Odds of larvae making it?

[vistajpdf]

Hi again,

I now have five larvae and a dozen eggs and a chubby momma FBN, which makes me a little concerned that many more eggs are on the way. Would separating the male and female deter her from laying them all (I read where she could have hundreds?) or would that not matter or worse, hurt her?

I know they don't all make it to adulthood, but I missed the % that seem to survive - does anyone know? Also, I read here they are several years old if reproducing already. Does that mean I'd have years before I have to worry about separating the babies before inbreeding begins? Or, would it be wise to separate early, even if overpopulation isn't an issue? I certainly don't want two males fighting or anything, but I also don't know who to entrust these babies to if they thrive. The boys and I went through our list of animal-loving friends, and really only came up with one boy and his family with whom we'd trust to do the proper set-up, etc.

We're very attached to these little ones already. I keep preparing the boys for the possibility that things could go wrong, etc. I'm torn - don't want any to perish but not sure how many tanks we'll end up with in a few months!

Any answers to these questions?
Dana

 

[Hardwarehank]

If you feel comfortable with it, you may want to look into offloading some of the eggs/larvae onto some of the people in this community in the For Sale section.

 

[jbherpin]

If you feel comfortable with it, you may want to look into offloading some of the eggs/larvae onto some of the people in this community in the For Sale section.

A lot of people would pay shipping costs to raise yor larvals...Me included!

-jbherpin-

 

[Mark]

The survival rate depends on a number of factors i.e. quality of embryos, larval husbandry etc. and it would be impossible to say that X% will definitely fail. Another risky stage is metamorphosis, especially with Cynops who can become fussy feeders post morphing.

My advice is don't raise too many. I normally remove a small number of eggs to raise myself (15-20) and leave the rest to chance in the adult tank. This might sound cruel but you'd be surprised how well some larvae will do left to their own devices - often better than the ones you raise yourself. Cynops adults are big egg eaters so they'll keep numbers in check.

The metamorphs will become terrestrial for 1-2 years so be prepared to keep them separate from the adults for quite some time.

 

[vistajpdf]

Thanks, guys.

My adult tank has a sloping area of land, mostly is water. I was really uninformed when we got these and I couldn't understand why the two of them were huddled together under a little log hut on land for so long. I was worried about them drying out and either spritzed them w/ water or gave them a little dunk in the water. Now, they're obviously aquatic and have been for probably 6 months.

However, I'm not sure I want any more babies and am thinking of separating them all. That's where the dilemma lies in keeping them, should they survive.

If they do make it, I'd be happy to give them away to good homes. Will check out the other site and figure out when they've "made it" (I keep reading about danger during metamorph) and how to ship if need be. However, we once were given the "Leopard Frog Habitat" by Uncle Milton for one of the boy's b-day, and it was cruel, IMHO. The poor tadpole arrived near death - they said it was normal as it was in "shock." It died w/in hours. They sent us another and it arrived DOA - I called to complain, didn't want another and felt it wasn't right to do what they were doing to the poor creatures. If you all know of safe ways to ship, I'm all ears, but what happened w/ the leopard tadpole left me nervous. We're in S. FL - any chance anyone is local to us????

Thanks,
Dana