[Dendrobatid]

I recently found 2 Cristobal froglets in my tank. They appear to be doing ok. I was not aware of their egg deposition site. I now have a clutch of 6 or seven that were laid on a leaf. Where they were laid was a dry part of the tank. I cut them out on the leaf and placed them in a film canister underneath another film canister that had eggs laid in it. Well the eggs in the top canister are bad but the eggs I placed in the second canister have hatched and the tads are now swimming in the canister. I'm afraid that the parents don't know they are there, because I have never seen them near or in it. What should I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[cbreon]

Well, for future reference I wouldn't move eggs. The frogs know what they are doing. Its been my experience that moving tads/eggs doesn't end well. The frogs either don't know that they are there or they know they didn't do it, so they will probably not move/feed the tads.

I know several years back there were some people using active breeders to serve as surrogates for pums that were laying more eggs than they could tend to. Thus morphing out more froglets than the parents could have otherwise handled. So, you could move the tads to broms and see what happens, or you can let them be and see if the parents move them. But either way, I think the chances they will survive are low.

If the parents are laying clutches, chances are they will lay more, and there are quite possibly tads already in some of your broms.

 

[Pumilo]

Agreed, moving them was a mistake. Frogs will water their eggs to keep them moist. Further, I have pums that will ignore a clutch it they already made deposits of as many tads as they feel they can care for anyway.
I've seen it said, however, that Oophaga tads can "call out" using a vibration, thus alerting any adults in the area that they are there and they are hungry. Whether or not they parents choose to feed them...I guess it depends on the parents and if they are already caring for some. So it wouldn't hurt anything to try and find deposit sites yourself. The one time I've tried it, the parents did NOT raise them.