Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I just picked up 2 golden mantella tadpoles at east bay vivarium at a great price. I wanted to try my hand at tadpoles before my darts started breeding and since they were a good price I decided I would. Right now I have the 2 in a 5 gallon aquarium together with about 2-2.5 gallons of water, some gravel in some areas of the bottom, a piece of anacharis and colesthus sp.? The temperature is around 76-78. I have read the section of Mark S. website and Devins about them. Just wondering if there are any other hints you can give me? Oh, I will be feeding some algae flakes, omega 3 fish food and some other food yet to be determined. Thanks!
Mark
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my tanks and frogs
.7 Green and Black Costa Rican D. Auratus
.4 D. Azureus

Sounds like youve got the right idea but dont let the water get any warmer. Golden mantella tads are VERY suseptible to spindily leg syndrome which is fatal. Make sure the air tempature is cool when they morph too.

Change half the water every other day or so with RO, rain, or treated tap water. When you see the front legs begin to emerge, move them to a metamorphosing tank or just tilt the one they're in now. They will climb out when they're ready. They absorb their tails for 3-5 days after morphing and therefore wont eat. D. Melonogaster, springtails, and day old crickets can be offered for food. Good luck.
-David Taylor

Hi thanks, the temperature cooled down a little bit so I guess that is good. With your information I am guessing you have had succes in breeding them. I have a few more questions, what are the foods you have fed? Should I put in an air stone, or small filter? What I am feeding now is Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers, and Nutrafin Max complete flake food. I have read that lettuce is good too, have you had any success with this? Also in one of the containers I keep fish food in in my room I found these Frog and Tadpole bited made by HBH, that are soft sinking pellet diet are these any good?Thanks for your help!!
Mark
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my tanks and frogs
.7 Green and Black Costa Rican D. Auratus
.4 D. Azureus

No, I havent sucessfully bred them. Yet. I got some tads from Ryan Mickaels though and thats where my experience is from. The only food I fed mine was Aquarian tropical flakes. The stuff you're feeding sounds more than adequate. As far as the filtration, its not really neccisary but it wont harm them either. Its up to you. With such frequent water changes, the nitrite and ammonia levels should stay at a safe level with-out filtration. ImageEvent.com/audiomaster/goldenmantellavivoldpics Check out that link to see pics of my goldens. There's also an album with a few pics of the tads and froglets I raised. Talk to you later.
-David Taylor

my golden mantella image folder

Hi Mark,

Its deffinetly an awesome experience to raise your own frogs from tadpoles. Right now I'm raising my 60 golden mantella tads in plastic sweater boxes with bare bottoms and a few clumps of java moss for hiding. I've tried gravel with other kinds of tadpoles and found it to make water changes more difficult but a nice thing about using it is that it gives beneficial bacteria a place to grow. I think in the conditions that you are keeping them in everything should go well but keep an eye on the temperature. They will develope quickly when kept at higher water temperatures but the emerging froglets are smaller. Idealy they should be kept at around 70F if thats possible.

I'm raising mine on a diet of about 2 parts Omega tropical fish flake, 2 parts powdered spirulina, 1 part Tetra fish flake - vegetarian formula and 1 part crushed Reptomin pellets, all of that is crushed up into a powder. One word of advice is make sure you have a large supply of tiny insects availible when they morph out. I've raised dart frog tads many times (azureus, auratus and leucomelas) and mantella froglets are just absolutly tiny compared to emerging dart froglets. Mine didn't accept fruit flies until it was 3 and a half weeks out of the water. Good luck with it all, let us know how it goes!
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
3.2 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
1.1 Mantella crocea
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
0.1 Hyla chrysoscelis or versicolor
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.0.1 Chrysemys scripta
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis