Pic of a CB M. stelzneri froglet

[seth]

This is a two day old Melanophriniscus stelzneri. I had this batch morph out last week. Sure are small aren't they. Lots of fun to feed.

 

[jennifer]

Wow! I thought some newt morphs were small, but that guy is miniscule!!

 

[colin]

very cool, any pics of the adults or info on your husbandry?

 

[seth]

Here is a pic of a pair in amplexus. The male is one of the pictured froglet's parents but its a different female.

 

[mike]

See Seth's Caresheet:
http://www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/caresheets/bumblebeewalkingtoad01.html
Very informative

 

[a]

Very cute little toads there, an that toadlet must be hard to feed!
how big is it ?(sorry, not used to foriegn money)
Its not that small when you compare it to the size of the adults, knowing that cane toad toadlets are less than a cm.

AJfr0ggy

 

[chris]

That's a dime(10 cents),AJJ. They are a little bit larger than a centimeter, maybe 1.2 centimeters.

You're very lucky in my opinion. For some reason when I get tadpoles to the almost toadlet stage(when their tail is a little longer than yours, Seth, they die. Any reason why that could happen?)

 

[a]

I haven't reared any toads myself yet, all though this year i finally found some bufo bufo eggs.
From seeing the common frogs in my garden, i would say that maybe the tadpoles don't have enough space. Last year, i put some of the frogspawn in the smaller pond, which did have quite a bit of rotting vegetation in it,Initially, there were no predators, so a lot of them became toadpoles. The tads took a lot longer to morph, and were about 5mm. Many of these were really weak, and i found none survived when i raised them. However, in my big pond, Most of the tadpoles got eaten strait away buy newts, backswimmers ect. However, some did survive, and i started noticing some huge tadpoles, which morphed into frogs about 1.5cm, which were much much stronger.
SO overall, it could have been some of or all these things that affected the samller ones:
rotting vegetation
lack of space
lack of predators (so no natural selection of the strong ones)

I haven't tried anything yet on rearing foriegn tadpoles, unfortunately i haven't bred any of my frogs yet

AJfr0ggy

 

[john]

Chris - sounds like drowning. Most anurans will drown incredibly easily (more easily than metamorphosing caudates) when they start to lose their tail.

 

[chris]

But the water was just under his height(because I knew it would be any day now as his tail was about 2 mm long)Do you think he could have just rested to long under the water?

Plus I had an ample supply of textured items for him to climb out on.

It was in a relatively large container probably 8 by 10 inches for just that one frog.

I have more tads so I want to know what I did wrong before they begin to morph.

Thanks

 

[edward]

Hi Chris,
There are a large number of problems that can occur at metamorphosis that will result in death. When I have tadpoles that are going to morph out I put them in a slanted aquarium with a textured slope (usually gravel) but I also build up the corners in the water area as these can cause the metamporph to exhaust itself trying to climb out of the water into the corner and drowning or death from stress. There is even a condition known as post metamorphic death syndrome that has unknown causes but results in the deaths of the metamorphs within a few days of leaving the water. Other possibilities include bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, chytrid, insufficient fat/energy reserves to complete metamorphosis to name the ones that come to my mind right away.
I would try altering the way they can climb out of the water first and then move onto other possible causes.
Ed

 

[seth]

Mr. John Clare is right, they most likely drowned. As he said most froglets are at risk of drowning around the time they morph out. I personally have found this species extra specially likely to drown around morphing time. I originally used a method similar to what Mr. Kowalski mentioned but with this species although many successfully morphed I still had what I consider a excessive rate of drowning.(around 10%) What I do now is as soon as the front limbs are clearly visible I suck them up in a turkey baster and place them on moist paper towels. This works well with this species because they normally morph so quickly after the front limbs are exposed. I now have very low losses during metamorphosis. They are not quite as hard for me to feed as you might think since I now use stunted D. melanogaster to feed even new morphs. It works O so much better for me than springtails ever did. Also that care sheet was written when I had only bred them 4-5 times and some of the info I is a little off. for example as can be clearly seen in the photo on this post amplexus is not ingunial. I knew that its just a typo. Also cannibalism does not seem to to be much of a problem nor given proper conditions do tads need 4 square in. of space. That was just poor observation. Lastly I am not now after more observation convinced that they feed on anything but plant matter. I re-wrote the care sheet some time ago with errors corrected and more froglet rearing info. The old version is not to bad overall but still, I guess one of these days I should contact the owner of the site and see if he is interested in replacing it with the improved, more accurate version.

