[EDs Fly Meat]

Hey all,
I have a 5.1 bastamento population in a large heavily planted tank. The other day I found a clutch of 7 eggs all were good and developing. Today Erin noticed that only two eggs are left. These tads were no where near ready to be transported and we have only two eggs left. Its obvious they have been moved but its in a pretty out-of-the-way spot for a frog to go, so i don't think one of males stumbled into it. They defend their space pretty well. I am baffled as to what/why they did what they did. Any thoughts are welcome. One thought that came to mind was male sabotage but I am not aware of this behavior in males. So what do you think?

 

[Scott]

Male sabotage would be suspect number 1.

In tank predators (millipedes?) would be number 2 - but they would likely eat everything (for that matter that would be true of suspect #1 also?).

Is it possible the 3 eggs were bad and were eaten by the female? Some animals eat bad eggs (instictual to try and reabsorb the "energy" expended into the eggs).

s

 

[Moe]

Snails and slugs are another option for tank predators.

M.N

 

[EDs Fly Meat]

.

They were pretty high up and all the eggs were good. No slugs or snails to speak of. Wierd.

 

[EverettC]

check under the leaf on the ground on the off chance that somehow they got knocked off the leaf somehow. Maybe those rough-housers!

 

[bbrock]

Male sabotage would be suspect number 1.

In tank predators (millipedes?) would be number 2 - but they would likely eat everything (for that matter that would be true of suspect #1 also?).

Is it possible the 3 eggs were bad and were eaten by the female? Some animals eat bad eggs (instictual to try and reabsorb the "energy" expended into the eggs).

s

Right as usual Scotty. Although I've seen millipedes eat partial clutches and in my setup, it is hit or miss whether they bother a clutch at all. Male sabotage though. Boy, whether it's male or female, pumilio seem to have a taste for each other's eggs.

 

[Randy]

My vote's on male sabotage. I'm willing to bet the culprit is about 3 times his normal size right now! I once sat and watched a Castaneoticus devour six of her tankmates eggs in one sitting...

 

[saulosiRDS]

Believe it or not, I know of a university study where their frogs actually relocated clutches of eggs. not sure how they moved them but I am sure that they were the same batch of eggs.

SaulosiRDS