Cobalt Courtship and Eggs

[AlexF]

Yesterday I was able to watch my cobalts courting for the first time. I still have to hear or see the male calling, but during the morning the female was walking behind the male from one side of the viv to the other, they would go over the coco hut and go down.

It was very interesting to see that when the female touched the male's back legs it would start making weird leg and stomack movements. I thought that eggs would start popping out soon but nothing happened and I had to leave.

At night I went to check on the frogs and found a clutch of 5 eggs exactly on the same place they laid last time (2 weeks ago) on top of a leaf. Both male and female were together but the male got spooked when I turned the lights to see if eggs were present.

I'm going to leave the eggs in the viv for a couple of days and then I will start a photo journal again. I was a little reluctant to photograph the courtship as the male is a little nervous but it would have made great photos.

I'm hoping this clutch makes it up to hatching and morphing.

When I went to feed the frogs this morning I found the male fertilizing the eggs the female laid yesterday. Got the camera and was able to take a single photo, not a very good one, as the male sat over the eggs (barely visible in the photo).

As I was jugling the photo equipment I found a previous clutch on another leaf. I'm really lousy at finding the egg laying spots this pair likes.

I guess this first clutch must have about a week, but given my expertise in frog breeding (ZERO), I wouldn't be to trust.

I will get some photos with a 2x teleconverter to get more detail on the developing tads and will post pictures latter. These photos were taken with my 60mm macro at 1:1, but the single egg was magnified with Photoshop.

Male fertilizing


Eggs


Developing tad

[Cindy Dicken]

Hi Alex,
how did the tadpoles do while you were on vacation?

Sounds like the cobalts are getting in a routine, and you should be finding eggs about every 7-10 days.

Keep us posted on how they do.

[AlexF]

Both eggs and tadpole died when the person I left them to forgot to add water and they got too dry.

I acutally found another clutch this evening where one of the tadpoles is very advanced and the other is somewhat behind. Took some photos but didn't have my computer at home so will post pictures tonight.

These frogs are laying very consistently every week, but they are laying all over the place, so finding the eggs is hard.

This last clutch was inside the coco, and I had checked it with a flashlight to disturb the frogs a minimum. When I returned from my trip on the 25th I did check on the coco and didn't find anything, which is pretty weird because the egg with tadpole inside is very developed for 6 days!!!!!

Here are the last two eggs I found:

[Cindy Dicken]

Alex,
sorry to hear you lost the first batch, but sounds like you will have your hands full soon enough!

Keep us posted.

[AlexF]

Following up the development of the tads, here are some photos with twice as much amplification, taken at 2:1 with a teleconverter.

Very interesting to note the difference in growth on the not so developed tads (second clutch) from the pictures taken on March 31st and this morning. All 6 tads are wiggling inside the egg now.

The two well developed tads are still doing well, but not much change in the photos.

I'm taking photos every day on the third clutch of eggs layed last sunday night, that will make an interesting photo journal. Will wait to have the whole set to post those complete.

Second clutch, probably a little over a week old (6 eggs)


First clutch probably 2 weeks old (two eggs)

[AlexF]

Well, this pair is going to dry out! Less than three days after the last clutch of 5 eggs (last clutch was layed on Sunday night) I found both female and male egg laying/fertilizing 6 new eggs this evening.

Could only get a dark photo of the female before she left the leaf, but the male came right after and stayed there for a long time, changing possitions every 10 seconds or so, and moving it's hind legs between the eggs.

Female with the eggs


Male fertilizing





Fresh Eggs

[Cindy Dicken]

Those are some amazing shots Alex!

[AlexF]

Thanks Cindy

This morning I was able to catch the pair right through courting. I guess I will have a new batch of eggs this evening.

[Cindy Dicken]

Alex,
it would be great if you could take a video of these!