Dart Den
Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...
Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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First auratus embryos
#1
Also proof that the male can in fact fertilize. I'm mostly sure it's from one female's first real clutch. I've had confirmed clutches from the other female, but no definite embryos yet. She just laid again the other day so I'm hoping to have proof that both females can produce viable eggs with the male.

I was kinda thrilled to see good-looking gills on at least one of the embryos. Or they look good to me despite my lack of experience with them. (I'm getting good at discerning bad eggs though.) I could not see those until I looked at this photo. Here's hoping I wind up with tadpoles!
A girl named Joey.
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#2
P.S. Would it be good to hydrate them with tadpole tea at this point, or continue with water?
A girl named Joey.
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#3
Congratulations Joey! I just mist with my regular spray bottle to keep the eggs moist. I don't mess with tad tea until they hatch out and I transfer to cups.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#4
I use 'spring' water' / grocery store or failing that, tap water that has sat for a while and 'de-gassed'.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#5
Check with your water company on what chemicals they treat with. Down here they use chloramines that don't disperse over time. You have to treat tap with a dechlorinator to get rid of that stuff.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#6
Yeah, our tap water is so hard it would take way more effort to make it usable than it's worth to me. Grocery store is the way I go!
A girl named Joey.
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#7
'Hard' water is GOOD. Minerals are actually helpful to the development of the tadpole. Pennsyltucky water is like 'liquid rock' and it's really really good. Water from springs or wells in PA are good...or let's just say, until the Fracking poisons everything. heh

What Jim said about that new stuff - chemicals / Chlorimine is not good.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#8
Oh yes, I know about the minerals, but here It has a chemical aftertaste to me (unless it's really cold) so I really don't want to use it. I know "spring water" isn't as wonderful as advertised, but at least it's much less likely to have whatever it is our water smells like.
A girl named Joey.
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#9
Well, the top one has already succumbed to mold, which I was a bit worried about since the eggs were laid back on the 19th. Pretty sure a rare May cold snap at that time delayed their development. I sprayed a little more MB in hopes of staving that off the other ones.

Yesterday's clutch of 11 (and that's only the good ones!) is enjoying warmer weather right now, so with luck they won't be sitting around for so long.
A girl named Joey.
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#10
They're wriggling. Not regularly but one did it when I added a little water and another just kinda waved its tail at me.

This is seriously amazing to me. I know it's par for the course for you veterans but I'm knocked out. Smile I just really hope I won't have to cull any of them them. The other clutch was laid with a lot more protective jelly (this one has barely any) and is already starting to develop, so hopefully those will grow into tadpoles as well.
A girl named Joey.
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#11
It's always cool - never gets old.

Magical all the way to when they morph out.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#12
Keep us updated Joey! It's always exciting to see eggs developing!
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#13
The four babies are days or maybe even hours away from hatching. I think all the gills have receded (although I'm trying not to keep looking in on them) and they really look like tadpoles. I made their cups a couple of days ago, but I'm curious about the darkness of the tadpole tea. I made some weak-ish stuff and also added a bit of IA leaf and java moss to each cup. I've seen a huge variety of colors, from basically clear to extremely dark. Mine look like just like healthy urine, not to be too gross about it, and have already darkened a bit from the leaf. I'm not really worried about the tea as it is now, but I'm curious how dark is too dark?

The other clutch produced 11 embryos out of 11 eggs, one of which molded over. I think the girls are getting the hang of it! The other 10 are looking good so far. Buying some new shelving today to keep all the cups!
A girl named Joey.
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#14
Exciting Joey! I found this thread useful:
viewtopic.php?f=65&t=905

In my experience tads are pretty forgiving with ranges in water composition. The advice Phil provided on spring water is probably the most critical piece. I'm sure the mixture you're using will work just fine. You could always post a picture against a white background to confirm.
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#15
Good idea about the picture with white background. I'll do that if I get a chance. I do plan to top off evaporation with plain spring water and do as little water changing as possible, only if it's clearly necessary. I used to have to do water changes with moon jellies and they can really stress out the animal. Luckily it's *far* easier to reduce those stresses with tadpoles than with finicky saltwater jellies! But with my triops I never changed the water at all, just sucked up the waste, and they loved the biofilm so much they turned green from eating it. So at least I have experience sucking up detritus around delicate animals. :-)
A girl named Joey.
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#16
Turkey baster - Dollar store.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#17
mini-me turkey baster - I bought a bag of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Transfer- ... B005CD2I50

The regular tip is pretty good for cleaning out tad cups. If you need a more precise "dropper you can pinch the tip and pull - if you get it right, you can stretch the plastic and form an even smaller tip - you'll need scissors to cut through the stretched section. They are pretty versatile, and 500 @ $15 ain't bad. Good luck and keep us posted!
Jim from Austin | https://www.oneillscrossing.com/dart-frogs/
fantastica nominant | summersi | reticulata | A barbotini
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#18
hmmm..some of those chunky big Tinc tads are like horses in those cups. Sometimes I need a full 2-3 baster squeezes to remove all the poop. It's like right after Thanksgiving dinner in there sometimes. Ugh
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#19
I have both a regular turkey baster as well as a much longer, thinner glass one for use in deep aquaria. The first is good for the, um, Thanksgiving remnants (thanks for that image there, Phil!) and the second is good for finer work. This is the single thing about this entire dart frog enterprise that I know in advance I'm good at!
A girl named Joey.
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#20
Here's a picture of the tadpole cups. They got much darker overnight.
A girl named Joey.
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