# Removing Frogspawn



## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

so my ACF were going at it like crazy last night and i woke up to see almost 100 white specs in their aquarium, however I am wondering how do i get rid of them? The problem is is that I wont find 100 keepers, and since i got both when they were babies in the same pet shop on the same day, this counts as inbreeding.

So what do i do about the frogspaww, how do i get rid of it?
cheers


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## REDDEV1L (Nov 27, 2008)

Just leave it... the parents will probably eat the eggs anyway.... and if not, they'll definitely polish off any tadpoles which may hatch.
My ADF spawned yesterday morning and by this morning there's hardly any eggs left.

Of course... you could raise a few just for yourself.


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

Have a go at rearing them then sell/give them to pet shops if you have too many in the end.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

When mine bred it was quite difficult to remove the eggs from the aquarium plants as they are adhered pretty strongly but when they hatch the tadpoles will cling to plants and the aquarium sides.
At this stage they are easy to get out with a turkey baster
Id raise them too - its always fun to raise frogs from tads


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ok, issue here. They ate none, None at all.
I would love to breed, but they are brother and sister, and i dont wanna mix gene pools as the babies will suffer.
I didnt feed them today (feeding day) but is there anyway to make them eat? And if not eat humanely dispose of?


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

To be honest mate, with planned breedings it is always nice to be able to get un-related animals but in reality there is a good chance that in the wild frogs breed regularly with their siblings with minimal problems.

Imagine you dig a new pond in your garden and a couple of years in a male frog finds it, after a bit of calling a female turns up and they do the deed. 2-3 years later the ofspring all turn up and start breeding (with their siblings) years in you have quite a shallow gene pool but I would emagine that most populations of frogs, newts and toads are all fairly well related and you dont tend to see them hopping round on three legs with one eye in the middle of their heads!

The final decision is yours of course and I totally agree with where you are coming from regarding it not being ideal, but it really is not gonna be a major problem to the frogs themselves (the parents of your two were probably related, how are they health-wise?)

Marcus.


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## kezzbag (Jan 16, 2011)

i know its not the same as your frogs but we had 3 frogs that we rescued from my nans pond and put into ours and they bred for years and none of the babies looked ill or suffered really (the cat got a few of them).....frogs are weird in that way.....try hatching out just a few and see how they go....if there is any probs with them you may have to separate your adults when they are most likely to breed xxx


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ok guys I decided to keep them 
How do i remove the frogspawn from the aquarium? (I do not have another aquarium big enough for the adults so the frogspawn must be moved)


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

yugimon121 said:


> Ok guys I decided to keep them
> How do i remove the frogspawn from the aquarium? (I do not have another aquarium big enough for the adults so the frogspawn must be moved)


I generally breed my frogs in a seperate tanks and remove the adults once they have layed, however if you get caught on the hop (lol) and they lay in your main tank you can remove them taking the rocks/plants the eggs are layed on and sucking the rest up with a baster. This method is not the best and i have had several failed or partially failed batches doing this, the other option is to leave some in the tank and remove some. Interestingly, last year i had a batch of eggs layed before xmass, i thought i had removed all the eggs which eventually failed, a couple of weeks latter i had fifty tads swimming with and being ignored by the adults, totaly contradicting the literature on the subject which states that the adults will consume eggs and tads, it may have been that my Xenopus are used to large food items and they are kept well fed. Once you have removed the eggs place them in a container with some light aeration and wait for them to hatch, remove any eggs which develop fungus.
One of the best guys to seek advice on this subject is pollywog as he is a the pro, hopefully he will chip in with some advice.


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## hedwigdan (Apr 17, 2011)

Probably not possible or realistic but would be cool to get a preformed indoor pond and try and raise all of em!


