04.27.03


There are no hard and fast rules to these questions. Ask 20 froggers and you'll get 33 answers. (but I fear 19 are waiting for me to answer)

I buy a several fish foods from http://www.mreed.com/index.shtml and blend them together. Here is the basic formula I used last time:

1 part Small Size (100 - 200 microns) No BS fry food
2 parts Spirilina flakes
1 part Colorup Flakes
1 part Cichlid Power Flakes
pinch of freeze dried earthworms


Blend them all together in a coffee grinder till a fine powder. The earthworms take a lot of grinding to get fine but give it the time. If they are still lint like they can foul the water.

The newly hatched tads have enough food in their systems to go a few days before they start to eat. If you feed them too soon they will often die from mouth fungus or sour water. Azureus are particularly bad about this in my experience. So wait till you can see little squiggles of excrement. Then you'll know that their digestive systems are working and it is time to start feeding them.

For the first week I keep them in 16 or 32 oz glass jars with shallow water (1/2 inch deep or so). After they have started eating I add more water to half fill the jar.

Over feeding is an ever present problem when raising your tads. Too much food and the water can sour overnight and kill them. Too little food and the morph out small (if they morph at all) and don't survive. As a general rule (made for breaking) I feed tads twice a week. The smallest tads get an amount equivalent to a pin head and the larger tads get a pinch sprinkled on top of the water and misted to get it to sink. If the water is cloudy an hour later you fed too much and change the water.

A sprig of plant with roots helps to keep the water clean.

The first water change is critical. Be careful that the temperature matches. To prevent problems with this I keep water set aside in gallon jars with a few plants sitting in cheesecloth spread over the openings specifically for the smallest tads.

I change water once a week. Same day (Sunday) every week helps keep it in rhythm. Other froggers never change their water and still others keep their tads in communal environments and filter the water. All of these ways work. I like to keep the tads seperately for several reasons. When they are labled I can tell them apart. I knw which came from which clutch. It is easier to tell how they are developing when I have a clear image of who is who and how old they are.

Back to the water change--- I just take out all their waste and remove most of the water without wiping the bottom of the jar clean. The film on the bottom of the jar helps to prevent spindly leg. The primary reason I change water is simply that I don't feel it is good for them to eat their own waste.

I have not used commercial mulch so will not comment on it. I have added an oak leaf occasionally to tads that have been prone to mouth fungus and it seemed to help prevent that problem.

Sometimes I'll add what Lars refers to as a worm schnitzel and the tads love it. It seems to fill their blood lust. The recipe is just chopped earthworms but only a very small piece with each tad. They can really foul the water fast.

Occasionally I feed mosquito larva to my tads when they are available. Down here that is about 11 or 7 months of the year. But it is real hassel. Some inevitably hatch out and ---well you know ---I have a very forgiving wife ---- but---- for how long when shes already swatting fruit flies and waxworm moths.

Good luck
Tracy