#thumbnail frogs

[logs-pods]

An absolute unit, a compete chungus, a tadpole with a truly massive dumpy.

[logs-pods]

One week of development. These Ranitomeya sirensis "Highland" tadpoles (currently embryos) will probably hatch within another week, then they'll be moved to little grow out tubs untill they're full frogs :)

The parents laid their eggs on the glass of the tank, so we carefully remove them with a razor and transplant them to the dish. The males would typically transport the tadpoles to a bromeliad; but this way we can hand raise them which increases their survival rate by a lot.

The dish is proped up at an angle so when they hatch they'll slide down into a tiny puddle at the bottom. From there we transfer them to these little ponds. (In old pipet tip boxes lol)

We reuse the ponds and let the algae grow in advance so there's a good amount of algae and biofilm for them to start eating straight away. A tiny bit of duckweed and Java moss keep the water oxygenated, and a small bit of leaf (I think it's catappa specifically) raises the ph to their preference. From there it's just tiny water changes and waiting for several months more until they emerge as froglets!

[logs-pods]

First tadpole!

This is actually from a Ranitomeya imitator clutch, but the sirensis are on the way any day now!