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

You are supposed to give one pint per tad but i have succesfully raised them in a bucket at a much higher stocking density but i am paranoid about water quality.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

ianxxx said:


> I generally breed my frogs in a seperate tanks and remove the adults once they have layed, however if you get caught on the hop (lol) and they lay in your main tank you can remove them taking the rocks/plants the eggs are layed on and sucking the rest up with a baster. This method is not the best and i have had several failed or partially failed batches doing this, the other option is to leave some in the tank and remove some. Interestingly, last year i had a batch of eggs layed before xmass, i thought i had removed all the eggs which eventually failed, a couple of weeks latter i had fifty tads swimming with and being ignored by the adults, totaly contradicting the literature on the subject which states that the adults will consume eggs and tads, it may have been that my Xenopus are used to large food items and they are kept well fed. Once you have removed the eggs place them in a container with some light aeration and wait for them to hatch, remove any eggs which develop fungus.
> One of the best guys to seek advice on this subject is pollywog as he is a the pro, hopefully he will chip in with some advice.


I bought a medium sized aquarium that ill keep the adults in for a while 
I also bought some liquifry and an air pump and stone.
Any thing else I should invest in?


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

Put the airstone in with the eggs on a gentle flow rate, wait till they hatch before feeding. I am not sure you can use liqifry, unless somebody knows better go to a shop and buy a bag of spinach. You steam the spinach till it is soft, use tank or dechlorinated water and liquidise it , once cool pour it and the liquid into the tank. The airstone will keep the spinach in the water column and oxygenate the water, the tads will filter the water or sit above the spinach on the bottom of the tank and fan the water to make the particles rise so they can feed. Getting the amount of spinach right is a matter of experience, fortunately the water is not fouled very fast with it so you have a wide margin of error.
Leave the tank bare, i used to raise mine in a tank full of pebbles, hides, plastic plants etc, it looks nice but you kill loads whilst cleaning. Use a syphon to remove water, i stretch nylon stockings over the end of a large funnel to stop the tads/ frogs from getting sucked up, small tads survive the ride large tads and froglets get ripped apart.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

ianxxx said:


> Put the airstone in with the eggs on a gentle flow rate, wait till they hatch before feeding. I am not sure you can use liqifry, unless somebody knows better go to a shop and buy a bag of spinach. You steam the spinach till it is soft, use tank or dechlorinated water and liquidise it , once cool pour it and the liquid into the tank. The airstone will keep the spinach in the water column and oxygenate the water, the tads will filter the water or sit above the spinach on the bottom of the tank and fan the water to make the particles rise so they can feed. Getting the amount of spinach right is a matter of experience, fortunately the water is not fouled very fast with it so you have a wide margin of error.


I got liquifry from this:
Raising ACF Tadpoles

So just like with common tadpoles, yeah?
Well I admit, spinach would be a whole lot easier.


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

I have never used liquifry and wasnt aware you could lol


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

yugimon121 said:


> I got liquifry from this:
> Raising ACF Tadpoles
> 
> So just like with common tadpoles, yeah?
> Well I admit, spinach would be a whole lot easier.


No, no, no! Xenopus tads are filter feeders, and sift *very* fine particles from the water. They can choke very easily on even quite small chunks. Liquifry would be a lot better (and formulated to give balanced nutrition too)- if anything, you'd be best using the finer egg-layers formula. 
The only way to use spinach safely would be to smush it up in water then strain through muslin or similer- the green water is what you want.


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

I raised 500 frogs last year on spinach and lost only a few tads and a couple of froglets mainly to crushing them accidently when cleaning.

"the tads will filter the water or sit above the spinach on the bottom of the tank and fan the water to make the particles rise so they can feed"

they filter feed on the very small particles that rise from the bottom.

I just searched choking Xenopus tads, it is not something i have experienced but it is possible, i have inadvertantly avoided this by stripping the stems off the spinach, steaming it then thouraghly liquidising, essentially creating green water, the particles left which sink to the bottom are that small they dont pose a significant choke hazard.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

ianxxx said:


> I raised 500 frogs last year on spinach and lost only a few tads and a couple of froglets mainly to crushing them accidently when cleaning.
> 
> "the tads will filter the water or sit above the spinach on the bottom of the tank and fan the water to make the particles rise so they can feed"
> 
> *they filter feed on the very small particles that rise from the bottom.*


That's the hope- but the fry food is definitely safer.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ron Magpie said:


> No, no, no! Xenopus tads are filter feeders, and sift *very* fine particles from the water. They can choke very easily on even quite small chunks. Liquifry would be a lot better (and formulated to give balanced nutrition too)- if anything, you'd be best using the finer egg-layers formula.
> The only way to use spinach safely would be to smush it up in water then strain through muslin or similer- the green water is what you want.


