Phender, there are several risks with doing this. One, either group could be carrying parasites or illnesses that could be passed on to the tank mates causing helath issues or death. Two, it could cause fighting or stress resulting in malnourishment or death. Three, if they are breeding it could interupt the breeding and/or caring for tads. I'm sure there are some other possibilities that I may be leaving out. All that being said, you could mix them and they might be fine, but I would not risk it.
I can think of lots of "coulds" both for and against. I thought that since it is established that the babies have a better chance if left in with their parents, someone might have tried to establish a surrogate parent situation. I was wondering if any one has done it and what their experiences were. Can pum parents recognize their own offspring or would they generally leave all other immature pums of their morph, or maybe any morph alone?
Honestly, like I just told somebody else...nowhere in the viv or in panama have I seen momma pum walking around the forest with a group of baby pums trailing her as ducklings....its more like done my part off you go! These frogs are wired to breed when reaching the correct age and to feed as soon as they see prey....I agree. That the parents really serve no benefit..... I have noticed more consistent breeding when parents are in a frogletless viv as well as they will make good use of axels and cups where froglets before came out from.
Oh but that would be soooo cool!
As a hypothetical position (I'm not saying I'm buying the learned behavior thing) why would following a female be a requirement for learned behaviors?
Again as a total hypothetical position, nothing in the above argument makes the case that behaviors cannot be learned. As an example, it is widely documented in birds, that while males are programmed to begin to sing, many of them learn to sing the correct dialect through hearing other males sing and if deprived of the exposure during a critical learning period, the correct song behaviors may not be learned...
Nothing in the above post supports your position.. With respect to claiming you require proof of it in frogs and birds can't be used as an example (even though I was simply demonstrating that the phenomena is well known to occur in multiple taxa), do you have proof that it doesn't occur in frogs?
And this is an important distinction. As I noted early on in this this thread, it is totally possible that aggression to the froglets by some frogs may be a result of the husbandry of those frogs. It is clear on multiple levels that we cannot mimic thier habitats sufficiently to be able to mimic optimal conditions when they can be found in high density (see for example, Lotters et al). What works for one person may not work for another person.
