# ext.. to what is happening to my tads...



## jknight (Jun 25, 2009)

this is what the bubbles look like.. why is this happening??


the setup...










one of the little guys floating.. 










the largest bubble..










any input would help.. thanks!


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## srrrio (May 12, 2007)

If you are feeding your tads food that floats on the surface you should use a spray water bottle and force the food to sink. Not really sure what the outcome is for tads with this is, as it has not happened to me, but I if I remember it is not so good. Sorry.

Sally


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## jknight (Jun 25, 2009)

i do spray the fish flakes like you said.. i just dont know what is causing this!


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Without necropsies on the tadpoles, the actual cause will have to remain a mystery but things that have been linked to this in the past in other species range from parasite infections to possible insufficent vitamin A.. 

That has nothing to do with ingested air.. (which is what the flake food feedings is inferring) as there isn't any air captured in the "bubble". Tadpoles can suspend in the water column so "floating" isn't necessarily linked to the bubble. 

Ed


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Is this the same person with a different thread (recently)?

Why not try to raise them individually in smaller 5 to 7 oz cups? 

Water changes and turkey baster suctioning of detritus is so much easier.

Like ED said....hard to conclusively pin this one down despite it not being a totally rare occurance. Try the water changes. Try different food other than the tad bites.


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## jknight (Jun 25, 2009)

well its not looking good for the tad in the last picture.. inside the "bubble" on its belly there is an air bubble its making it go belly up.. its still trying to swim :/ not much i can do i guess..


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

I think I told you in another post.....there is a high probablility it will survive and morph out fine. I've had a couple tincs with bigger bubbles than the one in the pic.

How it eats or gets nourishment? I have no idea but they did morph out on schedule with the others.


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## bchan (Feb 21, 2009)

In the past when I've seen this it has been due to temperature being too high. This doesn't exclude the other possibilities (e.g. parasite, vitamin A) as they may be effected by temperature changes, but the only times that we saw this was when our incubator would creep up toward 30 degrees. When we'd drop the temperature back down to 26, most of them would recover.
I hope this helps.


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## jknight (Jun 25, 2009)

thanks for the help bchan.. and phil.. yes you did tell me in the last thread they could survive.. i just dont see how though when its going belly up like that. i only made a new thread to get some pictures out there and show people what the "bubbles" looked like.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Good job with the pics and this thread! It _MAY_ jut be the first set of pics on this forum as well !

I would have used my $600.00 Sony a300 DSLR cam to take pics of my "bubble tads", if I new how to do much more than power it up and press the shoot button.

Believe me, I had a bubble tad that the bubble size was so large (as big as the body of the tad) that it could NOT even keep from floating on the surface. I don't know how it ate or even IF it ate, but it morphed out fine and I gave it to a friend. She has it as a 1 year old frog now - doing fine.


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## jknight (Jun 25, 2009)

well being only 18.. my little olympus fe-230 is all i can afford. lol it was like 100 $.. but yeah i did the best i could with the pics..and the "bubble" keeps getting bigger :/


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