I'm hoping someone has seen this behavior before and can enlighten me.
I've had my ADFs for about a year (one male/one female). Five days ago they spent the better part of three days in amplexus. This didn't seem unusual given their behavior over the last year.
What was different this time is that once they separated, the female was on her back at the bottom of their tank. She was still active, moving around the tank, but every motion was made upside-down. It was almost as if she was completely disoriented and/or brain damaged, such that she couldn't right herself or even recognize that she was on her back. After observing her for a while, I carefully righted her. She immediately flipped over to her back as soon as she started to move about the tank. Nothing else looked off in terms of her coloring, eyes, or skin. On day 2 post-amplexus her behavior fluctuated between lying still on her back at the bottom of the tank and some very frenetic looking twists and turns throughout the tank - all upside down.
Sadly she died less than 24 hours later. I feel terrible and wonder if there is something I could have done (or could do in the future) that would prevent this. Has anyone seen similar behavior?
I've had my ADFs for about a year (one male/one female). Five days ago they spent the better part of three days in amplexus. This didn't seem unusual given their behavior over the last year.
What was different this time is that once they separated, the female was on her back at the bottom of their tank. She was still active, moving around the tank, but every motion was made upside-down. It was almost as if she was completely disoriented and/or brain damaged, such that she couldn't right herself or even recognize that she was on her back. After observing her for a while, I carefully righted her. She immediately flipped over to her back as soon as she started to move about the tank. Nothing else looked off in terms of her coloring, eyes, or skin. On day 2 post-amplexus her behavior fluctuated between lying still on her back at the bottom of the tank and some very frenetic looking twists and turns throughout the tank - all upside down.
Sadly she died less than 24 hours later. I feel terrible and wonder if there is something I could have done (or could do in the future) that would prevent this. Has anyone seen similar behavior?