Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. I am new to this forum. I've been interested in dart frogs for a couple years, and just began breeding them several months ago successfully. However, I am now experiencing
problems with my tadpoles. Once the eggs are laid, I take them out and place them in a container where the eggs are surrounded by water, but not submersed by any means (water barely touches the edges of the eggs). I use only filtered water, and mist the eggs every few days. The eggs hatch, and the tadpoles are free swimming in the standing water. I take each individual tadpole and put it into its own 16 oz container with ~2 inches of filtered water and a pothos plant for hiding under. I usually wait 2-3 days before my first feeding, and have been doing great for my first 4-5 clutches. However, the past two clutches that I have had haven't done so well. In fact, my latest clutch five out of the seven were dead when I checked them. The tads had hatched on Saturday (and were placed into their own
containers) and I was planning on feeding them today (Monday), but when I opened their containers, the tads were all whitish-gray looking and dead. I don't really know what I did wrong since this method has worked well for me in the past (until my last two clutches, EVERY tadople would survive until morphing) Any advice? I'm so destraught will all these tads dying on me!
Linda

Hi Linda,

My dart frogs have also recently started breeding. I started out raising them basically the same way you are doing now; individual containers with a small plant clipping. Out of 22 tadpoles I was left with only 3. After the first few weeks they would just randomly die and then grow that whiteish slime/fuzz. I don't think they were dying from fungal infections because the fuzz didn't apear until after they died. I assume that it was because of poor water quality. A little leftover food will raise the ammonia level pretty high in only 16 oz. of water.

I talked to a local breeder about my tadpoles and he suggested rearing them together in large containers and using the classic "tadpole tea" method. I've been doing this for maybe 3 or 4 weeks now and I've lost only a fraction of what I had been loosing before. The larger amount of water in the big containers means that the waste is less concentrated. After a few weeks of being kept under bright light the containers will grow algea and I'm assuming also tiny micro-organisms and beneficial bacteria that will help maintain water quality. The type of food you are feeding the tadpoles might also have an affect on water quality. High protein food and food made from fish like fish flake will spoil the water quickly but a mixture of algea like spirulina and chlorella won't. You might consider experimenting keeping the tadpoles this way, I've had good results.
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
0.1.4 Mantella madagascariensis
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.1 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

Thanks for the tips. However, I always heard you need to keep your tadpoles seperated because of the inhibitor thing they release that stunts the growth of the smaller tads. Is that just a myth or something? Also, the tadpoles were not fed at all until the 2nd day they hatched, so I doubt it could be spoiled food since they were in containers with fresh water. But your idea of a large container intrigues me. What is this "tea" you speak of? What size container do you use and how many tads are kept in it? I feed them the tadpole formula from Ed's Fly Meat Inc. Is there a better one out there?

I too have heard that tadpoles release some sort of chemical into the water that affects the growth of other tadpoles near by. I don't know exactly what it is or how it works. If someone on this forum could fill us in that would be great. The breeder that I talked to said there is a noticable size difference in emerging froglets between tadpoles raised together or individually. He said that tadpoles that are raised together morph out much larger than tadpoles raised in seperate small cups. He also said that the time it takes the tadpoles to develop is much longer, I was reading on tincs.com (I think) that their tadpoles that are raised together can take as long as 4 months to turn into frogs.

Quick and unexplained animal deaths are often due to something in their enviornment. A tadpole's enviornment is water and water quality will have a large effect on how well they do. If you are using treated tap water you might want to test it to make sure your ph and amonia are in a safe range from the start. Many breeders brew a tea out of oak leaves to make the water more acidic and to introduce benificial tannins (inhibits the growth of fungus) to the water. They do this by heating water on the stove and adding a oak leaves until the water turns a light yellowish tan color. There was still snow on the ground when the breeder I talked to recomended doing this so I opted for ordering a product from www.medusalab.net instead until the snow melts and I can collect my own oak leaves.

The containers that I use are roughly 5 inches by 12 inches by 5 inches, they are the standard shoe box size rubbermaid containers. I fill them with about an inch and a half of water but as the tadpoles grow I'll be raising the water level. I've only been doing it this way for a few weeks and right now the most tadpoles I have in a container is 3, but I would assume more could be kept in one as long as more food is offered and larger water changes are done. I'm keeping 62 Mantella crocea tadpoles in a container this size without problems, but they aren't as messy as dart frog tadpoles. I hope that other more experienced froggers can add on to this to offer other suggestions and go into detail about some of the things I only touched on. Good luck,
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Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
4.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
0.1.4 Mantella madagascariensis
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.1 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

If you have had the same parents for all these clutches and what not, I would say the problem was the water. For misting my darts and general use I just use treated tap water, but when it comes to tadpoles I use water from one of two sources. The first being bottled water. You can get a gallon of spring water from a supermarket for $0.90. The second source is reused tadpole water. I have a large 10 gallon container I pour all tadpole water out into, and it has some water plants in it to complete cycles. Most of the time I will use treated tap water on new tads, but when I change water, I will often use the recycled water. I know many of you will jump all over this because of many things that can go wrong with reused water, but I have had no problems. It already has good pH, Nitrate, Nitrite levels.

Something you should know about keeping tadpoles togeather is most will eat each other. With auratus you put 5 in a 10 gallon tank, and you will get one or two big ones in a few weeks. They injure each other and effect development. I have watched many tadpole fights. They are very fun to watch, but in the end they take bites out of each other and die later of infections and what not. So if you have thousands of tads, thats not a bad way to save time, but for 10 to 100 tads, you are better off just changing the water and keeping them in 20oz containers. Of course some species dont eat each other... or do they? I have not seen a single tadpole species (dart frogs only) that will not eat each other if they feel like they are hungery. Most if well fed wont, but the second they cant find food its a fight.

Ben Linville

Thanks for the input. I've been using tap water that has been filtered with a brita filter. Do you think that is just as good as spring water?

Have you changed the filter in your britta filter? It might not be doing as good a job as it once was. I'm assuming it has a replacable cartridge of course. It should.
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Leif

0.0.3 Tinctorius (olemarie)
0.0.3 Luecomelas

I just changed the filter last month and they are suppose to last for 3 months.