Update on my tadpoles - Paw Talk

**Dragonrain** · #1 04-12-2007, 02:23 PM

All 5 tadpoles are alive and thriving! They have gotten HUGE! I had to buy a bigger tank for them the other day since I just had them in a small hex betta tank and they outgrew it.

They've all got their back legs now! They're still small - but they're there. They have such tiny little frog feet! No front legs yet. It's so funny watching them, todays really the first time I saw them actually move their legs - but they don't really seem to know what to do with them yet.

It's so interesting watching them grow.

I tried to take pics of them earlier, haven't gotten them on the comp yet but I have a feeling they didn't turn out so well. I'll take a look later and post if any of them turned out good.

tarita2004 · #2 04-12-2007, 04:09 PM

ohh..congrats! glad they're getting leggies

hope teh pix turned out well!!

**Sasami** · #3 04-12-2007, 04:54 PM

Coolness! Good luck with them

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millie121 · #4 04-12-2007, 06:33 PM

Yay!! Sounds like they are cruising right along!

**Dragonrain** · #5 04-16-2007, 12:44 PM

I just cleaned the tadpole tank - and one of the little guys has front legs now too! I swear they just grew overnight!

Does anyone know when they stop filter feeding and eating normal frog food? I know they don't need to eat while they're absorbing their tails - after that should I start feeding them the frog brittle? You can see their mouths and they swim up to the top of the water to take gulps of air once in awhile now.

I'm still working on getting some half decent pictures :p

mulder · #6 04-16-2007, 12:49 PM

that's so cool, cant wait for pics!!!

millie121 · #7 04-16-2007, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragonrain


	I just cleaned the tadpole tank - and one of the little guys has front legs now too! I swear they just grew overnight! Does anyone know when they stop filter feeding and eating normal frog food? I know they don't need to eat while they're absorbing their tails - after that should I start feeding them the frog brittle? You can see their mouths and they swim up to the top of the water to take gulps of air once in awhile now. I'm still working on getting some half decent pictures :p

The short answer is - when they don't have their gills anymore. I can't remember off hand when this happens in the sequence of events when they're going through metamorphosis, but since you can see their front limbs their getting there! How long are their tails - has resorption started?

The actul frog brittle is still going to be too large, in my opinion. NASCO does make a juvenile size, as well as a post-metamorphic brittle, which would be better for little mouths (I used the juvenile size). Or, just break up the frog brittle a bit before adding it. I *think* I waited until they resorbed their tails until I started them on the juvenile frog brittle.

The biologicals manager at NASCO is a SUPER helpful lady if you ever want to ask her anything. You could always order up some juvenile frog food, and then ask her a question. Their website is ENASCO.com.

Also,
There is a book by Nieuwkoop and Faber about the normal table of xenopus development; your school library may very well have it. It's handy reading. It may focus more on the earlier stages, but it could help with metamorphosis too...sorry it's been a while I'm not that fresh on what all's in there.

Carissa · #8 04-16-2007, 07:54 PM

aww i remember when I had tadpoles! there neat watching them grow

**Dragonrain** · #9 04-16-2007, 09:49 PM

Oh thanks for all the info! I'll look into that book - my school might have it

I'm not going to feed them the frog brittle that the adult frogs would get - it's called the same thing but is a lot smaller.

**Dragonrain** · #10 04-30-2007, 09:30 AM

These guys have been driving me crazy the past couple of days, lol.

So heres another update on them.

One of them is perfectly healthy. He's the weird one, because the other three all have problems.

Another frog is bloated.

This one is completly a frog now though, not mostly a tadpole like the other one was, so I'm hoping that will make a diffrence. He is still very active and is eating, so I'm hoping for the best! I found an awesome message board that deals with just fish and frogs, so they've been really helpful. They said that he probably has kidney problems, as I suspected, and that once he gets over this initial case of bloat, I might be able to control the bloat with diet. So I'm trying changing his food and feeding schdule to see if that helps - so far so good, although he is still bloated. The people on the other board told me if I can't get his bloat down with food, I would have to either find a vet who will asperate him, or do it myself. Basically that means getting a really small needle and sirange and getting some of the water, or lymph, or whatever the heck that fuild is under is skin - out! Before he explodes!

