Breeding Acf Diary

[Jenste]

none of the other eggs have started to turn into a "C'

I am starting to think that maybe Phantom missed while fertilizing.... it is a possibility.
if none of the eggs morph by thursday then they will be infertile...
if this happens i will clean down the tank and start working on Kirby

I will send you a PM to a total frog forum. the people there have been quite helpful to me...especially right now. lol

 

[Jenste]

Earlier, I inspected my tank again, all eggs visible had developed a fungus, indicating they were unfertilized.
For the next two hours I CAREFULLY went over every centimeter of that tank - found 50+ unfertilized eggs, and one dead half morphed tadpole who I think was the mysterious disappearing egg - the one I had photographed as a "c" then it vanished




Speaking to an African Clawed Breeder on a frog forum I frequent, he believes that the male Phantom, being young, either tried to "fertilize" before the eggs were actually being laid, or started too late. I had only one egg that had started to morph into a "c" shape - - so this was either one of the first or last eggs laid. The breeder told me that he believes that while tadpole was "thrashing" through the morphing process from egg to tadpole, it detached from its membrane and fell to the floor of the tank where it died.

I am now cleaning down the tank and going to start preparing it for the female Kirby and Phantom.


fingers crossed and stay tuned!

 

[Jenste]

ok....figured it was well past time for an update...


Phantom has been unsuccessful in convincing Kirby to mate as of yet.....part of this problem is the intense heat wave...or more correctly, WAVES we have been having. It is just making it hard to stimulate the cool rainy season that marks their mating season with me already struggling to keep the water around 80*F! It has been so hot and humid, temperatures in upper 90*s/low 100*s, that the tank keeps creeping up to mid/upper 80*s....trying to get it to slowly drop to mid 60*s would be a little too shocking for the frogs in my opinion.

so for now i am just using this extra time to continue conditioning the girls, lots of earth worms, reptomin pellets, and bloodworms.

hopefully in a couple weeks i will be able to get the water to remain a stable cooler temperature to stimulate Phantom and Kirby...

fingers crossed!!!

 

[Jenste]

Why those sneaky little devils!!!


due to the heatwaves we have been getting, I was housing the adults together in a large tank and was postponing the breeding until the weather cooled down a bit.

well, during the past few days we had frequent storms - - apparently the frogs sensed this. Phantom had not done a mating call in weeks, but yesterday morning I woke up to find that he had mated with one of the females during the night. It was Kirby (obvious from her cloaca being red and swollen).

luckily, about 30 eggs were laid on a piece of drift wood. i picked it up out of the tank and carefully put it in the breeding/rearing tank i had nearby.

this morning, I noticed a few of the eggs had already started to turn into the "c" shapes!!

yay!

 

[Jenste]

ok, i didn't get a chance to update last night so here I go - -



when I came home from work, those that had been "c" shaped had taken on a silver color and straightened into a tear drop shape, still clinging to the piece of driftwood.


this morning, those teardrops had moved to clinging to the sides of the tank!!!


the majority of the eggs seem to be unfertilized - - Phantom still seems to be having trouble "timing" his fertilization lol - -

but ohwell, I will worry about the tads I do have, will focus on growing them, and in that time hopefully Phantom improves his skills!


Just went over the tank, and from what I can see it appears that I have 10 tadpoles clinging to surfaces throughout my tank and about 17 unfertilized eggs.

 

[Jenste]

used some clear tubing to suck out some of the old water and replaced it with new, temp matched dechlorinated water.

Temp is approx 79*F

unable as of yet to remove the piece of driftwood with the bad eggs on it because a couple of the tadpoles are still clinging to it.

 

[Jenste]

ok, discard all the unfertilized eggs this morning - -now have a confirmed 10 tadpoles in the tank!


after I took out the piece of driftwood holding the unfertilized eggs, I used airline tubing to do a partial waterchange (approx 2 gallons).

replaced this with about 2.5 gallon of dechlorinated water of about 78*F.


added in a couple trimmings of water wisteria and left it floating.



The tadpoles still spend the majority of their time clinging to the walls, with little bursts of swimming. these bursts most often end up with them just clinging to another surface.





so, to describe the tank set up:

10 gallons
heater keeping water a stable 79* F
Aerator with a LOW stream of bubbles to keep the water oxygenated (cannot be a fast stream - - this could make the current too strong for the tadpoles to cling to surfaces and swim)
bare bottom
no ornaments
a few floating wisteria



one thing I have noticed about the tadpoles - - some have pretty much transparent tails, others have some shadowing on their tails....don't know if this means I will have a mix of marbled and albino offspring (dad was marbled which is the dominant trait and mom was albino which is recessive)

time will tell!

 

[Jenste]

as of this evening ( end of their 4th full day of life) they are all free-swimming!!!


so excited!!! my fiance was trying to count them, but due to the fact that they are practically see through except for their eyes and stomachs, and now always in motion, he gave up after a few times of having to start over - -

at most i have been able to see 9 of the 10 at once...so a def confirmed 9, possibly 10 in there!

 

[Jenste]

thought I would comment in what I plan to do for feeding




with a mortar and pestle, I ground up ReptoMin Sticks and HBH Frog and Tadpole bites into a powder

with a blender, I ground up a cube of frozen bloodworms with a bit of water (1 cup of water per 1 cube of bloodworms) and will pour in just a bit of the broth, not the chunks.



in the morning they will be getting the powdered mixture, and in the evening they will get a bit of powdered mixture with a bit of bloodworm broth


will be uploading a video of the 5 day old swimming tadpoles!!

 

[Jenste]

forgive any background noise!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

aww congratulations

 

[Jenste]

Thanks! I really am thrilled!



spent about 30 minutes going over the tank and have a confirmed 9 tadpoles - - then i did a 30% water change - - took the tubing out and did a head count - - 8!

looked down in my bucket....had to stare and stare and stare and ...... yep! little eyes swimming around! Using a turkey baster I sucked up the one that had gone for an adventure, put him back in the tank and all seems well.

gave me quite a scare though! they also just had their first feeding of "blood worm broth" -- hope they enjoy it!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

aww great. Glad you found the other one . I'm looking forward to seeing them grow

 

[Jenste]

There has been a noticeable growth in the tadpoles!

Also...it is DEFINITELY obvious that 3 of them are still "white/clear" - - fingers crossed these become albinos!

Just fed them, can see nice full bellies! Also did another 30% waterchange.

Not much else to update

 

[Jenste]

did a 20% water change and feed blood worm broth - - I can tell they are growing

there are two tadpoles that seem MUCH smaller than the others - - one of the white tadpoles and one of the shadowed tadpoles.
I hope they catch up! from what I have read, chances are these two will not successfully morph, but fingers crossed!
The little white one is the tiniest one of the bunch....between 1/3-1/2 the size of the other tadpoles...still looks like a day 2 tadpole.