Since many auratus are sometimes notoriously shy, feel good that they are sitting on top of the coco hut instead of hiding under it, as many of them will do, just for the sake of hiding. Keep some oak leaves under the hut, or perhaps a petri dish with a damp leaf in it, may be better. They will probably start breeding at around 12 months, as you have read, provided of course, that you have at least one of the opposite sex in the group. Give it some time, and lift the hut once in awhile to check for eggs, but not too often, or you will spook them. If you find eggs, leave them for a day or two to make sure they are fertile, then remove them to raise separately. Unless you have a proper water-way and your tank is pretty big, this species usually don't take very good care of their eggs, or transport their hatching tads in captivity as well as they do in the wild. (We usually are able to give them only limited options for doing this on their own.)

If you find eggs, you can remove these along with the section of leaf that contains them. There are several ways to get them to hatch out, but I've had more success with putting the section of leaf in a Sterilite container, perhaps 3X6". I then rinse them with a weak solution of methylene blue, and take this back out with a turkey baster just leaving the eggs on the piece of leaf, or whatever they are on. I check on them daily, and as I see the tads developing, gradually add a bit more water, laced with a bit of diluted "Instant Amazon" or oak leaf "tea." The tannins in these seem to prevent molding of the eggs and the surrounding egg gel. But until I see the tads wriggling and seeming to be ready to escape their chambers, I don't cover the eggs over with water, just keep them damp. As the tads become active, I gradually add more water, at first just enough to cover the gel, so if they do escape it they have a place to swim out from. Once they are out, I give them at least an inch of Amazon or oak tea water, then increase it as they grow. This is the time to begin feeding them. You can use a combination of spirulla and chlorella algae, as well as perhaps throwing in a tiny bit of tadpole bites, or something called "First Bites," made by Hikari, which is meant for newborn fish, but does a great Job for dart tadpole growth, as well.

Once the tads are out and feeding, I do like to separate them into individual Sterilite containers. Even though auratus aren't cannibalistic, tads kept together secrete hormones to inhibit others, and don't grow as well together as they do individually.

Then you have several Sterilite containers of tadpoles. I like to add some kind of vegetation at this time, perhaps a hunk of Java moss, or even better, Ricca moss. It helps the water quality, gives them something to hide under, as well as something to climb upon when the get their arms and legs and are ready for land.

I keep a jug of Amazon tea water with a turkey baster closing it's top below the tadpole rack. I baste out the tad poop, reintroduce new water from the jug at least every other day. Once it has sprouted both its hind and front limbs, but still has a tail, it will be breathing on its own and need something to climb up on from the tad tank. It won't need food at this time. Once the tail is absent, or mostly so, you can introduce it to a nursery tank that is mostly land area and start feeding it live food such as springtails and wingless fruit flies, although it won't immediately take to this, because it will be living on the nutrition from it's disappearing tail. As soon as possible, it will need the dustable live insects, such as the small fruit flies, dusted with D3 and calcium. In the wild, the frogs get the D3 to utilize calcium from the UV put out by the sun. In our situation, glass habitats filter all of the UV out, so they need the supplements to amend this as soon as possible after they are out of the water and on their own.

This is just what I do, and what has worked relatively well for me. There are certainly a lot of different experiences and opinions. I'm merely giving my own.



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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

Dendrobates: auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, tinctorius azureus, leucomelas. Phyllobates: vittatus, terribilis, lugubris. Epipedobates: anthonyi tricolor pasaje. Ranitomeya fantastica, imitator, reticulata. Adelphobates castaneoticus, galactonotus. Oophagia pumilio Bastimentos. (updated systematic nomenclature)

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