# Tadpole nutrition



## S&H (Aug 31, 2011)

I'm interested in any information on tadpole nutrition. Having bred freshwater fish, I know the techniques exist to offer a lot of live foods like nematode worms and hatched brine shrimp. But I did a couple of quick searches here and I'm not finding a lot of information about tadpole feeding. Any new developments on that subject since the care sheets were written?


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## Jimmyto111 (Apr 29, 2019)

Tadpole bites, flake food, Serra micron, bug bites by enterra, white worms etc. Key I've been told is variety. The more aggressive tadpoles (leucomela, auratus etc). Eat live worms, possibly other live foods also.


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

Depends on tadpole species... But I raise almost all my tadpoles on Hikari koi staples. Ameerega tadpoled only eats Hikari algae wafers.


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## PhylloBro (Sep 21, 2018)

Jimmyto111 said:


> Tadpole bites, flake food, Serra micron, bug bites by enterra, white worms etc. Key I've been told is variety. The more aggressive tadpoles (leucomela, auratus etc). Eat live worms, possibly other live foods also.


I wouldnt bother too much with variety. There are few products that contain everything they would need. Also i would not use live feeders. They would just wait for it to sink and die before they began feeding on it anyway. 

Depending on the species, the tadpole may require more or less protein content in their diet. For example, obligates may require a higher protein diet than say terribilis due to the fact that terribilis may be deposited in a small pool and will likely graze on algae and plant matter more often than say a pumilio being given unfertilized eggs from the mother. 

I personally rotate between Repashy Soilent Green and Repashy Spawn & Grow. I give Soilent green twice a week and Spawn & Grow once. I feed more than you will find is recommended but this is a personal choice. I found that by the end of a tadpoles development the almond leaf is almost completely gone. This tells me that they are feeding a lot on it, and a lot of their diet consists of the leaf over time. Inferring from this that they have more appetite than previously thought, i try to give them high nutrition food sources a bit more often to keep them full of nutritious foods vs the almond leaf.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

PhylloBro said:


> Depending on the species, the tadpole may require more or less protein content in their diet. For example, obligates may require a higher protein diet than say terribilis due to the fact that terribilis may be deposited in a small pool and will likely graze on algae and plant matter more often than say a pumilio being given unfertilized eggs from the mother.


Has anyone successfully raised obligates on any artificial diet?


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## PhylloBro (Sep 21, 2018)

Socratic Monologue said:


> Has anyone successfully raised obligates on any artificial diet?


Not that i know of. Bad example LOL I think the point i was trying to make is true though. Mainly about terribilis tadpoles being more herbivorous.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

PhylloBro said:


> Also i would not use live feeders. They would just wait for it to sink and die before they began feeding on it anyway.


https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/38406-bloodworms-safe-feed-tads.html (Ed's post #6)

https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/9160-imitator-tads-eat-springtails.html

https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/39795-live-bloodworms.html (Julio's post #9)

Fact checking is fun!


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## PhylloBro (Sep 21, 2018)

Socratic Monologue said:


> https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/38406-bloodworms-safe-feed-tads.html (Ed's post #6)
> 
> https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/9160-imitator-tads-eat-springtails.html
> 
> ...





Socratic Monologue said:


> https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/38406-bloodworms-safe-feed-tads.html (Ed's post #6)
> 
> https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/9160-imitator-tads-eat-springtails.html
> 
> ...


Very interesting. I should have added that i am speaking from personal experience. My tadpoles will not touch anything that happens to fall into their cup. Maybe after it has sunk but ive never observed them feeding on one. Its always fruit flies but one of the posts said they seen a tadpole attack a springtail. I have never seen a feeding response even close to that. 

I think this goes along with the point i was making about certain species of tadpoles preferring different diets. In the posts you linked they seem to be referring to ranitomeya. Perhaps the species with cannibalistic tendencies will eat and possibly attack live prey, but species that can be kept communally may not have this type of feeding response to live prey. My vittatus tadpoles will not touch live food that falls into their cup and i have never observed them eating one. All of this is anecdotal so please dont ask me to link proof or something lol The posts you linked were pretty much anecdotal as well even though there was a large amount of consensus. I could try to intentionally feed live food to them and see what happens.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

PhylloBro said:


> I think this goes along with the point i was making about certain species of tadpoles preferring different diets. In the posts you linked they seem to be referring to ranitomeya. Perhaps the species with cannibalistic tendencies will eat and possibly attack live prey, but species that can be kept communally may not have this type of feeding response to live prey. My vittatus tadpoles will not touch live food that falls into their cup and i have never observed them eating one. All of this is anecdotal so please dont ask me to link proof or something lol The posts you linked were pretty much anecdotal as well even though there was a large amount of consensus. I could try to intentionally feed live food to them and see what happens.


I've tank raised many vittatus tadpoles, or rather they raised themselves, primarily on flies that wander into their rearing vessels. They generally showed immediate feeding response to the moving insects once they hit the water. Another personal anecdote, but maybe useful.


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## Johanovich (Jan 23, 2017)

PhylloBro said:


> Very interesting. I should have added that i am speaking from personal experience. My tadpoles will not touch anything that happens to fall into their cup. Maybe after it has sunk but ive never observed them feeding on one. Its always fruit flies but one of the posts said they seen a tadpole attack a springtail. I have never seen a feeding response even close to that.


An example of auratus tadpoles hunting fruit flies (made this myself two years ago)


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## Jimmyto111 (Apr 29, 2019)

My tadpoles love live white worms, they eat them as soon as they hit the bottom. My staple is zoo med tadpole bites and nutrafin bug bites. They eat alot of the almond leaves and limnobium, they also graze on the bio slime that develops.


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