Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i wanted to introduce another female to my imitator pair. would they male breed with both of them or would the females end up fighting. does anyone recommend not keeping imitators in trios?

Imitators can be kept in groups. In a trio, the two females will vie for the single male, and he may breed with both of them, but they are very competitive about this, and will tend to destroy each other's eggs and fight a lot with each other. While unlike the territoriality and viciousness of female tinctorius, these fights seldom end up with significant intimidation or stress, as fierce as the battles seem. The male may transport any surviving hatchlings to bromes and both females may then compete to feed those he's deposited separately, although one female will be dominant and do most of it, while the other may just try to sneak in. If two or more tadpoles happen to get deposited into a single brome, neither survives, in my experience, because they are cannibalistic.(Even among frogs, there are bad dads and morons.) Some males are smarter about this transport than others. So while having a group or two females to a single male certainly stimulates breeding activity, if you are interested in preserving as many off-spring as possible, you need to remove the eggs as soon as you are sure they have been fertilized, which with imitators, is relatively soon after laying, and raise them yourself. Or you can just wait awhile, letting them do their own thing, and do your own observations and enjoy the show during their first couple of attempts.

Unlike pumilios, the imitator tads are relatively omnivorous and don't require their mother's eggs to survive. You can feed them fish flake and they will even rip apart small snails, drowned fruit flies, spring tails, etc. If the parents keep breeding, you can even swipe a couple of eggs for them occasionally.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.