Gastrotheca riobambae

[Niels D]

Yesterday we've managed to get our hands on 3 G riobambae (1.2). They're fantastic little beasties! The male has allready made a lot of noice, so we're hoping to breed eventually.

 

[Alejandro]

Those are very nice specimens. How humid/dry you must keep them?

 

[Niels D]

50% to 60% I spray a little twice a week. There's allways a water bowl present, which they can also use to disposite the larvae. Keep in mind that they're nocturnal, but they're call is really loud and beautifull.

The female keeps the eggs in her pouch untill they're hatchlings. Wicked!

 

[Niels D]

Couldn't help myself posting this vid. Was rearranging the groundlevel of the tank and the top (with the lights) and I thought of making a quick vid of the enclosure. The bulb hanged in there only during the vid, because it was way too dark without it.

My Gastrotheca riobambae Viv - YouTube

 

[ajr104]

I kept and bred these years ago, selling them was my biggest amphibian keeping mistake. I would love to get my hands on some again. Will be keeping an eye out on your breeding successes....the males are incredibly loud, like someone hitting two hollow bits of wood repeatedly! Used to get lots of tadpoles, easy to rear and develop fast. Amazing that these are so rare now when they are so easy to keep and breed!

 

[Niels D]

One of my females (we have 4 animals now) was carrying eggs in her pouch after we witnessed amplexus. Allas the eggs turned out te be unfertile. Hopefully they'll get in the mood next year. Can you give me some advice according to how you've bred them, because I've read a couple of reports and they tend to differ?

Filled pouch

Sighns of unfertile eggs

The eggs

 

[ajr104]

I had five of them, two males three females (have four females originally but one died unexpectedly...) The two males would compete with calling, was incredibly loud.

I never needed to do anything to get them to breed. I kept them quite dry but would spray them daily towards the evening. I used to keep them very well fed on a really good mix of live foods (they would hand feed which made it very easy to make sure they all got their fill. They lived at room temperature in my house (~20degrees) and I never noticed any seasonality. I had been warned that they are very prone to nutrient deficiencies, more so then any other amphibs and it seems to affect their eyes, so I was always very careful to sprinkle their food with vits/minerals.

Males would call every night. Amplexus would not last long, I rarely ever even saw it! Two of the three females were pretty much constantly brooding one after another, the third female never did anything. I had a water bowl (an old tuppaware box with some elodea) for them to release the tadpoles.

The tadpoles were raised on artemia, bloodwrom and fish pellets. They grew quickly but I did have problems with I high number of deformities in the froglets. Looking back now (with a lot more experience behind me) I should have done more to ensure they had a good vitamin/mineral intake, especially if they are more susceptible to problems.

Hope that helps a little. I will be watching out for a breeding topic to come up from you!

 

[Niels D]

Thanks! I keep them at room temperature as well and the males also call every evening and night. I'm handfeeding them all kinds of food items like cultured roaches, wax worms, crickets and such. I'm spraying the enclosure almost every evening. Hopefully I will experience the same succes as you did.

 

[ajr104]

Hey, any update on how these guys have settled in?

 

[earthtiger]

Hi Niels,

any update on your Gastrotheca?

kind regards,
Martin

PS.: I really love this species, they are cute and interesting!

Gastrotheca riobambae - feeding time - YouTube

 

[Niels D]

Nice vid. I'm feeding my animals with pincers as well. Your animals are beautiful. No eggs recently, but I'm keeping them pretty cool at this moment with night temperatures reaching 13 C sometimes. They're still eating as pigs though and the male keeps calling almost all night long. Hopefully this winter cooling will end up with the female getting some fertilised eggs.

 

[Niels D]

The female's got eggs for the third time. I really hope that this time they're fertile. Her pouch is more swollen than the two times before and it's closed more tightly. She's also fully grown now. When I looked at the pictures of the first time she had eggs I noticed how these frogs change in colours over time:

 

[velasco13000]

yayyyy let us know how they look

 

[Willlis]

Good luck! I think you might be on to something about the age of the frog helping, hope so at least!

 

[Niels D]

I hope so as well. Well to be honest.... I would sacrifice a big toe for some offspring!

 

[ajr104]

Genuinely very excited for you (and the prospect of captive bred gastrotheca in europe!)

 

[earthtiger]

I hope so as well. Well to be honest.... I would sacrifice a big toe for some offspring!

I am curious, if you still have all your toes!?

kind regards,
Martin

 

[Niels D]

Haha. Still no fertile eggs. Too bad, because she has had 3 batches now. Hope one day they will be fertile.

 

[earthtiger]

Too bad! That is really annoying!

Do you think it is the male who isn't fertile? If you will come to the next show in Hamm and would like to try it with one or two other males, let me know. I could give you one or two subadult / fresh adult males.

Currently I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have more luck than you had with your specimens. Saturday Morning (about 10:00 am), 11th of May, I caught my Gastrotheca riobambae in the act:

Since a couple of weeks I keep this group (3,5) in a box in the garden. Lowest temperature I messured early in the morning a couple of weeks ago was 4C. Yesterday at 11.30 am I messured 17C.

Unfortunately, the male didn't manage to guide all eggs in her pouch. Later I counted 82 eggs on the ground. For his excuse: it was the first time for both.

Anyhow, it looks like the female is carrying a few eggs at least:

...time will tell, if they are fertile.

Kind regards,
Martin

 

[Niels D]

When is the next Hamm meeting, because I surely would be interested. The point is that I've got one male, one female which could be too big to be riobambae and one female who had three batches allready. The big female has kept away from any action, but the other one produced good looking eggs. There could be something wrong with them of course, but I'm betting it's the male that isn't fertile. People keep on telling me that G.riobambae needs some practise before they have success though... More specimen couldn't do no harm in any case, so I'm very interested.

Hope your eggs are fertile. The problem with G.riobambae is that most people fail te get F2 due to infertile offspring. Some say it's because the tadpoles are raised too warm and that they should be kept cool like salamander larvae, or even cooler. They found tads in the wild in mountain streams which had temps around 5C, so they can manage the cold quite well. Of course this is what I've been told and maybe you've heard other stories or know people who did succeed. I really hope so.