D. Auratus group - Abnormal breeding behaviour?

[Marwans]

Here is photos of my group, taken by yesterday:




























Have any of you frog-gurus seen behaviour like this? Is this normal? Vivarium is 82 gallons; 49.21" x 19.69" x 19.69" (125cm x 50 cm x 50cm) and there is 4 males and 2 females in group. I've already make reservation to get four females more and also getting bigger viv to this group.

[Brian317]

Wow! Those photos are amazing! I've seen some frogs engaging in a "manage toi", but never 5-6 frogs at one time. I personally think you have nothing to worry about. I cannot tell by the photos if one frog is getting bullied or not, but just something to monitor if you witness the behavior again.

[Marwans]

Thank you Brian!

About week ago they did this first time with five frogs, so this was second time I saw this. I was sitting about 2-3 hours looking them and I can tell it was very interesting to see Sadly I don't have video camera, but my school friend promised to borrow hers so maybe I'll get video of them too

[BcsTx]

I have seen this before when I had a group of 6 Auratus when they reached sexual maturity, the females would get on the males back in a viv and climb on each others backs with the males on the bottom (opposite from your scenario)I separated the group into 2 trios and the behavior stopped and they started breeding regularly for me.

[DianeCarter]

Funny you should post this today. Yesterday, I witnessed 3 of my auratus (1 male, 2 females) with very similar behavior. I took pics but they were no good-the frogs were in a black can, thru the glass. But it was interesting to see! They did this off and on all day, in a can, in a cocohut, back in the can, etc. By the end of the day I got 5 eggs in a petri dish!!! This morning I felt bad, the male was looking in the cocohut for the eggs. But tonight, right now, he and a female are back in the cocohut!
I've read that some frogs have group-breeding, but I didn't know auratus do this?!

[Marwans]

Now boys are calling a lot and loud They have not slept about 48 hours now, I wonder how long they continue! Just gave them flys, all are eating now

Diane: Funny coincidence!

[Philsuma]

I've never seen anything like that...













at least in the 'non human' world of behaviour 8)

[Marwans]

^

And sorry bad spelling, flies not flys (It's 4:20 AM here)

[Philsuma]

M,

I'm not so sure we can call this behaviour 'abnormal'. What is abnormal, is that we hobbyists place more animals together per square inch, than would exist in the wild and then further complicate matters by not allowing the egress - somewhere to flee to.

I have owned and breed a group of Green and Black Dendrobates auratus and have witnessed tussling ect. I think that all of your frogs have suddenly come into sexual maturity just now, and are all trying to find their place in the tank order.

'Combating' with captive bred animals is not always a negative, in fact, in many species and genera of Reptiles, it is a tried and true valid method of insuring better egg viability percentages - good husbandry.

The pitfalls come from the new hobbyist or the 'part time' owner than misses a lot of behaviour and doesn't see that one or more animals are not feeding well, going downhill and showing signs of stress.

I would continue to monitor the frogs and make sure all are feeding correctly, and if not, separating one of more should be a quick and easy option, should you need to go there.

[Brian317]

I'll expand a bit off what Phil is saying with an example of my own:

I had(still have) a group(4) of fine spotted leucs in a 55 gallon vivarium and when they reached sexual maturity, I witnessed bullying behavior between the females while finding my first few clutches. One of the bullied females I saw was losing weight...due to this, I separated the group. I kept the male with the bully female and the other two females alone in another viv. Breeding stopped for me, but the other smaller female got her weight back.

Going forward, I set up a 39 gallon and put my male, big bully female, and a different female that was not previously bullied in the vivarium. I found that they breed very well for me and I did see some wrestling between females, but they kept good weight and showed no signs of stress from the occasional spat here and there. Competition and combating, like Phil said, is not always a bad thing....BUT you must understand and recognize signs of stress and act appropriately to the situation.

I hope my example helped. As long as you see no stress signs between your Auratus and you have adequate space for the additional females, I think you should be fine. Just keep an eye on things!

[Marwans]

Thank you all for your answers!

All are eating well and I have not seen any bullying with this group. I interrupt that breeding session with moisturising the viv, but all the frogs came back to the same place after moisturising, so I think everything is ok with them. And all are eating well also

[Philsuma]

Just to clarify...I was not implying improper care or housing. I believe from what I have seen and heard, that even though you are a somewhat new hobbyist - the frogs and enclosure is well above average design and I'm sure you are watching things closely.

Sometimes I try to make some posts apply to other readers, down the line - please don't take my remarks to mean they are negative and/or apply to your situation.

I think the frogs will work things out just fine - let us know how many eggs you find and where you find them.