I have surprise toadlets...care questions

[librarychick]

Hello folks

I've had my 4 FBTs for about 5 years now. They live in a 20g long with quite a bit of water and less land mass. I cam to that setup after some research and more observing the toads. Three of them (the green ones) spend all their time in whatever water is offered anyways. The brown one prefers hiding in a cave on a moist land-mass, typically. Their current set up has about 5 inches of water covering 75% of the tanks (it's really various depths due to lots of rocks and decorations of various sizes) and a landmass covered in moss.

Anyways, last spring I found some tadpoles in the tank, but the ones that did transform into toadlets had spindly leg syndrome and didn't survive.

The research I did at the time led me to believe that there wasn't really anything I could have done, and since' I'd put quite a bit of time and effort into the tadpoles I was pretty disenchanted with the whole thing. I hadn't bred them purposefully anyways (it was a complete surprise) but I'd gotten attached to the cute little guys and was very disappointed they had been doomed from step one.

So, I found tadpoles again a month ago, and pretty much decided that they could either survive or not, but until I saw healthy toadlets I wasn't going to worry about it. I left the tads in with the adults rather than separating them as I had done before.

Well, I found toads about a week and a half ago. Now...I'm kind of stuck. I have them separated, mostly because the crickets I feed the big guys would definitely eat the toadlets and I just couldn't do that.

However, I have no idea what to feed the toadlets. I found three and I've been checking the adults tank, but haven't found anymore. I have the three toadlets and the remaining tadpoles in a zoomed container in a sort of mini-version of the adult's set up. I assume they need to eat something small like wingless fruit flies...but I have no idea how to prevent those little jerks from escaping into my house.

On the sort-of positive side, I think they're eating baby crickets ATM...turns out some of the adult toad's food survived to populate my moss with mini crickets. :/ Not something I'm pleased with, but I think it's feeding the toadlets. They all look fairly well fed anyways.

So, questions:

-What do I feed them?
-How can I keep them and not release fruit flies into my house (I don't want even the wingless ones as an infestation)
-How long do they take to grow to cricket-eating size? Generally speaking?

And the big one. One of the toadlets has a hump...I'm currently calling him Quasimotoad. Is this related to the spindly leg issue the first batch had? If he does survive (he's actually - other than the hump - the healthiest looking of the toadlets. If I can't find a knowledgeable home for him I'll end up with 5 toads.

Is there anything I can do in the future to encourage healthy tadpoles/toadlets? I don't specifically want them to breed, but I'm pretty sure that I can't really stop them either (I've attempted to sex them in the past with little to no luck). If they're going to do it I'd prefer healthy offspring.

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie out

 

[otolith]

I can't help you with the development/tadpole questions, I kept these guys for years and never saw any viable eggs. So congratulations there!

As far as feeding goes, cheesecloth will keep the tiny live foods out of your house. Just stretch it over your enclosure and then lock the lid on top to secure it. This will keep pinheads and fruit flies in where they can be eaten. If live black worms are available those might be another good option. I would also try digging for tiny earthworms if you know of any areas free from pesticides/herbicides.

Best of luck with your toadlets, hopefully some others will chime in to help with your other questions.