Looking for breeding info for <i>Hyperolius rubrovermiculatus</i>

[paris]

ive got 5, they are over a year old (since they morphed)i am looking to breed them but dont know where to find data on doing it. ive tried google searches and come up empty. anyone know of a good web site to breeding hyperolius or have bred them before? ive never even had them call -im pretty sure i have a mix of sexes since i have 5.

 

[kai]

Hi Paris,

you need to simulate the rainy season: you can probably pass up thunderstorms but use a filter pump to let water drop into the aquatic portion (using a horizontally placed plastic tube with small holes melted in it works best). You probably don't want to try it in your sleeping room because these guys are pretty noisy...

Best wishes,
kai

 

[paris]

wanted to mention here that one male has started calling in the past few days-it isnt so bad-and yes they are right next to my bed. he seems to call when he sees another frog moving, and even flings himself at them occasionally. calls are 20-30 mins apart and sound like a cricket frog on speed with the hiccups.

 

[paris]

ok, update here. the one male who was calling called on and off-but then another male started to get into the mood too....i found him floating belly up the next day-i have heard of over agressive males actually drowning other competetors (not very sporting!) and so now i can bear witness that that does happen. that was a while ago-it left me with a very beautiful patterend large female, a known male and another unknown.

when i got back from my trip to california on 3/30 i found eggs in the tank-on the side of the glass but also at water level. the were unpigmented in one big mass of about 100+. i scraped them off the glass (the tank has ruby shrimp in it that might eat the eggs)and put them in another tank. i have noticed that not all eggs were fertilized and some lagged behind others in growth. many could be seen to be wrything quite violently in their eggs. i am not sure if these were ment to be laid in water or were supposed to be laid on a plant above water-so i positioned the egg mass on a floating lily pad so it was wet but still had lots of exposure to the air. the tadpoles were very active in their eggs-and soon many began to fall off the pad-still pigmentless and with huge yolks and really underdeveloped-i was worried about this-but i have come to the conclusion that these are the type that are ment to drop into the water from a leaf and finish development on the bottom.

over the past week all that are going to develop have made it out of the jelly and onto the bare bottom of the tank i have them in, the rest of the eggs-about 50+ have gone fuzzy and those that were developed seem to have stopped. (dont know why on this)

the tads still have external gills and some yolk left-but many are now pigmented and are somewhat active on the bottom and sides of the tank. i can count about 47 tads. i am excited as these are the first frogs i have ever bred (sals are alot easier!) and it will be easier/cheaper to raise the tads since i wont need live food!

 

[paris]

i am just now starting to get tadpole morphs, does anyone else keep these frogs -specifically this species, not hyperolius ssp., i am looking to trade some of my offspring for someone elses-essentially do a genetic swap.

i got these at IAD 2 years ago, the man who gave them to me sounded either german or dutch-he had an accent-his kids did not, i think he lives here in the states, does anyone know who he is or how i can get in touch with him?

 

[paris]

tadpole invasion!!!

i woke up this am to see this in process-last time it was after the fact. 20 minutes later the couple were off the leaf but still in amplexus. the eggs at the bottom of the mass-not easily seen in the picture (its a web cam..go fig)were already cleaved a few times-this is a fast developing egg mass-they will wiggle out underdeveloped with huge yolks on their bellies and sit on the bottom for a while. this time i will leave the eggs above water-yet still move the plant to a tank away from the shrimp that keep the parents tank clean. this was unexpected to have another breeding 3 months later-i read they can achieve multiple breeeding -so i thought it was more like 2 times a year. it will be interesting to see if 3 months is a standard.

 

[paris]

an update here-i have a pic of the eggs 3 days later-again from my cheap web cam, but hey its a start...the female showed some parental care with this batch (i didnt take them away from her this time-i just put a jar under to collect the tads when the start to fall.) for about a day she continued to return periodically -swollen with absorbed water and was seen to sit at the top of the mass and release her water on them to keep them moist.

the male was full of himself and started to call more vigiorusly-so for the past 3 days when the lights go out he and the other male try to out do each other-calling then wrestling/kicking and climbing on top of each other to call from a higher place.

these are one of the species of reed frogs that exhibit multiple patterns due to latent gene expression-so it is just coincidental that both my males have similar patterns-my female has a reticulated crimson pattern running through her burgundy back colour-i just wonder if some of these patterns may be sex linked?

its been 3 1/2 days and the tads have grown to have distinct tails and heads with their huge yolks and are now thrashing about in their jellys getting ready to drop into the collection jar i have under them.luckily this time i can only see one unfertilized egg in the batch of roughly 100.

this is a pic of my female -it really doesnt do her justice, but its the best one i could get-and perhaps the only one on the net. these frogs go through daily colour changes too, in the morning and when its hot they fade dramatically and the burgundy back colour lightens to almost a tan, the white and red also in their patterns intensify at different times.

 

[peat]

nice pics