Dendrobates azureus courting and Egg Developement - Pics

[krakanax]

A very well documented thread.
Thank you so much for all those pictures and explainations!

K.

[joneill809]

Thanks K! It's been a lot of fun watching them progress! Happy to share!

[joneill809]

Seventh week of the tad photo journal completed!
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[joneill809]

Week 8. This was an interesting week as we had to travel out of town for 5 days...so the tad came along with us to ensure the daily photo sequence continued
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The tad is progressing nicely. Today's shot:
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[joneill809]

Hello Kitty graduated from preschool this week and made it home to the grow out viv. She's hopping around with 7 other froglets. Here are a few shots of her before she bailed from the cup into the viv. First one is slightly out of focus but I wanted to try and capture her nose markings:
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Second set were interesting belly shots.
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The kids (and teachers) enjoyed watching the tadpole morph out. Even though they knew it was going to be blue they were still amazed by the color change. Fun stuff.

[joneill809]

A few more shots from the froglet viv.
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[joneill809]

Got some photos of the froglets during feeding time today (there are 8 OOW and another in the pond that should come out in a few days):
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[joneill809]

Been a while on the tadpole progression posts. I had to figure out a new approach for snapping consistent screen shots as the length of the post on my site has grown. These are the thumbnail views - the full images are clickable on my site, but I find the thumbnail view more interesting.
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[Philsuma]

NEVER get tired of all dat blue !

[joneill809]

It's amazing how well they can hide themselves, then when I drop in some flies - all of a sudden blue everywhere! I like the shot of six of them out eating - shows how variable the coloration is from froglet to froglet. And man can they eat - I accidentally dropped some hydei intended for the adults in the froglet tank. Didn't matter - they got all of 'em.

[Philsuma]

you have 6 together ? Just be careful and diligent in watching them....the older and more mature they get, they will start to scrap and fight.

[joneill809]

Thanks for the tip Phil! I usually check on them twice a day, and so far I have not observed anything but a bunch of froglets pretty evenly spaced out. But I will keep an eye on them.

I'm planning on pulling some of bigger froglets soon - they are nearing 3/4 of an inch and 6 to 8 weeks OOW. Main concern is the big guys are better hunters - they come out right away and can easily wipe out 10 to 20 flies a piece. I usually drop in a few hydei once or twice a week for them so they fill up and leave the melos for the little guys. It seems to be working, there are melo's consistently crawling though the leaf litter that is stacked about 2" high. I also dropped a lot of springtails in there - the tank is absolutely crawling with them so there is plenty of food.

Not sure if this 20L is a long term solution though - I had trouble with clutch yields in September, but I had a boom in October and November so I have about 30 tads in cups...I think sterilite bins are in my future...

[joneill809]

Well I have been trying to cycle my azureus for about 6 weeks and they are putting up a fight. I took away their petri dish and dropped the humidity from 95%-99% down to 80%-85% as the temps in the room have come down from the upper 70's to the lower 70's. The drop in humidity nearly killed 2 out of 4 of the Selaginella varieties I had in the viv, but these little guys ended up climbing to the top of the viv and depositing in a brom:
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Sorry about the tough viewing angle - this is literally the top of the viv. I have a privacy appliqué on the glass top to help diffuse the light so I can't shoot from the top down. There is about 6" of space up here and the brom is nearly touching the glass. I gave up and covered the 4" vent across the front of the viv back to 1". I had to give my Selaginella a break I am going to leave this clutch in place and see how the parents do with transport...assuming the clutch hatches out...

I can almost see both of them giving me the middle toe pad (if they had a middle front toe pad).

[joneill809]

A second clutch was deposited yesterday in their favorite brom on another leaf. Unreal. I guess the petri dish will go back in

Here's the updated progression. Entering month 4, the back legs are developing nicely though they are difficult to see in these shots. I have an idea for another graphic of this progression, though it will take some time to develop. For now, here are the thumbnails in their entirety.
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[joneill809]

Morning Tai Chi in the grow out viv:
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They have gotten used to their morning feeding schedule. They gather at the top of the leaf litter waiting for the red solo cup to appear...reminds me of the dogs...drop...wait...free! It's on!

[pnwbare]

I love this! Great to see from start to end and being new on the forum and just finding it I got to see it all in just minutes without the suspense of waiting for your next post.

[joneill809]

Thanks Dan! The grow out viv was a great idea (thanks Casper). it is funny thinking back that all this started 6 months ago! I also gained more of an appreciation for frogs in general and their development cycle with the daily photo log project. It can be to remember to snap a photo each night but so far I have not missed one!

I should have an update on the daily photo log tonight!

[joneill809]

Here's another update on the daily photo log. The tad is coming along nicely - it's getting to big to fit within the thumbnail views so you end up having to view the click through image. I'm working on converting these to line drawings using the quarter in the background as a scale reference. Hopefully when this is done I can get more of a graphic out of this that shows the progression more tightly. I'm not great with Gimp, so it's taking me a while...in the meantime, a repeat of the first 3 months and the updated fourth month:
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[joneill809]

Big milestone today on the daily photo log. Closing out month four and both front legs popped! Here's the updated month 4 log and a close up of the image:
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Now I have to plan out of a daily froglet log should continue this effort. I'd have to raise the froglet in isolation (currently all my froglets go in a community grow out viv). Thoughts? Opinions?

[joneill809]

Entering what should be the final month of the photo journal!
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And a bonus picture from the grow out viv...
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