# Feeding Tadpoles



## Stenic (Jan 3, 2009)

I now have 6 newly hatched tads and thinking about food. Interested what others are feeding theirs?
I have some older tads that are just starting to morph. I have been feeding them a soaked dog biscuit (complete variety) which seems to have worked well so far. Any one else tried this?


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Never heard of dog biscuit....has to have a lot of protein which I am leary of.

What species of frog are we talking?


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## Stenic (Jan 3, 2009)

No I have never heard of anyone using them but they contain everything that an older tad would need I would imagine. Protein, Carbs, Vitamins, minerals. I can't really see any difference with flake fish food really. Just interested.
I will carry on and see how they do.
I remember as a child keeping ordinary garden frog tadpoles at school. We used to tie a piece of chicken or bread on string and dangle it in the water for the tads to eat. They all morphed well.


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## Stenic (Jan 3, 2009)

Oh, they are Leucs


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## jules77 (Dec 2, 2007)

I think the general reccomendation is tadpole bites which are very inexpensive, and some spirulina and standard high quality fish flake food. I ground some up in a coffee grinder will see how that goes.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Chicken and bread? and the tadpoles really ate that and nothing else?

And morphed out?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Philsuma said:


> Never heard of dog biscuit....has to have a lot of protein which I am leary of.


Why? 

Ed


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Ed said:


> Why?
> 
> Ed


I had some of tadpoles on a high percentage- protein food and they grew fast and metamorphosed early. When I say high...I mean over 50%.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I'm not sure I understand. 
In the post I referred to, you said you were leery of high protien diets and then it seems like you are saying it worked okay.. 

So I'm not sure I understand.... 

Ed


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Sorry Ed....I re read my post and I quess I wasn't clear.

The high protein diet did make them morph quicker but that was not what I wanted....I did not wish for _so quick_ a metamorphosis.

Better?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Now I get it... 

Ed


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## Stenic (Jan 3, 2009)

Chicken and Bread!! Yes they did really well, but then I was only a child and thats what we fed them on at school and I did at home with mine. They all did well.
What is interesting though is, I have a garden pond that gets loads of frog spawn and then hundreds of tadpoles every spring. They will be arriving any time now.
I never put any food in for them. They feed on algea on the sides of the pond, then dead worms and slugs etc that fall in when they are older. I am pretty sure worms and slugs have pretty high protein content.
Interesting, I think sometimes we try too hard and the simple things do actually work. I would have thought a dog biscuit actually contains everything needed.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

one thing i have noticed personally is that there is a correlation with hihg protein and faster metamorphis with SLS, the tads morph out bigger though that is for sure. 
my diet consist of 
Chlorella
Cyclops eeze, frozen
fish flakes, tetramin
fish pellets, new life spectrum
frozen brine shrimp
frozen blood worms
POlus in addition to that they have a few pieces of almond leaves in the water and they are fed about once a week.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

oh yeah and Naturose as well.


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## frogsanddogs (Jun 21, 2008)

Thanks Julio-
Great list! I have been experimenting with a large variety of fish foods and occasionally spirulina and always a bit of almond leaf to find several foods that are not stinky like many of the fish foods are.
However, have a question about the Naturose. I've heard about people dusting their fruit flies to get more of that red/ orange/ yellow color on froglets and adult frogs... but didn't know you could feed it to your tads. Is it for the same reason? And where do you buy it and what brand do you use? Also how often do you feed it? I am guessing you alternate the different foods when you feed once a week, so wondering how often they get the Naturose or if it is supplemented every time with another food.
Thanks in advance for the info.


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## garweft (Mar 11, 2008)

I guess I'll add this question here....

Has anyone ever used the algae disks that are sold for fish like Plecostomous?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They have been tried as with everything else some success and some not having success.

I use live blackworms to supply animal protien to the tadpoles as added in small quantities they do not fould the water as they do not die and as the tadpoles eat off the ends, they heal and become a smaller worm... In addition, I use high quality fresh fish food (rotate like you would supplements and discard after 6 months as it may become stale) and occasionally soft salmon pellets. 

There are a number of factors that can come into play with size of metamorphosis including photoperiods. There have been studies that show increased and decreased growths at different day night cycles (but this is also some species dependent and I am not aware of any specific research along these lines with dendrobatids). 
Protien is one, and if you are getting SLS in those fed a higher protien diet, then there is probably some other underlying nutritional deficiency that was being masked by the slower growth. 

Some thought,

Ed


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

I'm experimenting a little bit now with a food source from my tropical fish keeping days - decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. The decapped eggs along with newly hatched brine shrimp were always recommended as one of the best foods to feed to fish fry. I got a free sample last time I ordered flake food from Brine Shrimp Direct.

As I've been getting thumb eggs to hatch I've been splitting up the tads and give some the usual spirulina & chlorella algae powder and some the decapped brine shrimp eggs. Even after just 4-5 days there is a significant difference in the size of the tads. The tads on the decapped brine shrimp eggs are much bigger.

I've only had a few clutches of tads to try this on so far so it's certainly way to early to draw any kind of conclusions or to see if it continues to hold true for clutch after clutch.

I am planning on supplementing the ones started on the decapped eggs throughout their develpoment to see what effect it has on how quick and how large they morph compared to the others.


