Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My father brought home some tadpoles from a local pond as a surprise for me. Boy was it! I read up on basic care and have a small take with pond water, some boiled lettuce, and a dry perch.

The tads do well until they get to that in between stage. They keep dying right as they crawl out onto the rock. They have all four legs but still have a little tail.

I've provided fruit flies for them. And I don't think they are starving because I've read that they'll survive off their tail until it's gone. Any help would be great. I've got about 4 leopard frogs and two gray treefrog tads left.

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Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

hmmm, interesting. when I raised a bunch of wood frog tadpoles what seemed to work was piling up gravel at one end of the tank to make something more like a shoreline with the water reduced to about 2 or 3 inches deep. moisture, even on the above water part is pretty important. if you have the gravel gradually rise above the water then they can crawl out a little at a time rather than go straight from water to land as they adjust to the change. I'm not sure if it would make any difference at all but that's how I had it set up and they made it out alright.

I've dealt with a few juvenile gray treefrogs that wouldn't eat fruit flies at all -- the only thing I could get them to eat were live black worms available at pretty much any pet store. you might give that a shot as well all though it doesn't sound like they are starving to death.

Thanks for the response! I will try a gradual incline. So far no more fatalities. The tank doesn't have a filter or aerator right now, do you think that would help or stress the tads?
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Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny