Breeding
Leucomelas Breeding Montage
Ventrimaculatus Breeding Montage
E. Anthonyii 'Santa Isabel' with tadpole group
Imitator tadpole with feeder eggs left by mother
Intermedius male transporting tadpole
Man Creek Pumilio female with tadpole
Cryptophyllobates Azureiventris male guarding eggs
Breeding dart frogs and raising their tadpoles (and on occasion allowing the frogs to raise the offspring themselves) is one of the most enjoyable and important aspects of the hobby. Enjoyable because at times it is a challenge and also because the process of egg --> tadpole --> emerging froglet is very interesting. Important because by breeding these frogs we are creating self sustaining captive bred populations, reducing or eliminating the need to remove frogs from the wild and in the worse case scenario, preserving these species should the native populations become extinct.
Breeding behavior, egg laying and parental involvement with the offspring varies widely across species. As a rule, eggs are laid by the female on land and the location of the egg clutch is very much dependent on the normal behavior of the frogs themselves. Larger more terrestial frogs tend to lay on large leaves or on the ground itself and many can be induced to lay on petri dishes under a cocohut (basically a hollowed out half coconut shell). More arboreal frogs, particularly the thumbnail species will lay in a variety of places including on the glass of the viv, under and on leaves, in film cannisters if those are provided, and finding their eggs can be a challenge at times.
Typically a male will call to indicate his interest in breeding. If the female is receptive she will approach him and mating commences. She lays her eggs and the male subsequently fertilizes them. In most species, the parents wander off at this point but will return on an irregular basis to 'water' the eggs to keep them moist and fungus free. However in some cases as with frogs of the Epipedobates group, the male will aggressively guard the egg clutch against intruders until they hatch.
After the eggs hatch, one of the parents (usually the male) will allow the tadpoles to wiggle up onto their back and will subsequently carry the tapdoles for one to five days prior to depositing them in an appropriate water source. For frogs that lay large numbers of eggs, the sight of a large wiggling 'tadpack' on the father's back is a truly impressive sight. Phyllobates and Epipedobates tadpoles do not show cannabalistic tendencies towards their siblings so oftentimes the entire group of 10-30 tadpoles will be deposited in a single water source. On the other hand, frogs whose tadpoles are highly cannabalistic (thumbnail species in particular) will deposit only a single tadpole at a time.
At the point of tadpole deposition, most dart frogs cease to have any involvement with their offspring. The tadpoles will eat algae, other plant matter, insects that have fallen into the water and over time develop into froglets that emerge onto the land. It is hard to tell whether the adult frogs even recognize these new froglets as frogs, let alone their own offspring. These kinds of tadpoles can be easily removed from the vivarium and raised by hand to froglet stage.
However there is another group of frogs, broken down into 'obligate' and 'non-obligate' egg feeders that have particularly fascinating behavior. In the case of the 'obligate' egg feeders, the tadpoles are totally dependent on a diet of infertile eggs deposited by their mother. In general it is not possible to raise these tadpoles on artificial diets although a few have experimented with alternate foods with limited success. With the obligate egg feeders, the male will call to the female to bring her to the tadpole. She will lower her abdomen into the water and the tadpole responds by nibbling at her hindquarters, a behavior known as 'begging'. She will deposit several eggs and return to feed the tadpole routinely until it is ready to leave the water as a froglet. The most commonly found obligate egg feeders in the hobby are Dendrobates pumilio and hobbyists are having good success in breeding a number of the morphs in captivity.
In the case of the 'non-obligate' egg feeders, the parents will care for their tadpoles as in the case of the obligate egg feeders but the tadpoles are also capable of being sustained by other foods. Therefore with this group of frogs (primarily the thumbnail forms) one can leave the tadpoles for the parents to raise or remove them and raise by hand.
Should one decide to raise the offspring of their frogs themselves, your starting point will either be the fertilized eggs or tadpoles that have been deposited in water. If one is planning on removing eggs, waiting for 24-48 hours after they are laid is preferred to give the male adequate time to fertilize them. In addition you can usually tell after 2 days whether the eggs are good (fertile). Rather than elaborate here on proper egg care, I refer you to an Egg Care Sheet that I wrote for the Denrdroboard that is fairly inclusive. It also has some nice photos from Scott Olin showing sequential egg development.
If one is removing tadpoles, simply removing the water source they are in as in a water dish or a film cannister containing water is readily accomplished. Then it is merely a matter of letting the dish etc. equilibrate to the temperature of the room prior to moving the tadpole to its final rearing quarters.
