# How hard is it to breed Leucs?



## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

I have read that D. leucomelas can be frustrating to breed. Does this mean that they are off and on with their breeding or that they take a while to get going and then breed consistantly after that. I am thinking of getting a trio but want to know if I am setting myself up for frustration or success. If anyone has had good or bad experiences with breeding these I would love to hear about it. Any info you can offer about your experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

If she doesn't post, PM Melissa of Quality Captives ( melissa68) and ask her about her experience with them. She played hell getting her pair to breed, but I've not heard the same from other people.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Hmmmmm....

What is the best way to answer this question? 

I think the more important question to ask yourself is if you like them? 
Regardless if your luecs breed or not, getting a trio of them will be very enjoyable. They are a very active frog and the male's call is beautiful. 

It has been my experience, a luecs either breed easily or they don't. I know that sounds like a cliche, but it took me over 5 years to get ours to breed on a regular basis. Looking back now, I think they might have breed earlier than that, but I think I had some egg eaters (too many females in the tank) in the bunch and would only occasionaly find the evidence.

One of the reasons I found breeding these guys so frustrating was that everyone else was breeding them easily. Their advice to me was spray the he11 out of them and they will breed. I was able to breed other frogs that most people couldn't, but I couldn't breed my luecs! Needless to say, when I finally found eggs I was estatic!!!

It took me a while, and they are now breeding (almost on command). If I want to get eggs from them, I just make sure I spray their tank more one week, and I usually get eggs in a few days. 

Regardless, I think you will be very happy getting a trio of luecs. 

Good luck,

Melissa


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## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

*leucs*

Thanks for the info. I appreciate you sharing your experience. I breed several tree frogs and am excited to work with some darts. I just wanted to start out with some that would not cause to many headaches. I have it narrowed down to leucs and azureus and hope to get both species going soon. I just heard from one other source that the leucs can be frustrating and wanted to know if I should start with something else. Do you know many people that have had good luck with these? What ratio of males to females are in your group and in what size cage? If anyone else has had the same or a different experience with these I would love to hear about it. Thanks.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Well, one of the hardest things with luecs is sexing. It is commonly said, the only way to know for sure that you have a male is to see it call. 

I usually try to do tanks with trios, and try to have at least 1 male per tank. I have found too many eggs are eatten if you have more in the tanks. 

Anything from a 20 gallon high (or 15 breeder) and up should be ok for these guys.

Melis


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## VTHokie (Jun 28, 2005)

I have found leucs pretty easy to breed. I have a 2.1 group in a twenty gallon viv, and do not have to do anything special to get them to lay eggs they just always seem to do it. It did however take a few clutches before I had fertile ones.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

supe22  ,

First off, welcome to the board! 

I’ve had leucs since July of ’05, but I ended up with two females. I just recently traded one for a calling male. He is being wormed at the moment. Hopefully I will have him in the viv in six weeks or so. I’ll tell you what I’ve heard and read about them over the past two years.

Most of the literature that I’ve seen on wild leucs says that their habitat is dry for most of the year. I’ve read that during dry times they are not out and about, and that during wet periods they are easily visible and numerous.

I’ve read that they can be induced to breed by providing them with a dry cycle. Obviously they need a damp hiding place during dry periods. Other people seem to have no problem with getting them to produce regularly. I don’t think that I’ve ever read about them being extremely prolific. On the other hand, I have read about people having lots of tads due to the regularity of their breeding. I’ve seen mention of timed misting systems causing problems with their breeding because of the consistency of the environment.

Good luck with your decision. They are beautiful frogs. I haven’t heard my male call yet but at this point in my life, I don’t get to spend much time in the frog room


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## brettlt (Oct 5, 2006)

At least one of my males was calling at 5 months old, and I believe more than one male is calling now that they are about 7 months old. I have 4 Leucs in a 40 gallon enclosure. I think I have 3 males and a female, but I am not really sure yet. As breeding is not a goal I was not worried about sexes, I just love watching them. They seem to call the most in the morning when the humidity is the highest, and they call some after lights out as well. I have my lights on from 9 to 9 everyday. I randomly hand mist, and randomly feed, though usually in the evening, so they are not on much of a cycle except for the lights.

Zbrinks has 5 Leucs in a 46 gallon bow front that are less than a year old and they are readily breeding. He will probably chime in within the week as he is in the middle of a move from Texas to Michigan right now.

Cindy at Vivarium Concepts keeps around 8 Leucs in, I think, a 72 gallon bowfront. She has some success, as both Zbrinks and I acquired our Leucs from her. I do not know how many or how often, so you would have to ask her.


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## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

*leucs*

Thank you guys very much for the info. Anyone that wants to add their own experiences, please do. I would like to know as much about keeping and breeding these guys as possible. Thanks.


