# [VIDEO]"Egg-Eating" o. Pumilio (Rambala)



## MarcNem (Dec 13, 2008)

PUMILIO EGG EATING VIDEO: I came home from a day trip today (12/23/2016) and like most of you would, I inspected the tanks in my frog room. I keep my Rambala in a 2.3 breeding group and get clutches all the time, but seldom see froglets so, today I experienced what I thought to be a female Rambala watering a newly laid clutch of eggs, really ended up being me catching her in the act of eating the clutch. I ran and grabbed my fone and started recording. Check out the video. #BestInPairs

UPDATE - Today (1/19/17), I finally got time separate this Rambala group back into 1.1 and 1.2. Before I removed anyone, I observe the tank for a while. Easy enough to identify because my original 1.2 had stripes and the added 1.1 was spotted. As expected the 2 males started fighting, which left me only to capture the 3 females. After I caught everyone, I reviewed the egg-eater video, in an effort to identify the offender. Upon reviewing the video, it turns out the egg-eating culprit in the video is the dominate male in the tank. "Waaaad!"

Your thoughts?


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## phender (Jan 9, 2009)

Maybe the "dominant" male wasn't the one that fathered the eggs. Perhaps he didn't like eggs in his territory that weren't his.


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## MarcNem (Dec 13, 2008)

Perhaps. I too, think that may be the case.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If you have females watering their clutches then you might want to reconsider the identity of the sexes.... normally females do not water the clutches and only return about the time of hatching to transport the offspring. 

some comments 

Ed


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## shaungilhousen (Nov 30, 2014)

I thought only the males transport the tadpoles


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## MarcNem (Dec 13, 2008)

Ed said:


> If you have females watering their clutches then you might want to reconsider the identity of the sexes.... normally females do not water the clutches and only return about the time of hatching to transport the offspring.
> 
> some comments
> 
> Ed


To be honest Ed, I didn't know what was going on at the time I walked in, and did not know if the frog in the video was a male watering the eggs or a female eating them. I had several clutches disappear recently and assumed they were being eaten. So, when I realized that the little culprit was eating them, I grabbed the camera and started recording. I assumed the frog eating the eggs was a female because I had always heard that females would often the eggs of other females. Then today, I matched up the patterns, and realized that the frog in the video was a male. It's pattern is very distinct and different from my other Rambala. I am sure on the sexes. Both males have very prominent throat pouches and were observed calling.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Male pumilio eating the eggs is not new. Its been documented in the literature for at least 40 years and was originally reported back in the mid-1970s which is why I focused on the comment about the females water the clutches. Female pumilio do not water the egg clutches as part of their normal behavior and if you see what at the time you think is a female water a clutch, it is unlikely to be a female. Subordinate males can live in a group without calling as the territorial males should only focus on the calling males as an intrusion. 

some comments 

Ed


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