So you now have tadpoles either by hatching them out from eggs or pulling them from the vivarium. For Epipedobates and Phyllobates tadpoles, they can be housed communally in partially filled aquariums containing aquatic plants or housed separately as for Dendrobates tads. For Dendrobates tadpoles, it is best to house them singly and we have used 16 oz clear deli cups filled with about 10 oz. of water routinely in our breeding efforts. One must make sure that the water quality used is good. While aged tap water can be used in some areas, many froggers use spring water, or distilled/reverse osmosis water that has been reconstituted with the appropriate mineral balance. In some respects it is a bit of trial and error as to what source works best for you. This water is oftentimes made slightly acidic by the addition of a small oak leaf or addition of 'Blackwater Extract' to introduce tannins into solution. The tannins plus the mild acidic solution act to inhibit fungal growth.
In terms of food, a key point to remember is to provide adequate nutrition without overfeeding that leads to fouling of their water. While some hobbyists will use an algae diet (chlorella/spirulina), such fare may not be optional for all tadpoles. We along with others prefer to use the HBH Frog and Tadpole Bites due to their inclusion of protein plus their much lower tendency to foul the water. While most tadpoles readily devour the pellets, once can crush the pellets to form a powder that even the smallest tadpole can consume. While there are a number of other foods that can be used, we have found that the Tadbites as they are known supplemented with chlorella/spirulina as desired is a workable solution.
Water temperatures should be kept in the 70 to 75 degree range and debris (mostly uneaten food and tadpole poop) can be carefully siphoned off using a turkey baster as needed and the container topped back up with fresh water. While some level of water change is desired, frequent wholesale water exchanges are not considered necessary or even desirable.
The tadpoles will develop over a course of time dictated by the species, water temperature and food supply. Typically the time period for development is 60-90 days although we have seen certain Epipedobates froglets morph out in as little as 30 days some people have reported ventrimaculatus tadpoles that took 6 months to develop. Development proceeds with the growth of the tadpole to roughly its full size oftentimes occuring in very short order. Shortly thereafter, the beginnings of the hind legs begin to bud and slowly grow to full size. One begins to see the beginnings of 'elbows' forming close to the head that will become the front legs. Once the front legs emerge the tadpole is close to emerging from the water, although the time frame varies between frogs. Other major changes are occurring, including reshaping of the mouth, the tail is slowly absorbed and a more distinct frog appearance emerges.
At this point the new froglet can be safely moved to a rearing setup containing moist long fiber sphagnum moss and perhaps a cutting or two of pothos. Many froglets will not take food for the first several days as they are still living off the reabsorbed tail. Thereafter they may be fed with springtails and fruitflies. While many hobbyists like to start their new froglets off on springtails, we find that most froglets can take D. melanogaster immediately after coming out of the water.
Breeding behavior, egg laying and parental involvement with the offspring varies widely across species. As a rule, eggs are laid by the female on land and the location of the egg clutch is very much dependent on the normal behavior of the frogs themselves. Larger more terrestial frogs tend to lay on large leaves or on the ground itself and many can be induced to lay on petri dishes under a cocohut (basically a hollowed out half coconut shell). More arboreal frogs, particularly the thumbnail species will lay in a variety of places including on the glass of the viv, under and on leaves, in film cannisters if those are provided, and finding their eggs can be a challenge at times.
Typically a male will call to indicate his interest in breeding. If the female is receptive she will approach him and mating commences. She lays her eggs and the male subsequently fertilizes them. In most species, the parents wander off at this point but will return on an irregular basis to 'water' the eggs to keep them moist and fungus free. However in some cases as with frogs of the Epipedobates group, the male will aggressively guard the egg clutch against intruders until they hatch.
After the eggs hatch, one of the parents (usually the male) will allow the tadpoles to wiggle up onto their back and will subsequently carry the tapdoles for one to five days prior to depositing them in an appropriate water source. For frogs that lay large numbers of eggs, the sight of a large wiggling 'tadpack' on the father's back is a truly impressive sight. Phyllobates and Epipedobates tadpoles do not show cannabalistic tendencies towards their siblings so oftentimes the entire group of 10-30 tadpoles will be deposited in a single water source. On the other hand, frogs whose tadpoles are highly cannabalistic (thumbnail species in particular) will deposit only a single tadpole at a time.
At the point of tadpole deposition, most dart frogs cease to have any involvement with their offspring. The tadpoles will eat algae, other plant matter, insects that have fallen into the water and over time develop into froglets that emerge onto the land. It is hard to tell whether the adult frogs even recognize these new froglets as frogs, let alone their own offspring. These kinds of tadpoles can be easily removed from the vivarium and raised by hand to froglet stage.
