# Tadpole MASS rearing



## dartdude (Mar 28, 2005)

I would love to hear from some people that raise lot of tadpoles in a single system. I have about 150 right now and the time it takes to change all the water and feed them in single containers is ridiculus.  I have no life......

I like the looks of Brians setup but I worry about them getting enough food. I remeber seeing a post with someone selling something like this out in Washington but I never saw any pictures of it so I dont have a clue what it was like.

I would like to build something simple that holds 100-300 tadpoles that I could just drop food into a central bin and it would disperse it into the seperate containers. For water changes I want to be able to do the same. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Adam
http://www.terraexotics.com


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## EDs Fly Meat (Apr 29, 2004)

Your not lying. It's hard work. I put in the headphones and listen to the radio.

I have seen some really cool ones out there, but I also worry about diet and care. If someone gets sick will it spread? Etc etc. Still there are some ppl out there with some clever as hell designs, and they seem to make it work.

Dave


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## dartdude (Mar 28, 2005)

Wouldnt a UV sterilizer on the return water take care of that problem?


Cheers!
Adam


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## rmelancon (Apr 5, 2004)

You guys that do water changes are masochists.


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## TimStout (Feb 16, 2004)

I second that!!!


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

> You guys that do water changes are masochists.


I agree.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

I use drip-irrigation system parts, and house the tads in smaller rubbermaid "sandwich" type containers. The tad containers have overflow holes punched in them, so that when watering is going on, excess is just drained out through the holes, and down into the basin of the underbed sweaterbox that the containers are housed in (they're raised above the overflow container with eggcrate and pvc). The whole system is gravity fed, with a sweaterbox reservoir. I just fill up the res whenever needed, the water drains out through a bulkhead, down a 1/2" OD tube, and into an irrigation 8-way splitter that I split even further with tees on the outlet lines. Each line end has .5 GPH emitters, so that all containers recieve the same amount of water each time. I realize a pic would help, but I don't have one right now. The parts I use are dirt cheap, so experimenting with them isn't costly.


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

To those of you who never do water changes, what do you use as the substrate in the tad containers (if anything)?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

sand. gravel could also work, I've used that in the past. these tanks tend to be hard to get going due to the need to make sure the tank is not overpopulated, and not overfed, a huge challege for many people. It takes up more space than other systems that have water overflows or lots of water changes - these systems allow for higher tadpole concentrations.

Its generally recomended to NOT recycle water in these systems, due to cantaminants between tadpoles, and hormone limiting done by some species. The hormones can be removed, but at the same time its removing the tadpole tea in the water. There really is no "auto feed" system, but a system like brian's and Dane's allows for water quality to be less of an issue - lots of time saved from water changes, and you're down to just feeding the tads (which if you feed a prepared diet, is simply a couple of tadpole bites or a flake or two). If you fed tadpole bites, and knew how many to feed each tadpole, it could take you maybe 15 minutes to feed 300 tads (one bite here, 2 bites here...).


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

if i have time i`ll post pics, but i`m doing a photopoint? presentation at mwff on my whole facility. the idea is cheap setups. i use an overflow return for 100+gal and about 600tads in that system. the phyllos are a bit different. the tads are in 2 inch pvc pipe cut to 3 inch pieces and has mesh netting siliconed to the bottom. i`ll be touching topics like hormone growth inhibitors and the experiments ive been doing w/ different systems. the system consists of 9 underbed streilites w/ italian bottling spigots for overflow. the pvc piping returns all the water to a reservior where it is pumped thru a fluval 404 and thru a uv sterilizer and redistributes w/ pvc pipe and airhose to each underbed container. each underbed container holds 3 dishpans w/ 25 pvc pieces each. the pans are swiss cheesed to allow water flow. as i said i`ll try to post pics later.


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## AJ_Cann (Oct 6, 2004)

What species are we talking about here? It may not be essential to raise tadpoles individually. Often it's quite successful (and much easier!) raising them in bulk as I do and as NAIB does.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I guess it really depends on what frogs you're raising and personal preference... In theory the system from Brian's tropicals could probibly hold more tadpoles in the same space than just group raised like NAIB set ups (at least when I was there) because you're defining the tadpoles' territory, and making it smaller than maybe if you let the tadpole set up the territory. That's really the only benefit of the system I could see.

I raise all my tadpoles communally if they are tinc group and epipedobates. Thumbnails have to be raised individually, in which if you wanted lots of thumbnail tads in a bin of water, you'd have to have brian's set up or some would get eaten/beaten up/etc. I take the lazy route and let the thumbs take care of their own young, the few I pull out end up in plastic cups floating in the tadpole bins (for water temp) and are kept individually.


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

i`ll try to keep the pics small. they are all in my gallery for viewing.








































i`m now trying this system against gravel bottom, oak leaves both in the system in pvc and in 24 oz deli cups out of the system w/ a reduction from daily feeding in all but the bare containers. ive also incorporated these buried pvc in gravel in my adults tanks and have azureus, powder blues, truncatus, leucs,super blue and turq and brnz auratus, dwarfs, yellowback and blue sips all carrying tads to pvc and puddles in the vivs. my guess is they should do ok w/ ff`s and springtails to eat. i had a pair of dwarfs raise a tad in there ashtray soakdish which came out very large w/ nothing but coco peat dragged in by the parents. i should have pics and results about midwest frogfest or later and will present pics of all the different combination setups at mwff and how they compare w/ maintenance, size of tads morphed, etc.
underbed sterilite - $10
italian bottling spigot $3ea.
sterilite dishpan - $2
pvc for return and feed and individual containers appr. $10-15ea underbed
screening and silicone $10/100 containers.
75 tads in a system per underbed box - cost $42 to 47 dollars
can also be nested in another dispan and 25 tads can be changed by lifting out the top dishpan. these systems are cheap at appr. $8 for 2 dishpans, pvc and screening and silicone. that`s $8 or less/25 tads. tads have to be changed 2-3 times a week depending on feeding schedule.
uv sterilizer appr $100 and fluval 404 enough for 9 underbed boxes or more - $120?
appr. $170 (uv not really necessary)for the first 75 and evens out at about $700/700 tads, i think.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Here are some proper sized pics Aaron:


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## Chaostic (May 4, 2006)

Sorry to bring up back into lights an old post, but I'm very interested in building a raising system and wonder if some of you can share what their set up is.
Unfortunately I cannot see the pics of Frogfarm's post.

Any help in sharing your set ups is very welcome.

Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

Ive now joined the "you people who do water changes(and feed every day) are masochists" camp.
My new motto is kiss. keep it simple stupid. 
24 oz. deli cups w/ crumbled oak leaves, feed every 3rd day and top off water w/ r.o. and do a partial water change every month.
It works better for me. Some do great w/ community systems but it`s either more doable w/ certain foods, certain species, certain temps or something. possibly more partial water changes? All I know is that you should do an experiment to see if it works better for you before you do a whole bunch of work just to make more work for yourself as I did.


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## Chaostic (May 4, 2006)

Thank you. The advice is pretty good, I believe.

I will start in the masochist camp, but will start a thinking path on the industrialisation of it .

If anyone can share his set up, this will help me start my thinking process.
THanks

Fred


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