Raising Tadpoles (Day 135) - Quasi, the Back-flipping Froglet

ribbitingscience (63)in #dtube • 5 years ago (edited)

Day 135

The tadpoles continue to develop their limbs and all currently seem to be progressing normally. I was concerned that the remaining tadpoles would have an especially high rate of developmental abnormalities after a couple of the hip issues that were present in a few of the last wave of froglets.

I have continued to feed 1.5ml of tadpole suspension to the tadpoles each day, though once the number of tadpoles drops to 10, I'll likely lower the daily feeding to 1ml of tadpole suspension. The 3ml pipette I use to feed them only measures in increments of 0.5ml. The suspension isn't the only thing the tadpoles seem to enjoy eating, much like in the later stages of the tadpoles being kept in the 20 gallon aquarium prior to the tank switch, they seem to be enjoying some of a small amount of algae that has grown inside of the 10 gallon tank.

There's a single froglet that really stands out to me currently, I call them 'Quasi,' short for Quasimodo, the humpback of Notre Dame. Now to be fair, I can't say for certain that Quasi actually is a hunchback but his hips are somewhat deformed. The hip issue seems to cause Quasi to rest at the bottom of the tank in a 'sitting' position. Aside from looking rather odd, this also causes Quasi to be significantly less steady and easy to tip over when a strong current hits. The hip issue also results in an extremely erratic swimming pattern that includes loops, end-over-end tumbling, and difficulty in swimming straight at times. I notice that Quasi is able to swim normally if there is a solid surface (or even my hand) along one side to use for support or if swimming straight up to the surface. I'm not sure if it's partially due to disorientation or if the current in the froglet section of the tank is slightly different on the way down. Regardless, eating doesn't seem to be impacted too much and Quasi's mobility is normal if swimming at the bottom.