However there is another group of frogs, broken down into 'obligate' and 'non-obligate' egg feeders that have particularly fascinating behavior. In the case of the 'obligate' egg feeders, the tadpoles are totally dependent on a diet of infertile eggs deposited by their mother. In general it is not possible to raise these tadpoles on artificial diets although a few have experimented with alternate foods with limited success. With the obligate egg feeders, the male will call to the female to bring her to the tadpole. She will lower her abdomen into the water and the tadpole responds by nibbling at her hindquarters, a behavior known as 'begging'. She will deposit several eggs and return to feed the tadpole routinely until it is ready to leave the water as a froglet. The most commonly found obligate egg feeders in the hobby are Dendrobates pumilio and hobbyists are having good success in breeding a number of the morphs in captivity.
In the case of the 'non-obligate' egg feeders, the parents will care for their tadpoles as in the case of the obligate egg feeders but the tadpoles are also capable of being sustained by other foods. Therefore with this group of frogs (primarily the thumbnail forms) one can leave the tadpoles for the parents to raise or remove them and raise by hand.
Should one decide to raise the offspring of their frogs themselves, your starting point will either be the fertilized eggs or tadpoles that have been deposited in water. If one is planning on removing eggs, waiting for 24-48 hours after they are laid is preferred to give the male adequate time to fertilize them. In addition you can usually tell after 2 days whether the eggs are good (fertile). Rather than elaborate here on proper egg care, I refer you to an Egg Care Sheet that I wrote for the Denrdroboard that is fairly inclusive. It also has some nice photos from Scott Olin showing sequential egg development.
If one is removing tadpoles, simply removing the water source they are in as in a water dish or a film cannister containing water is readily accomplished. Then it is merely a matter of letting the dish etc. equilibrate to the temperature of the room prior to moving the tadpole to its final rearing quarters.
So you now have tadpoles either by hatching them out from eggs or pulling them from the vivarium. For Epipedobates and Phyllobates tadpoles, they can be housed communally in partially filled aquariums containing aquatic plants or housed separately as for Dendrobates tads. For Dendrobates tadpoles, it is best to house them singly and we have used 16 oz clear deli cups filled with about 10 oz. of water routinely in our breeding efforts. One must make sure that the water quality used is good. While aged tap water can be used in some areas, many froggers use spring water, or distilled/reverse osmosis water that has been reconstituted with the appropriate mineral balance. In some respects it is a bit of trial and error as to what source works best for you. This water is oftentimes made slightly acidic by the addition of a small oak leaf or addition of 'Blackwater Extract' to introduce tannins into solution. The tannins plus the mild acidic solution act to inhibit fungal growth.
In terms of food, a key point to remember is to provide adequate nutrition without overfeeding that leads to fouling of their water. While some hobbyists will use an algae diet (chlorella/spirulina), such fare may not be optional for all tadpoles. We along with others prefer to use the HBH Frog and Tadpole Bites due to their inclusion of protein plus their much lower tendency to foul the water. While most tadpoles readily devour the pellets, once can crush the pellets to form a powder that even the smallest tadpole can consume. While there are a number of other foods that can be used, we have found that the Tadbites as they are known supplemented with chlorella/spirulina as desired is a workable solution.
Water temperatures should be kept in the 70 to 75 degree range and debris (mostly uneaten food and tadpole poop) can be carefully siphoned off using a turkey baster as needed and the container topped back up with fresh water. While some level of water change is desired, frequent wholesale water exchanges are not considered necessary or even desirable.
The tadpoles will develop over a course of time dictated by the species, water temperature and food supply. Typically the time period for development is 60-90 days although we have seen certain Epipedobates froglets morph out in as little as 30 days some people have reported ventrimaculatus tadpoles that took 6 months to develop. Development proceeds with the growth of the tadpole to roughly its full size oftentimes occuring in very short order. Shortly thereafter, the beginnings of the hind legs begin to bud and slowly grow to full size. One begins to see the beginnings of 'elbows' forming close to the head that will become the front legs. Once the front legs emerge the tadpole is close to emerging from the water, although the time frame varies between frogs. Other major changes are occurring, including reshaping of the mouth, the tail is slowly absorbed and a more distinct frog appearance emerges.
At this point the new froglet can be safely moved to a rearing setup containing moist long fiber sphagnum moss and perhaps a cutting or two of pothos. Many froglets will not take food for the first several days as they are still living off the reabsorbed tail. Thereafter they may be fed with springtails and fruitflies. While many hobbyists like to start their new froglets off on springtails, we find that most froglets can take D. melanogaster immediately after coming out of the water.
Last updated January 21, 2007