i actually forgot the air hose for the air pump :lol2:
so when i buy it tomorrow, ill get the egg-layer too


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

I have always used powdered spirulina (can get that from most health shops) plus suspension tadpole powder from pollywog


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

berksmike said:


> I have always used powdered spirulina (can get that from most health shops) plus suspension tadpole powder from pollywog


I've never used Pollywogs stuff, but I expect it's good. I have used spirulina and nettle tea from health food shops, though! :lol2:


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ron Magpie said:


> I've never used Pollywogs stuff, but I expect it's good. I have used spirulina and nettle tea from health food shops, though! :lol2:


Okay so before i end up make a third trip into town, what is the best food for survival ratings?

Also, the tank is 120l, 100cm long, 30 cm wide. I have between 50 and 100 frogspawn, how high should the water be?


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

yugimon121 said:


> Okay so before i end up make a third trip into town, what is the best food for survival ratings?
> 
> Also, the tank is 120l, 100cm long, 30 cm wide. I have between 50 and 100 frogspawn, how high should the water be?


There are a number of ways of raising them as you have found out lol, just choose one , as for the tank fill it up for the tads, the more water volume the better as it will be easier to maintain water quality. The froglets dont seem to mind deep water, i move them out of the tadpole tank when they morph and provide hides and floating plants on a bare bottomed tank. Once they have hatched start checking out pet shops for potential customers, its easier to sell twenty or so to a shop than getting a load of private sales, i also offer free frogs to local phib enthusiasts, it pays off in the long run as you often get free or cheap things back.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

ianxxx said:


> There are a number of ways of raising them as you have found out lol, just choose one , as for the tank fill it up for the tads, the more water volume the better as it will be easier to maintain water quality. The froglets dont seem to mind deep water, i move them out of the tadpole tank when they morph and provide hides and floating plants on a bare bottomed tank. Once they have hatched start checking out pet shops for potential customers, its easier to sell twenty or so to a shop than getting a load of private sales, i also offer free frogs to local phib enthusiasts, it pays off in the long run as you often get free or cheap things back.


Thanks for the info :2thumb:
Yeah, the shop where i originally bought them said they'd take some and i know a few breeders who would also take some off my hands.
I'll keep you updated when they hatch!


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Also keeping in mind my tank size, how much liquifry should i place in the water for approx 50 tadpoles?
Do I also keep the airpump/stone on permanently or turn it off at night or what? :lol2:


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

yugimon121 said:


> Also keeping in mind my tank size, how much liquifry should i place in the water for approx 50 tadpoles?
> Do I also keep the airpump/stone on permanently or turn it off at night or what? :lol2:


Try for a pint per tad, I have successfully raised them in much less but I watch the water quality very closely, leave the air pump on gentle till they morp. Cant help with the liquifry.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

The advantage of using powdered spirulina is it stains the water green and so you can tell when they have filtered it out


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ok so no tadpoles hatched yet, is it safe to assume they are dead/infertile?


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

yugimon121 said:


> Ok so no tadpoles hatched yet, is it safe to assume they are dead/infertile?


Can you see any development in the eggs?

EDIT: Oh, and Liquyfry comes with instructions, or at least it used to.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

Ron Magpie said:


> Can you see any development in the eggs?
> 
> EDIT: Oh, and Liquyfry comes with instructions, or at least it used to.


2 have grown small tails, but that was 3 days ago, now their embryos are starting to get dirty and thats pretty much all thats changed since they were layed.


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## yugimon121 (Oct 4, 2009)

So? should I just put the froggies back into their big tank?


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

If you are sure they aren't going to hatch, you might as well. You'll have to watch the water quality for a while, though; even if you remove all you can, you are bound to miss some, and their breakdown will add to the load.

At least you have plans in place now, if it happens again, more successfully.


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## berksmike (Jan 2, 2008)

Well it wont be long before you have viable eggs!
Mine would tend to spawn straight after a water change and you should hear the males calling - its a strange metallic clicking sound.
Mine were very funny - I had more males to females so youd sometimes get the poor female swimming with 2 males clinging on in a chain:










Thos was the spawn and tads:


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