New Article: Breeding African Clawed Frogs

[findi]

Hi All,

Please check out my new article:

Breeding the African Clawed Frog

Comments and questions appreciated, thanks.

Take Care and Enjoy, Frank

 

[xxianxx]

Interesting article, my ACFs bred two days ago, the males have been amplexing the female on a pretty regular basis since i put her with them about four months ago, she never objected or caused a fuss like my other females did ie making a grunting/squeeking noise and trying to kick them off i thought she was a bit of a tart lol. Have you noticed how the females often go into a trance when being amplexed? the first time i saw it i thought my males had killed her and when i touched her she was like a person suddenly woken from deep sleep, startled and disorientated, i found one of my females dead in the tank a year ago, and i found the other with a brocken back and nearly drowned a few months latter, i thought the males had injured them by mistake whilst trying to breed. The frogs bred after a major water change , i had changed the sand in the tank and taken the opportunity to give the tank a good scrub and the new colder water stimulated them , the males generally call whenever theres a water change.you said in your article that the males develop pads on their arm when they are ready to breed? did you mean when they hit sexual maturity? or just when its time to mate?because mine have dark pads all the time. Nice article, i only skimmed it but i will take the time to do it justice after i have had something to eat.

 

[xxianxx]

HI, my experience of ACFs is limited to rearing five adults from froglets, one batch of two hundred eggs which i raised to froglets and sold to petshops except two who were golden reticulated and im keeping them seperately from the adults till they are a bit bigger, so i would be interested to see if my experiance with them is aytipical. 1. You wrote that these frogs are "generally bold ", i have found that whilst they are growing you can feed them by hand and they come to beg for food, however as soon as they became mature they develop a shyness and like to hide unless a worm hoves into view. This change has been observed in four of my five adults, the fith "Pinky" , a two year old female still exhibits the juvenile behaviour and is constantly begging for food, i put this down to the fact that when i got her she was starving to death in a plecostomus tank in the petshop being fed algae wafers and has developed a food fixation and im sure if given the chance she would eat herself to death. 2. You said they "thrive" as an invading species in England, there were populations on the Isle of White which are now beleived to be extinct, there is a population in Bridgend in Wales (a few miles away from where i live) , i read a study about them online it is beleived that they were the result of one/two releases, the yearly recruitment is low and the population will probally die out with time, interestingly the oldest frog they found was fourteen years old, the frogs were branded for identification. damn run out of room lol

 

[xxianxx]

3.the tadpoles are filter feeders, i fed mine steamed and liquidized spinach, however i have seen them picking at particles on the bottom of the tank, do you know if they are just trying to agitate foodstuffs into the water column so they can filter it ? or are they actually eating it off the tank bottom? 4.Pinky has dropped eggs in a tank on her own before, i have placed her in isolation now to stop the males harassing her, if she drops any eggs as part of a second clutch i will try to reproduce your results. 5.Overland travel, whilst adult frogs seem to just swim when left on dry land, the froglets hop like a "normal" frog and are quite hard to catch. 6. Have you noticed a sex difference in behavior , whilst my males hang around the bottom my females have all preferred to be on the surface floating, i have no lily pads in my tank just plastic ones which they have dug up and im fed up of replanting, they quite often pull themselves up as if trying to bask but the plants dont hold their weight. Good article i will make a point of following your other publications.

 

[xxianxx]

Just one question, at what size can i safely introduce my juveniles to the adult tank? thanks.

 

[xxianxx]

I just did some research on invasive species in the UK, there is an established colony of xenopus in Linconshire ,a BBC documentary was made of them but im yet to track it down, a Proffesor Richard Tinsley was involved in this project.