Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i currently have a pair of imitators in a 10 vert. i got them for christmas and at first i didn't really see them out and about for a few months. about a month ago i started seeing them more. the male is calling like crazy and both are around 1-1.5 years old. the female doesn't seem to be responding, is this normal. both are plump, active, and appear to be in good health. i don't know if i'm just being impatient, but this is my first time trying to breed anything, so i'm not really sure what to expect. also, if they do breed and there's a tad. in the tank, do i leave in there for the parents to raise? or take the eggs out as soon as i see them and do raise them myself? there's a brom, a film canister, and a cocohut with a petri dish for them to lay in. thanks!

It may take a a while for them to both get it right, so sometimes a little patience is in order. I let mine raise their own, but if the male carries more than one tad to the same spot, the little tads are cannibalistic and will kill each other, in my experience, and none of them will survive. So if you do see more than one in a brome or the canister, remove the extras as soon as possible and try to raise them yourself. A smart dad seldom makes this mistake, but this sometimes happens when there aren't enough separate deposit areas that suit him. At least for their first try or two, it is well worth watching them raise their own, and just enjoy the show. In my experience, where I have had them in groups or in one instance, a single pair, they haven't raised more than one at a time, although I did have one instance where the single pair both fed the first tad, then a second one I hadn't seen, morphed out two weeks later from another location. So they must have been both feeding the first one while breeding again and then transporting and feeding a second one. Imitators don't seem to always play by the rules we think they ought to be following.

The first photo is of Mom and froglet that has just begun exploring. She later encouraged him away from his nice little nursery, by giving him a boot, which flung him to the bottom of the tank. He (actually turned out to be a "she" is still alive and well and producing babies of her own. This was in the community tank, where this particular baby was being fed by two females, not just his mom. So it was particularly large and well fed when it morphed out. We named it "Baby Huey," after the big fat baby duck, one of the early Disney comic characters. This is one of the few frogs that actually earned a name.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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

i think i'm going to let them raise their own, i trust them more than i trust me in that dept. anyways. i will make sure there is only one in each spot. what if there is two and one is a lot stronger than the other? which should i raise and which should i let the parents raise? or doesn't it matter? that pic of the mom and baby imi are adorable! i love dendro's that raise their babies, it's so unique. thanks for the reply!

They'll probably be about equal. But if there's a difference you can see, I'd tend to try to raise the smaller one. I'm not sure there's a proper reason for this choice, except like you, I'm still not very experienced raising tads, and wouldn't want to screw up with the stronger one that might have a better chance. I guess the other way would be true, as well. Maybe flip a coin?

One of my pair raised one of the smallest little froglets I've ever seen. A year later, he's still very tiny, even for an imitator, but is right in there with the competition. You've probably read a lot of nay-saying about runts not making it for long, but I'm not sure this is necessarily true with all species.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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

ok, if that ever happens I'll do that, but they haven't even had one yet, so if it does happen it probally wouln't happen for a while. yes, i've read a bit on runts not doing to well, but i would give it tons of attention and hopefull it would do well. thanks again!