Raising Tadpoles (Day 19) - Pop Goes the Tadpole
Day 19
The differences in size between some of the tadpoles at this point reminds me of the size differences you can observe among different colony members, such as worker ants and super majors, of polymorphic ant species. Of course, unlike the ants, all of these little ones will eventually look roughly the same in terms of body type (African Clawed Frogs are sexually dimorphic, females are much larger than males on average). Faces and personalities can differ quite a bit however, every frog really is unique. If it were possible to keep individually track of all 82 tadpoles, I'm sure I'd be seeing interesting behavioral changes over time - particularly the last few days.
On a more communal level, the tadpoles have grown much more comfortable around one another in the last week and no long swim off in a fright when they bump into one of their siblings. Many times, I have seen the tadpoles pushing and jostling each other in order to secure a central position in one of the corners -particularly when the light is one. I haven't pin pointed exactly why they prefer the corners but my working hypothesis is that it's the closest thing that have to an enclosed space and if there's one thing African Clawed Frogs love, it's squeezing into tight spaces that make you wonder how in the world they could ever get out of just before they pop out with ease. Since adding decor would only make the daily cleaning more of a hassle, they'll have to wait to be froglets before I consider adding any decor to their environment.
It's also interesting to see what a good little clean up crew they make, while food continues to stick to the tank walls, tadpoles are quite industriously eating it up, leaving gaps where you can see the tadpoles have cleaned the walls. Since the afternoon today, I've been hearing very faint popping sounds that sound like the tiniest lips you've ever heard smacking together. Checking the tank, it turns out the tadpoles are taking much bigger breaths at the water surface these days, leaving much bigger bubbles to boot!