 

[edward]

Hi Seth
How do you stunt your D. melanogaster? I have had some success by keeping the colonies on the dry side but this does not always work well for me.

I would appreciate a copy of your updated care sheet as I am interested in getting some of these interesting toads again in the near future. On this topic what are your plans for the offspring you have produced this time around?
(Also, there is no need to be so formal and call me Mr. Kowalski. I prefer Ed...)

Ed

 

[seth]

Ed,
To stunt the fruit flies I simply use a greatly reduced amount of medium and wait till there are plenty of larva then dry it out before the larva get to large. This forces the larva to morph or die so to speak and they will morph considerably before they normally would. This doesn't work all the time but it works often enough that I can maintain a steady supply for tiny froglets.

No special plans for the froglets; just the usual. Keep a couple, sell a few and In the unlikely event I find anyone that has any atelopus spumarius barbatini, A. flavescens or any other melanophrynicus species that they might be willing to trade I would love trade. I would really, really, like to get some of the other species of melanophryniscus but unfortunately that doesn't seem to probable.

 

[edward]

Hi Seth,
I have been trying to get A. spumarius for two years now. I know they are coming into the country in small quantities but they are vanishing before they make it to the price lists. I have inquired with all of the larger dealers with no luck.. If you know someone that may be able to get them I would be willing to split an order with you to get some more leverage. I met a couple of people at IAD, that have some spumarius but no successful reproductions that I am aware of to date. I've worked with A. zeteki and the adults are a piece of cake but rearing Atelopid tadpoles are problematic as they initially are willing to take only diatoms as food. After they grow a little bit the food can be made into a paste and spread on rocks to feed the tadpoles.
Sometimes if you can talk to the importer, they will have the collectors look for unusual frogs as these are often money makers.
Ed

 

[seth]

Ed,
I know how you feel, the importer that I usually buy my w.c. frogs from has been trying to get me some of the other legally available but almost never exported species of melanophryniscus for about three years now. So far no luck. My guess is the exporter is happy with things as they are and isn't going to much effort to get any. Maybe I should offer to "inspire" the exporter a little more so he will try a little harder to get some. Sometimes the only way to get something is to pay extra.

By the way, since you have worked with A. zeteki, are the tadpoles particular about about what kind of fresh water diatoms they eat or will most any diatoms do?

 

[edward]

Hi Seth,
I haven't seen any information on a specific diatom or diatoms but in the wild they feed on brown diatoms located at the base of water falls. The tadpoles were started at Baltimore Zoo on brown diatom covered rocks collected from the streams on the Zoo grounds.
If there are several people interested in the frogs it is usually easier to convince them that there is sufficient cash flow in bringing them into the country.
Ed

 

[han]

Hi

Raising the tiny Melanophryniscus toadlets becomes
easier when put on their food: a layer of soil from under foliage-trees, humus and leaves. I change it every 3 days. When in the tanks, keep it damp. It contains a huge colony of tiny ,slow moving, creatures very much liked (and seen, i don't!) by the toadlets. After some 3 weeks when the toadlets have grown, i start adding springtails and wingless Drosophila.

Han

 

[seth]

Han,
I agree that raising is easier on a natural earth substrate where food items can grow. However I do things a little differently. I don't change the dirt and I build a little compost pile in one end of the tank to make sure an adequate amount of tiny food items remain. In addition I add stunted D. melanogaster early on as I find the froglets grow best this way.

 

[paolo]

hello I'm Paolo fro italy
I have two pairs of M. Steltzeri in amplexus from several days, but they have not still placed no egg.... .... after how much time they have placed eggs yours toad?
excuseme but my English is not good