For those of you who have obligates or let the parents raise the young, how do you go about catching froglets from an established viv? Up to this point I have only raised non-obligate frogs and always remove the tads or eggs. There has to be some sort of luck involved with it.
1. I wait until they're almost adult sized.
2. I use those clear plastic tubes they sell at HD to store flourescent bulb tubes in, cut off a piece as long as you need, burn the end that will be going into the tank first a little with a lighter so the edges aren't sharp, put that end of the tube over the frog, let (or coerce) it jump up into the tube, cover both ends of the tube with your hands until you get it into the next tank.
It all depends where the tad is. If it morphs in a film can and I can get to it i'll just pull the can with the froglet still inside and place it in a grow out. If the tad was in a brom then it's tube time as mentioned above. Once they're loose in a well planted tank it pretty much boils down to timing for me - being at the right place at the right time for the catch.
My problem always is that as I'm trying to catch one I always have some smart ass trying to make an escape. I also put a big sterlite container in front of the viv so when someone jumps out the fall in their. Easier to retrieve that way.
Sean
What I have found to be optimal with grannies and pums is to find the froglet before it morphs.
Once the morphing froglet has popped front legs there's no longer a need for the parents.
I move the film can from the parents' viv into one of my grow out vivs which have been established for very long periods of time and therefore have good amounts of calcium in the soil and good amounts of established micro-fauna.
If a froglet escapes my lookings for pre-morphed froglets and is hopping around a viv I wait until I find it in an easy picking area and catch it with my hands.
All good info, thank you. I think I will do as a couple of you mentioned and do my best to know where every tad is so that when it is ready to morph I can attempt to pull it. The vivs I have set up for obligates do not have any film cans however, only broms which would make removal a little harder I presume. Maybe I will add a few cans as well in case they end up preferring that over one of the broms.
In all my instances...@ 15 different vivs and pum breeding groups...they always preferred broms to film cans when there was a choice.
I second the 'clear tube' catch method. The frogs never even see it coming - it's clear, and you can place it over them and then they jump deeper into or on the sides of the tube. You can even take the whole tube and place into another viv and let them crawl out on their own, when they are ready, minimizing stress.
I have used the clear tube deal before. I have an old aquarium gravel vac end that works great.
Philsuma Wrote:I second the 'clear tube' catch method. The frogs never even see it coming
Phil, I might just be willing to fly you and your tubes in to DFW so you can work over my Benedicta tank!
I like a challenge. I've wrangled probably close to 100 little froggies with ma' six shooter tube. Fastest tube in Pensyltucky.