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## vugger#1 (Jul 20, 2009)

Gary,
Do you have an update on the use of the decapsulated brineshimp eggs with tadpoles? I have used them for a few years with my fish and had great success. I was a little nervous with the high protein factor to try it on tadpoles. If you could give me an update that would be great.


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

Julio said:


> one thing i have noticed personally is that there is a correlation with hihg protein and faster metamorphis with SLS, the tads morph out bigger though that is for sure.
> my diet consist of
> Chlorella
> Cyclops eeze, frozen
> ...


Julio

Do you mix any of them together or just feed soemthing different each week


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Just want to add with the protien comment, if you dig through the literature and note the feeding practices over the last 20 years, one can see that it has gone through several iterations of plant based feeds (and lots of SLS problems for some people) to high protien based feeds (and still lots of SLS problems for some people) and around again... 

Ed


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

George, 
they get somethign different every week.


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

Julio said:


> George,
> they get somethign different every week.


okay thanks, i'll keep that in mind when I feed mine.


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## Chris Miller (Apr 20, 2009)

One thing I've never understood is why people feed the same diet to all their different species of tads. I've always fed my Phyllobates an 60-70% vegetarian diet with spirulina and chlorella algae being the base and my thumbnails a 90-95% animal protein diet with some sort of fish food being the base. 

If you think about it, when a Ranitomeya parent takes care of a tad they are going to get animal protein almost exclusively. Where as a Phyllobates tad will encounter a much wider variety of food items as they are in a larger body of water.

I've only gotten a dozen or so spindly tads total (wide banded aurotaenia and vittatus) out of the several thousand frogs that morphed out. Not that tad diet was at all responsible.


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## vugger#1 (Jul 20, 2009)

That is a great point for a newbie like me. I have morphed out 10 aurotaenia tads this week using vegie based diet but that is just by chance not because I knew better. 
I hope to raise some thumbnails soon and a higher protein would likely be good for them.

I just keep learning


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## cweiblen (Sep 23, 2009)

Variety is the key. If you offer too much of one thing, you may not be providing enough of another. 

You could try feeding a staple food in the morning, and an additional varied food later in the day. This has always worked for me.

I've also seen tads browsing on live duckweed in between feedings. They seem to do very well if they have a round-the-clock live food source for when they're feeling peckish.  I also like the idea of the blackworms from an earlier post.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

cweiblen said:


> Variety is the key. If you offer too much of one thing, you may not be providing enough of another.
> 
> You could try feeding a staple food in the morning, and an additional varied food later in the day. This has always worked for me.
> 
> I've also seen tads browsing on live duckweed in between feedings. They seem to do very well if they have a round-the-clock live food source for when they're feeling peckish.  I also like the idea of the blackworms from an earlier post.


+10

A slice of Indian Almond leaf is also a huge help IMO - Grazing, Tannins and a small hide.


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## dylanserbin (Apr 11, 2009)

i dont get what the almond leaves are for?


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

dylanserbin said:


> i dont get what the almond leaves are for?


*Grazing *(eating) - They definately eat the "microfilm" or "slime" on the leaf but I think they chew and injest the leaf skeleton as well - yum. Not a substitute for food but certainly a welcome snack.

*Tannins* - Release of Tannins (reddish coloured water) helps ward off infections and harmful bacteria.

*Hide* - A tad will feel secure hiding under a leaf particle and will help with stress.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

you think almond leaves are superior? Ive been using beech


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

frogparty said:


> you think almond leaves are superior? Ive been using beech


 
I don't think I would use the word "superior"....

I would say Indian Almond leaves and tried and tested to be effectve...

Never heard of anyone using beech though - no info on it....


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## skips (Dec 15, 2008)

I've got four cobalt tadpoles right now and they're the first ive ever tried morph out. I'm just feeding fish flakes right now...which is apparently a no-no. Where would I buy spirulina, almond leaves, blackworms, cyclops ease (whatever that is)? Is it all just at the local pet supplies plus? Almond leaves at the grocery store? Thanks in advance.

It always impresses the heck out of me how much experimenting people have done to find just the right formula for proper tadpole nutrition and such.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

sponsors like joshs frogs sell the almod leaves. Spirulina based fish foods, blackworms and cyclopeez fish food can be found a better pet stores, I know my local petsmart and petco don't carry either


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

skips said:


> It always impresses the heck out of me how much experimenting people have done to find just the right formula for proper tadpole nutrition and such.



That's because the hobby tends to go in circles on the best foods and some fall in and out of style every few years (like spirulina) usually based on the results of just a few individuals at that moment in time. Better quality fishfoods are usually sufficient to produce healthy metamorphs.

Ed


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## skips (Dec 15, 2008)

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm in the process of purchasing these two items from black jungle. Sera Freeze Dried Artemia Shrimp 100ml 
OSI Spirulina Pellets - Medium 3oz 

Where do you guys buy your black worms?

Thanks Ed. Better safe than sorry. I'd still like to vary the diet. I eventually want to trade these guys so I really dont want SLS.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Just be aware that all things being equal, parental nutrition can play a bigger influence on SLS than tadpole nutrition. That said variation is always good. 

Ed


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