Raising Tadpoles (Day 143) - Observing the Frogs
Day 143
I'll be seeing if I can contact the wholesaler tomorrow, move the current group of juvenile frogs will bring me down to 17 frogs and tadpoles, not counting Marcinko or my two adults, to deal with. The juveniles eat at a rate of about two tablespoons of adult frog pellets a day now, which is actually taking a toll on the bag of food, which is down to about a fourth of the bag at the moment. I'll have to buy a new bag from Xenopus Express. The only issue with ordering from them is the fixed shipping cost makes it much better to wait and buy everything at once, though if you are a bulk buyer, it can be very cost effective.
It'd be interesting to have an opportunity to more closely observe the long term behaviors of the frogs and their interpersonal relationships in groups by tracking their movements the way I've seen done with ants (with a small dot of paint identifying each one along with an overhead camera to record movement patterns). Unfortunately, that's a quite fair bit out of the budget and scope for this. It is rather interesting to watch one startled frog cause a chain reaction among the rest of the frogs that they bop into. One spooked frog swims into a crowd and a few seconds later you'll see an explosion of frogs as they dart off in all directions.
Current Totals:
8 - 10 gallon (Tadpole Tank)
34 - 20 gallon (Frog Tank) [9 froglet, 25 juvenile]