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## Alan (Jan 12, 2005)

Leucs are about the easiest PDF to breed that I can think of. I have to dry mine out to stop them from breeding. Once they are of breeding age they will get the job done. Give them a breeding hut and give them time.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

I have a group of 5 in a 20 gallon tall upright. They love the heigth. I have one male and one female for sure, the other three I am still not sure about. In their first year they laid eggs every week. But none were fertile. When I moved all my frogs into the new basement frog room, the breeding stopped. I still hear calling. but there are never any eggs.
After reading Melissa's post, I wonder if I might have too many females (egg eater).
I good friend told me that the magic trick to get them to breed is to "rearrange their furniture". Move their plants around, make it look like new surrounds and they will breed.
My plan is try all these ideas and see if they work.
This is a good post.


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## npaull (May 8, 2005)

Does anyone estivate their leucs to get them to breed? If so, how? I've heard that some times groups of leucomelas that are tricky can be induced to breed by a drying period...


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Alan,

That is what made me so mad about not being able to get my luecs to breed. Everyone said they were easy, and I was being successful with all my other frogs - but not these. It was maddening!!!



Alan Zimmerman said:


> Leucs are about the easiest PDF to breed that I can think of. I have to dry mine out to stop them from breeding. Once they are of breeding age they will get the job done. Give them a breeding hut and give them time.


I think not overcrowding your tank, and possibly sticking to a 1.1, 1.2 or 2.1 grouping could be one of the secrets to success. Also, cycling them (drying out to stop & wetting them to induce) might be the 2nd secret to success with luecs.

I think everyone has different species we are better at breeding than others. For example, I tend to be able to breed Auratus, Tincs, intermedius, vents and a few other thumbs. For the life of me, I have had trouble with other thumbnails, including imitators which he can breed easily. At IAD, Kyle and I were joking around at how we each needed to trade frogs. I needed to send all my thumbnails over to his house, and he needs to send his tincs to mine. 

Some of the differences we experience in success are likely related to how we have our tanks and systems set up/husbandry. Kyle has his racks on a misting system, his tanks are minimalist (not too overgrown), doesn’t feed as often or heavily and his tanks well ventilated. On the other hand, I have little ventilation, many of my tanks are overgrown, I keep algae on the sides for frog privacy (tincs are horrible about wanting what is in the tank next to them – this prevents a ton of nose injuries), feed the hell out of my frogs and I do not mist that often. 

I hope Kyle doesn’t mind me using him as an example, but we have spoken about it before and realized we were both being successful using different husbandry techniques and getting good results. Both of us look to the other for advise when we have issues or difficult to breed frogs. 

It amazes me how much each of us have to learn from our peers. 

So, what is the point of this really long post? Keep your minds open to other people’s opinions. Don’t switch everything you are doing just because someone else has had good results with their methods. Changes in your process or husbandry need to be gradual to eliminate stress to your animals. Learn from your peers!!!

Good luck – and I think this has turned into a very good post. 

Melissa


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

I use to cycle my leucs to kick start their breeding. For me it was too much work especially when it didn't even work! :evil: 

I find if I do no cycling all my leuc pairs will give me 4 good clutches in the spring and another 4 good clutches in the fall. I have also found that my males are ready to go at about 6 months whereas my females need to be over a year old to start laying.

I also keep all leuc tanks next to each other and the males will play off of each other as they call (one calls and then another) and I usually get eggs about the same time from all the pairs (the males call every day all year round).

I also have noticed that some of the males have calls that are very distinct to that male. I have no ear for music, so I would suspect someone musically inclined (like my wife) would be able to distinguish between each male. Just a bit more anacdotel (sp?) evidence for females being selective. I wouldn't be surprised if some leuc calls are "better" than others. One of my males has a very "weird" leuc call and most of his eggs don't develop (4 bad clutches this past fall (3 tads total) - and his first clutch this year was 50/50 bad and good). Maybe it is a coincidence, but who knows. We'll see if his call gets better and his little men start working a bit better.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Mine just started breeding. I have 1 male and 2 females (I think) in a 10 gallon. I have gotten 2 clutches, and have 3 living tads. I may have messed up their breeding cycle when I took one out to take to the school to show to the third grade class last week though. If they don't lay again in a week I will let them dry out some and have a break.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Our breeder pair of leucs produce eggs year round and we don't do anything special in terms of alternating wet/dry periods or feeding. They are well fed and kept pretty humid. 

They are housed in a 29 gallon viv that is very very overgrown though so perhaps that helps. I suspect the lack of female competition helps in this situation as well.

Bill


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

But you don't count, Bill, since everything froggy under the sun breeds for you...


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