I'm hopeing for now that just the new feeding schdule will help and it won't get to that point.

Another one that is completly a frog can only use one of his front legs to feed. The other one still looks normal, and he can move it, but for some reason he can't move it forward enough to reach his mouth and feed himself with it. He still eats plenty with just the one arm though, and is doing well - so I'm not too worried about this one.

The last one seems to me to be the worst! He can't use either of his front legs at all. He carries then at a weird angle below him and never moves them. He hasen't eaten yet because he is still absorbing his tail. When he needs to start eating on his own, I'm not sure if he'll be able too. I was told that I should be able to hand feed him, and he could just take the food from me without using his arms. I hope thats the case!

So my plan for them now is still to give them to my brother if I can get them all healthy and eating. I don't have enough room or a big enough tank to keep them all, even though I would love to. But my brother already has a 55 gal tank set up for them and I know they'd be so happy with all that room. This weekend I think I'm going to take the healthy frog, and the one who only feeds himself with one arm, to my brothers. The other two I'll keep with me longer to see if the bloated one can get better, and to find a way to get the one who can't use his front legs to eat.

So much work for 4 tiny little frogs! I'm pretty sure that the frogs at the lab that I took the eggs from had bad genes and that's why 2 out of 4 of the babies have leg deformaties. I don't know what went wrong with the bloated one but hopefully he gets better.

millie121 · #11 04-30-2007, 07:15 PM

I hand feed my frog beef heart frequently, and when I feed pellets (which is actually pretty rare) I actually have to pretty much drop 'em on her head and she just opens her mouth and swallows, lol. So I think your critter with the leg problem can be hand fed, too. I have noticed though, that even after I've hand fed her, she'll use her forelimbs to adjust the food in her mouth, like maybe if it's too big of a piece, or not quite situated right. So, feed small pieces, I guess.

My frog also tends to catch her own fish without using her forelimbs too much.

I tried to find more info about limb malformations/variations, aka either mineral deficiencies or thyroid issues. The problem is, I don't have any journal access anymore since I'm not in school. You might have better luck than me. It could be either of those, or just a fluke developmental variant (or something else entirely, really, those were just the things I thought of off the top of my head).

**Dragonrain** · #12 05-05-2007, 08:07 PM

Well I'm down to 3 frogs now, but this time for a good reason!

The one with one bum leg was doing very well, eating like a pig and very active - so I decided that it was time for him to get out of the tiny little tank I have them in and move into his new home with my brother. So now he's in the 55 gal tank in my brothers room! He has the whole thing to himself for awhile till the other frogs are healthy enough to move in with him too.

My brother named him "Tater"

**Dragonrain** · #13 05-13-2007, 10:00 AM

2 clawed froggies now, I moved another one over to my brothers tank this weekend!

He's really taking awesome care of them. He made the tank for them look really nice, and Tater looks so good! The two I moved seem so happy to be in the 55 gal with all that room to swim around.

The funny thing is, I only have two more frogs. The one that was bloated, which is doing much better, and the one with both it's front legs deformed. I think I'm keeping the deformed one because it will have to always be hand fed since it can't use it's hands to feed itself. I'm giving my brother the one that was bloated now that he isn't bloated anymore and seems to be doing fine. So my brother wanted to get 1 or 2 more frogs at the pet store. My dad took him and they got 2 frogs at walmart because the sign said "african frogs"...well they're dwarf frogs, not clawed.

My brother doesn't want to return them to walmart because he likes them, but he won't be able to keep them with the clawed frogs because the clawed one's will get much bigger and maybe eat the small ones. Sooo instead he gave the small two to me. I set up some hides in one of the bettas tank and moved the dwarf frogs in with my female betta.