Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not quite sure if my frogs are ready to sex yet, but I have a quick question. I heard that you can tell the difference between males and females if they call or not. Well, I have four tincs and you can't hear them call, but you can see a couple of them rapidly inflating and deflating their throats like most frogs do when they call. Does this mean that they are calling and they are males?

Unless you can hear them, identify which one is making the noise, they are probably just breathing. Frogs don't have a breathing diaphragm between the lungs and the rest of the guts like humans and mammals do, so the fluttering in their throats is just their means of pumping air in and out of their lungs.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

I agree with Patty . . . you will see the rapid in/out movement of the throat on all frogs, and you don't want to mistake that with calling.

However, with tincs, the call is VERY soft. I never noticed the call until one was calling while my head was in the terrarium. Now I can barely make it out if the room is dead silent. However, you can see the calling behavior pretty easily, and my tincs don't seem to be bashful at all when calling--the highest and most visible area in the tank is where he starts, and he chases the female all aroud the tank until she shows some attention.

Below is a pic of one of my New River tincs calling.

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Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

What you doing with your head in the tank.......?

The tank is a 2' deep front opening tank, and the frogs decided to lay eggs in a brom in the back corner. I had to put my head into the tank to see the development of the eggs so that I could determine when to remove the eggs. Needless to say, the brom was moved after that experience.
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Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

There is are worse places to put your head than a frog tank. It can get awfully dark in some of the other places.

I seldom hear my darts call unless like Homer, I virtually have my head in the tank, or very close. The leucs are loud, and I have to be really close to hear the pumilios or imitators. The others, I've never heard at all, although I've removed some fertile eggs from both the D. reticulatus and D. fantasticus tanks to a petri dish and am hatching out some tads. I think you'd have to hang out all day with a stethoscope against the tank walls to hear some of the dart calls. Before anyone comes in to say their pumilios are loud enough to annoy them, I will make a disclaimer-- I'm a senior citizen in spades, and probably more deaf than I've been willing to admit. Homer doesn't have this excuse, however, so maybe they actually aren't very audible.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

Patty is right; I hear quite well. Tincs and azureus just have barely audible calls. Even my vents are louder than the tincs! Leucs, on the other hand, can be heard even when you are not in the room.
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Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

Nice!