04.28.03
Everyone does what works for them. What works for me is to use those $0.88
plastic shoeboxes. I fill them to about 1.5" of RO water, add some peat,
sometimes add a piece of pothos plant, and let it sit for a week or two
before I add a tad. I have also been recycling containers lately wherein
after a tad morphs, I just reuse the container after straining some of the
debris. When I am getting stupid numbers of tads, I'll start combining
tads up to around 6 smallish tads per container.
I hatch my eggs mostly submerged in Milli-Q (18 mega Ohm resistivity water-
cleaner than RO) water in petri dishes floating within the shoe boxes (it's
Vegas- drier than popcorn farts). For vents, I can do anything but let
them get warm and they'll hatch. My frog room just hit 28 C on a surprise
warm day and I didn't have my A/C on and so I lost around 20 very mature
freaking vent tads. The eggs seem even more wimpy and so I now hatch on
the bottom shelf away from any lights. For azureus and tincs, I add a
little peat to Milli-Q water. These eggs seem to do better for me if
they're somewhat on the warm side (top shelf). Sometimes, I'll wash the
bejesus out of the eggs with the Milli-Q if they look like they'll fungus
(white strings appear in the egg masses). After hatching, I transfer the
day or two old tad into the shoebox. If I have to cut tads from the eggs,
that usually means they'll die. I also never throw out my old fungused
eggs immediately. I put them in water and occasionally, I'll get the
surprise tad.
I feed very little in the beginning (that's why recycling shoe boxes seems
to work so well- I won't feed for a week but there's still plenty of very
stable food for them) and then as the tad starts to mature, I feed
ridiculous amounts without any worries. I feed once a week to two weeks.
My water's green and in a few containers, I literally have to shine a light
through from the bottom to see the tad because of the debris/food. I feed
spirulina (Mark Forman) supplemented with some spirulina based flake food
and vitamins/minerals with high folic acid all pulverized in a blender.
I never change water and rarely have to add extra water. I pull my tads
out after the front legs emerge and morph them in the ponds of other tanks.
I had problems before with water that was too clean. My leucomelas
couldn't seem to break the surface tension.
Good luck,
Frank