When Mom and Dad quit feeding one of the tads in a bromeliad, I left him there and have been feeding him myself. (Prior post)I'm using fish flake, spirulina, swiping an occasional egg from the neglectful parents, and he gets an occasional fruit fly that falls in the cup. He seems quite able to tear these up and eat them. I have some tiny terrestrial snails in the tank that I've left alone as they don't appear to harm the plants at all. They are probably contaminants from a temperate zone plant nursery, so are very unlikely to be alternate hosts for any sort of parasite that would infect these frogs, and I did not imagine that the frogs would eat them.
Yesterday, I saw some thrashing around in the brom cup. The tad had latched onto the head of one of these snails and was ripping it out of its shell. A bit later, there was nothing left but an empty shell. I had flushed out an empty shell once before, but didn't connect this with the possibility that the tad had eaten it.
He's growing and very active. It's hard to see in well enough to tell if he is getting legs yet, but should be very soon.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho
