# care for eggs and tadpoles for Mantella milotympanum



## dmfrings (Aug 14, 2010)

Is anyone breeding M. milotympanum? I have two pair, a mass of eggs and ten tadpoles and growing. Need care advice for tads and young frogs.


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## HunterB (Apr 28, 2009)

hmmm wheres doug/ray/gretchen (sorry, probably spelled that wrong) when ya need them? haha


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## porkchop48 (May 16, 2006)

Keep the tads cooler than you keep your dart tads. Keep up with the water changes and have tons of springtails ready. 

Sorry I am not doug/ray or gretchen but thought I would offer what little I know from my clutches.


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

My first batch of about 20-25 is kept in a 10 gallon with about 3-4 inches of water at the bottom, several airstones, some gravel, leaves, and plants. They have grown really fast, they are about 3 weeks now I think. Some of them are starting to get much bigger than the others, so I will be splitting the bigger ones into another tank so the smaller ones don't get stunted. As stated, they make lots of waste and grow quickly so you must keep up on water changes. I will also add a filter once they are big enough not be sucked in by the intake.
Good luck!
Bryan


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## HunterB (Apr 28, 2009)

porkchop48 said:


> Sorry I am not doug/ray or gretchen but thought I would offer what little I know from my clutches.


I hope I didnt offend, I was just offering people who knew more then me.....


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## dmfrings (Aug 14, 2010)

Thank you for the advise. I have aquatic plants and a "hair algae" in with the tadpoles. I am offering some fish flakes and spiralina flakes also. Any other suggestions for food?

David


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## dmfrings (Aug 14, 2010)

Bryan.... thank you. I have had the water at a more shallow depth. It looks like you have had good results with deeper water. I was afraid that the deeper water may be a problem. Also, there are unhatched eggs in the same batch. They do not appear to have fungus. Do they hatch over a period of time or are these not going to hatch. It has been a week since I found them. The first tadpoles hatched on August 8th

David


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

I started mine out at very shallow depth, but increased the total water volume/ depth as they grew older and bigger. After about 4-5 days I added an airstone to get some circulation, and then I added 3 more after about a week.
I will add a submersible filter later, but once I know they are big enough to be safe. I actually tried using the filter about a week ago. I thought the tads were big enough for the intake slots. Sadly, I was wrong. The next morning, there was one tadpole. I soon realized they were in the filter. They must have been sucked in when they were "asleep" at night because they were fine the evening before. It was one of those filters when water is drawn up through a filter pad by propeller consisting of three sections: mechanical (a spongy material with large holes in it,) biological (small gravel,) and chemical (activated carbon) all encased by a fine mesh filter pad. I tore open the filter, found about about 10 tads in the sponge part, and I was so mad!  I thought they were gone, but I ran it under some water and saw something move! So I began to carefully cut away small pieces of the fiber with surgical scissors to release the tads one by one. I lost one in this part. Surprisingly, there were about 12 in the second section with gravel, so I submersed it in water and carefully removed each piece of gravel with tweezers to free the tads. One tad made it to the third stage, and I got him out. I found one dead tad, and I couldn't tell but it looked like a few dead ones in the first part. I started off with 30-32 and now I have 22-24 as best I can count.  
Lesson learned- be very careful with any kind of equipment that could harm them, when they are bigger I will also cover the intake with mesh to be extra careful. I hope you have better luck than me!
As far as tads not hatching, I don't have an answer there. All of mine were out at the same time. I just scooped them up from the dirt with a spoon once they were hatched, and placed the mound of dirt/moss/tads in a small container to bring them home. The next day I tipped the container sideways and they all swam out, there were none that had not hatched withing 24 hours of each other.
Bryan


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## dmfrings (Aug 14, 2010)

Thank great advice. Sorry about the filter. We all have learned thing the hard way! The remaining eggs may not be fertile. I have a total of nine tadpoles. My second female is very gravid so maybe the males will do a better job next time. As you can see, I am new to the site. Is there a group that is currently working with this species? If not, is there an interest in forming one? If I am able to raise these to adults, I would rather swap with other members in order to develop a captive breeding program instead of selling. I know it's early in the process and a bunch can happen. 

Thanks to everyone for the help!


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/lounge/46897-mantellas-202-breeding-q.html

Dmfrings, please join Treewalkers International then. 

Definitely use a sponge filter with airstone set on low. There are people that do not use filtration, but in my experience, success rate becomes unpredictable unless you use filtration.


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## dmfrings (Aug 14, 2010)

Doug,

Thank you! The sponge filter sounds like it may do the trick without sucking up the tads. I will look into Treewalkers International.

Thank you very much for all of the help.

David


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