without any precautions, i always follow a liberation protocol to avoid a medium-term environmental impact. The last time i released a group of Agalychnis callidryas in the wild we spent 3 nights in the place before releasing them, monitoring if the wild populations were healthy, the breeding places of the species, predators in the zone, feeding of the wild frogs and the amount of insects in the zone, but is always a sure thing less than a 50% will get to their adult & breeding stage.

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## furcifer5

Hi Leonel,

Great result! 
I will be receiving some froglets of calcarifer soon, so I will be following your positngs on this species. Hopefully, I can share some information soon!

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## earthtiger

update! update! We wanna see an update! =:-)

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## Leonel

Hi,

Sorry but i've been very busy lately. Tadpoles hatched last week, it took them 19 days to hatch. They are big tadpoles with a very dark colour, some pictures from last week:



They have grown a lot since last week, i'm very surprised how fast they are growing. I will post recent pictures tomorrow.

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Mentat

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## earthtiger

Thanks for the update!

What are you feeding the tadpoles?

According to the literature I have, the tadpoles like to lay on the ground. It might be an idea to put some leaf litter in the tank, that the tadpoles can hide if they like to.

kind regards,
Martin

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## Carlos

Great news and thanks for update Leon  :Big Applause:  !

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## Leonel

More good news! After a period of two weeks of laying the eggs the female started to look gravid again, i didn't even cycle her this time. I decided to move them into the rain chamber last saturday and today i found the couple in amplexus swimming in the water, at around 9:30AM they started laying another eggs mass. 




This ones will be definitely released in the Jaguar rescue center reserve.

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## Leonel

A quick video of the tadpoles: Cruziohyla calcarifer tadpoles - YouTube




> Thanks for the update!
> 
> What are you feeding the tadpoles?
> 
> According to the literature I have, the tadpoles like to lay on the ground. It might be an idea to put some leaf litter in the tank, that the tadpoles can hide if they like to.
> 
> kind regards,
> Martin


I am feeding them "Tetramin Tropical Flakes" they have a voracious appetite. They spent most of the time on the surface looking for food as you can see on the video, but it might be a good idea to put some leaf litter Martin, that will also help to avoid the tadpoles from eating their own feces.

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## furcifer5

Hi Leonel,

Any updates?

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## Leonel

Some pictures of the development of the second clutch, this time 36 tadpoles hatched in a period of 13 days.



The tadpoles from the first clutch are growing very fast, some of them are starting to develop their back back legs.

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## Leonel

Sorry for not turning the pictures, i noticed that after posting them.

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## Carlos

No worries Leon; eggs and tadpoles look OK from any direction  :Big Grin:  .  Thanks for update and hope to see froglets soon  :Smile:  !

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## Leonel

Another update, Cruziohyla calcarifer tadpoles already developed their hind legs.

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Mentat

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## Carlos

Thanks for update Leon and "Feliz Navidad" to you and the family   :Smile:  !

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## Lynn

> No worries Leon; eggs and tadpoles look OK from any direction  .  Thanks for update and hope to see froglets soon  !


You're funny !  :Big Grin:

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## Leonel

Hi,

Some pictures from the last weeks:


The first froglets came out of water a couple of days ago:

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## Raf D

Hey Leonel, Congratulations with your breeding project! Any update?

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