Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well it's that time of year again. Luke and Lilly (my breeding pair of D.leucomelas)laid their first clutch of the year 02/25 and their 5th two days ago. All eggs where fertile and hatched successfully. I now have 18 tads and five eggs.

My question is what is the average amount of eggs leucs lay in a breeding season?

2 to 8 eggs X's 3 matings per pair per year, may be average. Not all eggs are good and not all morph out into froglets. Was this a test question, or will you tell us more about it? 18 tadpoles is a pretty impressive number, but you don't mention any of them morphing into froglets yet.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

No froglets yet. The oldest tads just got their back legs.

I only remember having infertile eggs in the very first two clutches. They have been laying for 4 seasons now. The first 2 seasons had just a half a dozen or so eggs all truing into tads then into healthy froglet. Last year we moved into our new house and I guess they like country living because the laid 25 eggs, all fertile, and all truing into tads. Unfortunately I only got 6 froglets because the rest developed spindly leg, which I have never had before. I am guessing that it was the well water of my new house. This year I am only using bottled spring water.

I tried looking for leuc breeding numbers on the web but there is not much about breding leucs period. If this is a high number should I stop them from breeding? All I have to do is turn off the stream. I don't want to put too much stress on them.

They'll stop breeding if they are stressed out. It just depends upon how many more you want. I think that a relatively dry period (no stream, less misting,) followed by more misting and humidity will induce breeding. You appear to be doing a very professional job.

There was a very long discussion on frognet about SLS you might want to check out with a search of their archives. I'm not sure there are any certain conclusions about the causes, but there are a certainly a lot of opinions. I've only had one case of it, a first froglet from my young pumilio Bastimentos, but I don't deliberately breed much, and a few of my dart species are all females. Patrick told me that this is relatively common with pumilios when they are first breeding. It seems to happen more often with thumbnails that feed eggs, and obligate eggs feeders than the larger species such as leucs. Some of the earlier discussions and references attributed it to calcium deficiency in the female, or even both the male and female. I think this was just guessing, like everyone still seems to be doing. Then, there may be a genetic propensity for SLS in certain lines of frogs.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris