# I have adf tadpoles!! Questions and advice!



## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

2 of my frogs have been continuously laying, but I'm horrible at getting the eggs out of the tank. I always accidentally pop them, and the ones I don't pop, I haven't had success on getting to hatch. But today during a water change in my tank I found 15 fully formed tadpoles swimming! I moved them to a cup for now (a petco betta cup), I'm waiting for a breeder net to arrive since they seem to like my tank more than my cups. How often do I feed them? I've seen 4-6 times a day, so is it like during the day only or do I need to space the feedings evenly through 24 hours and feed thm through the night as well like kittens? These seem very very young. How long do I leave the food in before removing it? How do I tell if they are dead? Some of them are floating but a few times I was like "oh they died" and went to remove them but as sooon as I touched them they swam away. They also don't seem very active, it seems like they only move if. I disturb them, is that how it's supposed to be?


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I was just reading about them and see what you mean about conflicting info!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Rainbo said:


> I was just reading about them and see what you mean about conflicting info!


I think it's just different things work for different people honestly which sadly doesn't help newbies lol


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Sitting near the surface may mean they need more oxygen and in that tiny cup I can see how they might not have enough. Honestly I would move them to their own tank/tote with a sponge filter, and if you keep finding conflicting information try using the middle ground. If one place says feed twice a day and another says 6 times try starting in​ the middle and adjust to their needs. If they eat everything and you feel like you need to feed them more do so, but if there's food left over after an hour remove it and feed less next time.


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Tadpoles: Baby dwarf frogs look like catfishes because two long tentacles grow out from their top lip. They eat infusoria. For faster growth, get them on to brine shrimp or microworms as soon as possible. (Other tadpoles have rasping lips for eating algae.) Dwarves are carnivores. Dwarf frog tads start turning into frogs in two months.

I grabbed this from someone cataloguing their add experience  I hope it helps

From this I would feed them just like I do my fish fry, starting with small live food and working up. Banana worms, then microworms, then BBS/ decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, then grindal worms before slowly switching to dry foods


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> Sitting near the surface may mean they need more oxygen and in that tiny cup I can see how they might not have enough. Honestly I would move them to their own tank/tote with a sponge filter, and if you keep finding conflicting information try using the middle ground. If one place says feed twice a day and another says 6 times try starting in​ the middle and adjust to their needs. If they eat everything and you feel like you need to feed them more do so, but if there's food left over after an hour remove it and feed less next time.


I thought they don't breathe oxygen yet? I read some stuff saying they don't start breathing air until later stages. But I'm not sure how accurate it was. I don't have a sponge filter though and I'm completely out of tanks right now (a lot going on) is there anything else I can do? Or am I out of luck until the breeder net arrives? I selected 2 day shipping, but that was a week ago and so far it hasn't even left FedEx 😩


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

They do breath dissolved oxygen in the water though.

I use 3g shallow totes for my fry, homz brand seem to be made of non toxic plastic and I have great luck with them. They probably need a wider surface area for gas exchange. If you can find a larger container and use a gently bubbling air stone


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> They do breath dissolved oxygen in the water though.
> 
> I use 3g shallow totes for my fry, homz brand seem to be made of non toxic plastic and I have great luck with them. They probably need a wider surface area for gas exchange. If you can find a larger container and use a gently bubbling air stone



Would a 1 gallon kritter keeper work? And what all would I need for an air stone to work? I've never had one before. Like I know with a sponge filter you need the filter and tubing and a check valve..


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Yeah it should work  I use flow control valves because you don't want to knock babies all over the tank
Look at this on eBay 20pcs Aquarium Air Line Tubing Volume Flow Control Valves | eBay

A gang valve from Walmart works too, do you have an air pump?


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> Yeah it should work  I use flow control valves because you don't want to knock babies all over the tank
> Look at this on eBay 20pcs Aquarium Air Line Tubing Volume Flow Control Valves | eBay
> 
> A gang valve from Walmart works too, do you have an air pump?


No I don't have an air pump. Is a flow control valve the same thing as a check valve or no?


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Check valve keeps water from flowing back into the air pump, flow control let's you turn down the air flow so you don't have too much water movement


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> Check valve keeps water from flowing back into the air pump, flow control let's you turn down the air flow so you don't have too much water movement


Thanks so much! I was looking at petco and the smallest air pump is for a 10g will the flow control be able to slow it down enough in a 1g?


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Yes, but you might be able to find one for the 3g tanks too  

Remember to test the air flow before you add it to the critter keeper. You can do that by dropping the air stone in a glass of water, or turn the valve all the way off then slowly turn it on in the tank making sure the babies don't get pushed around


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> Yes, but you might be able to find one for the 3g tanks too
> 
> Remember to test the air flow before you add it to the critter keeper. You can do that by dropping the air stone in a glass of water, or turn the valve all the way off then slowly turn it on in the tank making sure the babies don't get pushed around



Thanks! Do you have a recommendation on an airstone? From petco, that's the only petstore I'll be able to stop at tomorrow.


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

Any cheap air stone should work,I buy bulk because they tend to break after a while.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> Any cheap air stone should work,I buy bulk because they tend to break after a while.


All 18 tads (I found a few more yesterday) lived through the night and they aren't floating at the top anymore, do you think that was just a fluke? Do you think I should still buy an airstone/powerhead? My breeder net will be arriving on Monday 😡😡😡 If I would have known 2-3 day shipping actually meant 8 I would have overnighted it. That tank has regular hob filter do I still need an airstone? Idk if it does anything for gas exchange butim doing water changes every 2-4 hours


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

The air stone can't hurt  I'm glad they survived the night, what are you feeding them


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

What I did with my sponge filter, it runs on an airstone, is to poke holes into the airline, when that didn't cut the airflow enough I sliced the airline just a little bit. That cut the airflow back to where the top of y tank no longer looks like a pot of boiling water.

I have an air valve but turning it back as much as I had to was causing the air pump to be really loud.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> The air stone can't hurt  I'm glad they survived the night, what are you feeding them




I bought a 2 way air control & check valve ( this one https://t.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-2-way-air-control-and-check# ) and I literally can't figure out how to hook it up. It came with no instructions and the box is completely unhelpful. It's just a picture of the product, not even installed. Do you have any idea? Because I don't lol I also bought an air pump, 8 feet of air line tubing, and 2 t connectors.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Rainbo said:


> What I did with my sponge filter, it runs on an airstone, is to poke holes into the airline, when that didn't cut the airflow enough I sliced the airline just a little bit. That cut the airflow back to where the top of y tank no longer looks like a pot of boiling water.
> 
> I have an air valve but turning it back as much as I had to was causing the air pump to be really loud.




By any chance do you have one of those 2 way air control and check valve things? Because I bought one and can't figure out what to do with it


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

charliegill110 said:


> I bought a 2 way air control & check valve ( this one https://t.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-2-way-air-control-and-check# ) and I literally can't figure out how to hook it up. It came with no instructions and the box is completely unhelpful. It's just a picture of the product, not even installed. Do you have any idea? Because I don't lol I also bought an air pump, 8 feet of air line tubing, and 2 t connectors.



Are you running 2 airstones? That one allows you to run 2 air stones using one air pump. What you'd do is attach an airline from the air pump, to the clear nozzle looking thing on the bottom of the valve, then you'd attach separate airlines to the black nozzle things and attach air stones to the bottom of those lines. The little dials on the black part of the valve is what you turn to adjust the airflow.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Looking some more at that valve, what you might be able to do is attach an airline to one of the black nozzles, leaving the other bare, then leave the airflow to the one attached to the airline wide open, and use the other side to adjust the airflow.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Rainbo said:


> Looking some more at that valve, what you might be able to do is attach an airline to one of the black nozzles, leaving the other bare, then leave the airflow to the one attached to the airline wide open, and use the other side to adjust the airflow.


Thanks!! It seemed like that's what I should do, but I was scared to do it cause you can't uncut airline tubing lol. And the closest petstore is like 40 minutes away. 

I was planning on leaving the other bare but I ended up attaching both air stones. I have it set really low, but I mean going to Poke holes in the tubes. But do you think it would be better for the pump to open the second one all the way and leave it bare?


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

charliegill110 said:


> Thanks!! It seemed like that's what I should do, but I was scared to do it cause you can't uncut airline tubing lol. And the closest petstore is like 40 minutes away.
> 
> I was planning on leaving the other bare but I ended up attaching both air stones. I have it set really low, but I mean going to Poke holes in the tubes. But do you think it would be better for the pump to open the second one all the way and leave it bare?


LOL yeah you can't uncut the airline. When I sliced mine to vent air I sliced it a bit too much and had to wrap duct tape around it to "fix" it, then slice it again under the duct tape to vent the air and that time got it right. 

I'd try leaving it bare first and see how it goes, you can always go back and either close the bare side and try adjusting the other side, run two airstones, or poke holes in the airline, whatever you think will work best for the tadpoles


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Rainbo said:


> LOL yeah you can't uncut the airline. When I sliced mine to vent air I sliced it a bit too much and had to wrap duct tape around it to "fix" it, then slice it again under the duct tape to vent the air and that time got it right.
> 
> I'd try leaving it bare first and see how it goes, you can always go back and either close the bare side and try adjusting the other side, run two airstones, or poke holes in the airline, whatever you think will work best for the tadpoles


I was actually just going to use a needle and poke a couple holes in it. But then again everything is fine now so maybe I shouldn't mess with it. 



MysticSky22301 said:


> The air stone can't hurt  I'm glad they survived the night, what are you feeding them


Thank you so much it seems like the air stone is helping a ton. Right now I'm feeding them a mixture of tadpole pellets and a flake food I forget the name of, but the brand is omega one and all the ingredients are actual food (like anchovy and krill etc ) instead of filler. I have brine shrimp for when they get a little bigger and I've been trying to grow infusoria but I've had 2 jars sitting in 2 different windows for about 2 weeks one with lettuce and one with lettuce and and algae wafer and nothing is happening in either jar. It's been getting really cold here and stay very cloudy and the jars are in a cold part of the house, do you think that could effect it?


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

It is a good possibility. A lamp will have the same effect if you want to move them. 

I was going to dump and sanitized 2 of my tanks after losses but noticed they were chock full of little creatures, now I'm second guessing.My point is If you have a fully established tank pull the water from that tank instead of using new water, also your lettuce might have had pesticides on it. Make sure your plant material is organic 

If you want microworms for them message me, I've sent fully producing cultures before ^^


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

MysticSky22301 said:


> It is a good possibility. A lamp will have the same effect if you want to move them.
> 
> I was going to dump and sanitized 2 of my tanks after losses but noticed they were chock full of little creatures, now I'm second guessing.My point is If you have a fully established tank pull the water from that tank instead of using new water, also your lettuce might have had pesticides on it. Make sure your plant material is organic
> 
> If you want microworms for them message me, I've sent fully producing cultures before ^^



I used water from my oldest tank (its several years old) but omg I didn't even think of that about the lettuce. I think that's the culprit. It's not organic and I didn't wash it first, it honestly don't occur to me. Can you tell me more about how the micro worm cultures work and how I would care for them?


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## MysticSky22301 (Apr 16, 2016)

This is actually the description from my eBay listing lol I can answer any other questions you have 

Microworms are a free-living nematode perfect for fry that don't mind feeding from the bottom of the tank, although extremely small fry may not be able to eat them they are always good to have on hand 

Be sure to make ventilation holes, they need air! The Tupperware with press and lock lids work well, to keep bugs out hot glue coffee filter over a larger hole. I keep my worm's in a cooked oatmeal paste. I make it close to the consistency of toothpaste, so it won't fall out of the container if turned upside down. You can also use baby cereal or instant mashed potatoes. A pinch of yeast gives the worms something extra to eat. As the culture turns soupy from waste you need to start a new one from a spoon full of the original, again using your chosen medium and yeast. If a culture starts to dry out mist slightly with a spray bottle of dechlorinated water, and cut a smaller ventilation hole for your next culture tub.


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## DianeA7X (Feb 13, 2014)

i have tadpoles myself. I've had twice so far. The first ones all died. Now these I had so many eggs and out of maybe over a hundred eggs only 13 were fertilized. Now all but 3 have die. So right now I only have 3 left. I doubt they will survive cause I don't have everything that they need. I've been giving them flake food. I crush them as much as I can and then a lil bit at a time give that o them but before I do that I put a lil bit of water and mix it up. Hopefully some day I will get some to survive. They are just so tiny and cute though.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DianeA7X said:


> i have tadpoles myself. I've had twice so far. The first ones all died. Now these I had so many eggs and out of maybe over a hundred eggs only 13 were fertilized. Now all but 3 have die. So right now I only have 3 left. I doubt they will survive cause I don't have everything that they need. I've been giving them flake food. I crush them as much as I can and then a lil bit at a time give that o them but before I do that I put a lil bit of water and mix it up. Hopefully some day I will get some to survive. They are just so tiny and cute though.


Adding the water to the flake food didn't work for me. The tads could never find the food. What I do is crush the flake food and tadpole pellets into a powder and then sprinkle it on top of the water. All the tads rush to the surface and you can see them suck the food into their mouths.


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## DianeA7X (Feb 13, 2014)

I've done that too. Too bad they all died. My lil ones only last a week. I need to try a different approach next time.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DianeA7X said:


> I've done that too. Too bad they all died. My lil ones only last a week. I need to try a different approach next time.


Hmmm I'm not sure what you could be doing wrong..I feel like mine has been all dumb luck honestly


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## DianeA7X (Feb 13, 2014)

Yeah mine should be having eggs in a week or 2 so I'm gonna do something different. She made so many eggs and only 13 were fertilized.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DianeA7X said:


> Yeah mine should be having eggs in a week or 2 so I'm gonna do something different. She made so many eggs and only 13 were fertilized.



That's weird. Is the ph high in your tank? Me and another girl who have been raising tads have a theory that high ph is key. It's mildly backed up by some guy I found raising tads online. I'll try to link it. I forget which number my ph is but it's almost as high as the chart goes, it's the second or third highest. Very stable.

Edt- http://davidcecere.pipidae.org/Breeding1.htm I'm not sure where he mentions needing to raise the ph it could b a page or 2 in


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## DianeA7X (Feb 13, 2014)

I dunno I don't have any testing kits to find out. Wish I had the money to get one.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DianeA7X said:


> I dunno I don't have any testing kits to find out. Wish I had the money to get one.


Hmm.. do you remove the tads from the tank? For me, almost non moving water seems to work best. I keep mine in a 1 gal critter keeper with 2 airstones set to very low (I only use 2 because the flow control has 2 openings, one would work fine). If a tad doesn't seem to be doing well I take it out and put it in a cup (without an airstone, so the water is completely still) sometimes it will recover in a day or 2 and I can move it back and sometimes it will die. I always have the biggest die offs on weekends (usually 2-6 die between fri and sun) because I travel on weekends and the ride is a bit bumpy but I have to go and I have to bring them with me to feed them and do water changes. Temp doesn't seem to matter. Oh also do you have plants in there? The girl I talk with uses frogbit, my lighting isn't good so I use duckweed. It helps keep the water clean (water changes are still very important) and I think the tads like eat it or something. All the roots disappeared and my duckweed has been slowly dying off. I'm down to like 2-3 petals. The girl I talk with says her tads love hanging out in her frogbit. She also keeps hers in the tank with the frogs but in breeder nets, it works great for her butvthe current was too much for mine. 

Also when I do water changes I always add a couple turkey baster full of water from my frog tank to the critter keeper. I figure there's something in that water the frogs really like and I seem to have more die/notice more not doing well if I forget to add some tank water.


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## DianeA7X (Feb 13, 2014)

Yes I would remove the frogs if I see they are at it. Otherwise I get as much eggs out of the main tank as I can. I don't have frogbit and that is on my bucket list to gt some day. I do have live plants though. I have a regular airstone where I can't control it I guess cause it was from one of my cousins. What I plan on doing is take that out and put it in a container that I have which is about a gallon and put some rocks on it so that not much air can come out. I would love to have at least some survive. Now I just gotta wait til they are at it again.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DianeA7X said:


> Yes I would remove the frogs if I see they are at it. Otherwise I get as much eggs out of the main tank as I can. I don't have frogbit and that is on my bucket list to gt some day. I do have live plants though. I have a regular airstone where I can't control it I guess cause it was from one of my cousins. What I plan on doing is take that out and put it in a container that I have which is about a gallon and put some rocks on it so that not much air can come out. I would love to have at least some survive. Now I just gotta wait til they are at it again.



I wouldn't disturb the frogs if you see them mating. They might stop and not start again. I've had ZERO success moving eggs, the girl I talk with hasn't either. What we do is leave the eggs be (even if the frogs start eating them they never seem to get all of them) and then check the tank every couple of days and once the tadpoles have hatched, remove the tadpoles. That's the only way we've had success. I try to wait till as close to free swimming as possible. The ones that I find swimming in the tank on their own do the best. I don't think it's good to disturb the egg sack. Burying the airstone with rocks is a great idea. 

Do you have craft mesh and 100% acrylic yarn? Or can you buy some? It's really cheap. The mesh is 90 cents a sheet and a skein if yarn is 2$. Sew a tube put it in he tank (it floats) and a ton of the eggs will stick to it so it makes it really easy to monitor the tads progression.


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