How long to quarantine? B. Viridis - got two new ones already!

[jenn]

I just went to the pet store that sold me my b. viridis a few weeks ago - had to pick up some stuff and was checking out the herps. They still had the other b. viridis that I remember seeing when I bought the first one. I asked to hold it, and two of them appeared instead! So I bought them both.

They both look rather skinny and are almost half the size of my current b. viridis - although they all three arrived at the same pet store together! One of them is somewhat scrawny. I placed them in their quarantine tank and let loose a bunch of small, dusted crickets in with them. You'd think they'd never eaten before in their lives!

These pictures were taken just before I put them in the quarantine tank and fed them. I want to do comparison pictures in a few weeks.

So, two questions: One, how long do I quarantine (even though these two came from the same store tank as the one they will eventually be with) and what do I look for as far as problems? Two, can anyone take a guess at gender of these two? I sure hope one of them is female. If not, guess I'll have a bachelor tank!

Toad "A" - the slightly larger and stronger of the two

Toad "A"

Toad "B" - small and very skinny.

Toad "B"

And for fun comparison, my original b. viridis (the one that's been here a few weeks):

Thanks so much!

 

[mike]

I quarantine my amphibs for three months.
Perhaps in this instance, after you are happy that your two new toads are feeding, putting on weight, and behaving "normally", you could keep them all together.
Male toads that mate in the water, in the breeding season, develop dark coloured nuptial pads on their feet (thickened horny swellings that are necessary to get a firm grip on the female for amplexus).
They also have thicker forelimbs and shorter fingers than females.

 

[edward]

At work, quarantine is a minimum of 30 days and three clean fecal samples and no deaths or illness.
If you are not getting the fecals checked then increasing the time in quarantine would be prudent.

Ed

 

[jenn]

I have a great vet that will check the fecals. Thanks!

 

[mark]

is it nesercary to quarantine amphibians of the same species if in this case you buy them from the same place, tank, family, if you get what i mean.
because you know they have been together before, and as far as you can see don't appear to have any problems

 

[edward]

I would say yes, as the immune system of each animal may be acting at a different level so each animal may have parasite/illness that the others do not. Also any animals not acquired at the same time may have been exposed to other pathogens that the others were not.


Ed

Ed

 

[jenn]

I wondered about that, Mark, but noticed that since I'd bought the first b. viridis, the store had added a bufo of a different species in with the other b. viridis. So not knowing where the new toad came from or how long he'd been in that tank, I felt that "safety first" would be a good policy.

Actually, if it wasn't for that additional unnamed toad, I might not have even asked. I'm glad I did!