# Aeration and filtration for tadpoles.



## Entoursis (Jan 8, 2012)

Hello.

Do you think it is important to set up filtration and aeration in tadpoles aquarium or regular partial water replacement is enough for them?

Species are pelobates fuscus and bufo viridis, but this question is interesting in general. Aquarium size is one hundred litres for both (60cm*45cm*40cm), population density is one tadpole per litre for bufo and one tadpole per 2-3 litres for pelobates.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

I prefer water changes, as most 'phibs prefer still water. But as I said to someone else, on another thread, an airstone probably could be beneficial.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

i'm toying with the idea of raising some spawn... i'd go water change... get as close to a standing puddle of water as possible...

i'm considering grey treefrog tadpoles myself...


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Personally I would`nt keep them at such high desities.When I have reared viridis I kept twenty or thirty in that size aquarium(without filtration admitidly).Pelobates tadpoles can grow very large so I would keep less.

In the past I tried to rear lots of tadpoles and found it counter productive,its better to rear fewer ,larger tadpoles than lots of small ones.


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## Entoursis (Jan 8, 2012)

Thanks for all the answers.

colinm, how often do I need to replace water if I choose to keep tadpoles in the same density as you used to? And what exactly do you mean about counter productive? Tadpoles in high density will grow smaller? Is it going to affect their development speed as well?


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Just to add something to the discussion.

Standing water in a natural puddle behaves very differently to standing water in a man made container. Most puddles will be in soil/sand, which contains organisms that convert ammonia into less toxic chemicals. This happens in addition to the dilution from rain etc. In a man made container you don't normally have this conversion occuring. The same is true for species that raise tadpoles in plants, the plants actually absorb the ammonia produced the the tadpole and use it as food.

This is something a lot of keepers don't realise when they keep and breed amphibians. You don't need to create a raging torrent in order to provide some biological filtration.

Just something to consider.

Ade


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Entoursis said:


> Thanks for all the answers.
> 
> colinm, how often do I need to replace water if I choose to keep tadpoles in the same density as you used to? And what exactly do you mean about counter productive? Tadpoles in high density will grow smaller? Is it going to affect their development speed as well?


When I reared Bombina and Hyla tadpoles I would replace about half the water every two or three days.I found that by introducing Daphnia into the aquariums that the water needed changing less regularly .

Tadpoles kept in high densities will never grow as large as ones kept in lower densities.If you keep them overcrowded you will find that some grow larger and quite a few will stay small then wither away and die.There is a theory that some tadpoles emit a hormone that surpresses the growth of others.I dont know about this but some do thrive while others slowly die.

I am not sure whether density will affect the speed of growth,temperature certainly will.I find it better to keep them on the cooler side(without added heat) as they grow slower and you end up with a newly morphed frog that is larger than one kept in heated aquaria.It makes it much easier to feed the morphed frog.I kept all of mine in a sunny spot in the garden and so they were exposed to a range of temperatures.

Good luck with the Pelobates,if you can get the tadpoles to overwinter you will have some real monsters there.


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## Theloderma (Oct 30, 2008)

colinm said:


> When I reared Bombina and Hyla tadpoles I would replace about half the water every two or three days.I found that by introducing Daphnia into the aquariums that the water needed changing less regularly .
> 
> Tadpoles kept in high densities will never grow as large as ones kept in lower densities.If you keep them overcrowded you will find that some grow larger and quite a few will stay small then wither away and die.There is a theory that some tadpoles emit a hormone that surpresses the growth of others.I dont know about this but some do thrive while others slowly die.
> 
> ...



I would agree entirely with this. I change about two litres of water from a ten litre tub every day, siphoning from the bottom. (Use this for watering house plants - it contains a lot of nitrates.) It only takes a few minutes. 

Daphnia are good and so is a small quantity of pond plant, such as Elodea.

As the tadpoles grow you need to reduce their density by setting up new containers. And slow-growing tadpoles definitely metamorphose at a larger size. 

Chris


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## Entoursis (Jan 8, 2012)

Ok. Thanks for all the comments. I'll see what methods and advises are best in my situation. I think that there left no questions. Thanks again.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Wolfenrook said:


> Just to add something to the discussion.
> 
> *Standing water in a natural puddle behaves very differently to standing water in a man made container. Most puddles will be in soil/sand, which contains organisms that convert ammonia into less toxic chemicals. This happens in addition to the dilution from rain etc. In a man made container you don't normally have this conversion occuring. The same is true for species that raise tadpoles in plants, the plants actually absorb the ammonia produced the the tadpole and use it as food.
> *
> ...


A good point- and it's one of the reasons I use weed in the containers, and where possible, include some water from the original tank, as it is likely to have beneficial algae, bacteria and protozoa in it.


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