tricolour tadpole and egg problems

[ian young]

hi all

this is my first thread here so first off all id like to say hello to you all.
i have been sent her by stu and told me you should be able to help.

A couple of months ago i brought a group of tricolour's which are breeding,
with the frogs came also about 14 tadpoles which when morphed all had sls.
during that time i gave them a dry season for a month but the eggs which are getting layed have either no gel around them or little gel.
they are fed crickets and fruit fly's and they are dusted nearly every feed.

Can anyone shed any light on why this is happening?

Thanks

Ian

[Philsuma]

Hi Ian and Welcome to Dart Den !

Can you give us some more information ?

1. All your temperatures....morning, noon and night.....highs and lows.

2. List all the supplements and calcium you are using by brand name and make sure they are not more than 6 months old.

3. What kind of FF media are you using and what species of FF along with any other feeder insects are you providing ?

4. What type of water are you using to mist as well as tadpole water ?

5. Are you 100% positive that you have a male and female ?

[ian young]

ok right the temps during the day reach 24 oc and at night drop to around the 21 oc mark

i am using Herpetal Amphibian which is only 3 months old

i breed the fruit fly's on mashed potato and i also feed small crickets to them

i use spring water for tadpoles and for misting filtered water them i put in some tetra aqua safe

and they are definitely male and female

ive only had them for 3 months the tadpoles i with given by the previous owner has sls


thanks ian

[Philsuma]

I'm assuming you are in a country other than the U.S ?

24 C = 75 F I believe ? Your temps seem ok.

You need to buy a couple more vitamin supplements and use a Calcium supplement as well. Dust every single feeding for a while, once you buy the new supplements. I would recommend a good German Vitamin that is common in the E.U - Nekton rep as well as a "Rapashy" superfine powder. Go to your local pet shop and ask them about obtaining these additional supplements as well as a superfine powdered Calcium supplement.

Once you have these additional supplements, store them in a dry, cool are of the house. Don't let them get hot or moist in their containers. Use one of them and alternate with every feeding of FF.....feeding every other day would be fine, for instance.

I would also buy a commercially available FF media - premade dry mix. If your only ingrediant is potatoe flakes....that is not good. Again, depending upon what country you live in, we could advise you better.

Skip the Crickets once you get your Fruit flies going with better media. FF raised on good media with fresh and varied supplements are the staple. Crickets are actually not needed at all and if you are a new hobbyist - better to stick with FF.

I would buy some bottled spring water from the local grocery store and use that. No need to add "aqua safe" to it. I would also skip adding chemicals or conditioners to water in your case, here as well.

Some addtional suggestions...

[Natures Gems]

welcome ian,

phil answered just about everything. there are some good fruit fly dry media recipes out there. as phil said it needs a lot more than just the potato flakes. i usually mix up a batch of dry culturing media large enough for about 40 cultures. that'll last me almost a month.

i use potato flakes as the main ingredient but other ingredients include brewers yeast, confectioners sugar, a touch of spirulina.i bag the dry media in gallon zip locks and then put the zip lock bags in a sterlite bin. then i put the bin on mite paper to keep mites out of the dry media so they aren't transfered into the culture when you make them.

with these other ingredients the flies are provided a very highly nutritious diet and then your frogs benefit. doing all the supplementation phil mentioned will get the paired adults in condition to lay fertile eggs.i use a mix of water and white vinegar for the wet part of the cultures.

one of the superfine supplements is repashy vitamin a. i don't think phil mentioned that one by name but it is superfine and almost feels like ash instead of a powder if felt between the fingers. it is definitely the finest consisitency i've seen. you just have to be careful with the vitamin a that you don't use too much because it could build up in the frogs system. i've use calcium w/d3, herptivite, and the repashy vitamin a and they work well but i haven't used that other one-i think phil said nekton?. i will be researching that myself. thanks phil ,if you read this i wasn't aware of that one.

if you do all the supplementation phil mentioned and the frogs are healthy then they may just need more time to get it figured out.sometimes first year is spotty with fertile/infertile eggs and then they get going.i've heard that it is quite common.

i'm sorry,i know you said you picked them up as breeders but i didn't remember if you mentioned how old they were and if it were their first year breeding? do you know how old they actually are?

good luck

tom

[ian young]

Yes i live in the uk
ok so ill get some more powders and try making different mixes for culturing and give the crickets a miss,
i must admit when i got them the information i got wasn't very much he didn't tell me age or how long they had been laying.
thank you so much for your advice guys

Ian

[Philsuma]

Our pleasure Ian.

Also....take a look at the 3-4 FF culturing threads in the feeder insect section / subforum here. They have good recipes and ingredient lists.

Stop back and lets us know how everything is going.

[ian young]

Will do

Once again thank you

[dtfleming]

Hit Stu (Stu and Shaz) up on here also. He is in the UK and can point to things available there.

[Stu&Shaz]

Hit Stu (Stu and Shaz) up on here also. He is in the UK and can point to things available there.

Thanks Don,i actually spotted Ians posts on a couple of our forums at that time he'd had no replies so guilty as charged i told him to ask you guys 8)
Didn't let me down did ya,to everyone that helped Ian cheers...thankyou
Ian just a little thing all things repashy can now be bought in England at www.repashy.co.uk I did post over here,but these things are not always easily spotted oh free carrage too. And Ian...anytime !!! just shout !!!
Once again to all....THANKS
goodonya
Stu