Raising ADF tadpoles

[Margie]

Two weeks ago a friend gave me some ADF eggs to raise. Today she gave me a new batch of eggs. I thought it might be fun to show the size difference between the 2-week old tadpole and the 1-day old eggs.

 

[Margie]

Re: Raising african dwarf frog tadpoles

Here's a pair and a close-up of two-week old tadpoles.

 

[mizzerman]

Can I ask what you are feeding the tadpoles? Let us know how the rearing goes. I have ADF too but have never seen any eggs, maybe not looking hard enough:happy:. Do you know where they layed the eggs? Surface, bottom, plants. rocks???

 

[SkollSunChaser]

I heard that ADF are really hard to breed and raise. Awesome to hear that you're raising them though! After I get my axies from Lauren I planned on getting a smaller tank with ADF.

 

[Margie]

Can I ask what you are feeding the tadpoles? Let us know how the rearing goes. I have ADF too but have never seen any eggs, maybe not looking hard enough:happy:. Do you know where they layed the eggs? Surface, bottom, plants. rocks???

I'll have to ask where the eggs were laid. I know some were laid near the surface behind a filter stem. And the eggs are really, really small.

As for food, I used mainly infusoria in the beginning but lately I'm using microworms and vinegar eels.

They're 3 weeks old now and I can just see the rear leg buds forming. (I have to use a magnifier to see that much detail.) I'll have to work on getting some new photos showing the leg buds.

 

[Margie]

I heard that ADF are really hard to breed and raise. Awesome to hear that you're raising them though! After I get my axies from Lauren I planned on getting a smaller tank with ADF.

From what I've read, getting them to breed isn't too bad, but raising the babies is considered hard. I would tend to agree with that! They're very small and their mouths are small for their size. I've never tried to raise them before, so I'm not quite sure what works best. The numbers have dropped off a lot, but the ones that are left have grown a lot. I'll try to get some updated pictures soon.

 

[Margie]

Here are some pictures I thought were interesting. The first shows some eggs with duckweed for scale. If you're not familiar with duckweed, it's less than 1/8" long. The picture actually shows a combination of 2 batches of eggs. The first batch of eggs is only 2 days old. The second batch is 1 day old. The picture shows how much eggs from batch 1 developed in only one day. You can clearly see the tadpole in the older egg!

 

[sde]

I heard that ADF are really hard to breed and raise. Awesome to hear that you're raising them though! After I get my axies from Lauren I planned on getting a smaller tank with ADF.

I doubt they are too hard to breed. ACF and ADF's are common in the pet trade, and a lot of them are albino, and non-natural colors, so they aren't WC. That means that they are CB, and if they were too hard to breed they wouldn't be so popular in the pet trade. Though it must take some effort. Great job Margie! Congrats! And keep us updated, i love seeing the development. -Seth

 

[SkollSunChaser]

Wow, that's a ton of growth for such a short period of time! By the way, will you be selling any of the babies once they're older, Margie? I'd rather get healthy ones from you than go to walmart and buy potentially sick ones.

What does WC and CB mean? I'm not too familiar with that My guess is wild caught and captive bred?

 

[Margie]

Can I ask what you are feeding the tadpoles? Let us know how the rearing goes. I have ADF too but have never seen any eggs, maybe not looking hard enough:happy:. Do you know where they layed the eggs? Surface, bottom, plants. rocks???

I asked where the eggs were laid and here's the answer:

"The eggs were actually on the surface of the water floating mostly, but a lot of them were on the glass and on the filter, but these were actually above the waterline."

 

[Margie]

Wow, that's a ton of growth for such a short period of time! By the way, will you be selling any of the babies once they're older, Margie? I'd rather get healthy ones from you than go to walmart and buy potentially sick ones.

What does WC and CB mean? I'm not too familiar with that My guess is wild caught and captive bred?

You got it on WC and CB!

I'll let you know if I end up selling some of these guys.

 

[Margie]

Another tadpole update!

They're starting to get rear legs. We tried to get pictures of the leg buds, but couldn't get it in focus very well. Plus he kept moving, so one picture turned out to be a face view. It was accidental, but I think it's cool.

The second picture in particular is blurry, but it also shows the rear leg buds better. The legs have two segments, so I assume that means the knee is forming.

 

[Margie]

Another curiosity is how different the growth rates are for individuals in the same spawn. I pulled out the largest and the smallest and we took pictures of them together for comparison. Kind of shocking how different they are.

 

[SkollSunChaser]

Wow, those guys grow really fast! That must be lots of fun watching them change so much.

 

[Margie]

Tonight I can see toes on the biggest tadpole. Very cool.

 

[Margie]

These guys are 33 days old today. The largest has front legs coming in.

 

[SkollSunChaser]

They look creepy yet still cute at that stage. Just look at those faces!

 

[HodgeaPodge]

Aw that second pic... c:

 

[Margie]

They're much cuter in person. I do think those close-ups are faces only a mother could love! In person you just see the dark body with cute little legs paddling around.

 

[pnkflyd669]

I am a noob to this hobby, having recently switch from fresh and salt fish. What does ADF stand for?

Thanks