# Sad news from the middle school frog room



## Bfrog (May 5, 2010)

All my cobalts morphed out perfect, my first azureus clutch morphed out with SLS. :-/ The tads were HUGE and otherwise healthy. The color was bright and they were almost obese. Everything looked normal until their arms popped, they all had it on both arms. They were fully developed but locked at the elbow and puny looking. The poor little guys were unable to support themselves out of the water.

I think I can attribute it to an inconsistency in water temperature. The cobalts morphed out in class, but when school let out I was forced to move them into my house, unfortunately my little condo goes from one extreme to another right now (a/c issues). I was using a tupperware container, false bottom, and aquarium heater setup to keep them at 78 degrees, but the setup didn't fit on my home rack. I did something stupid and tried to just keeps the tads on my rack - I think evaporative cooling and room temp/fluctuations may be the culprit.

I'm going to revamp the supplements just in case they've gotten old and I'm bringing home the tadpole container/heater/thermostat so I can rule out water temp fluctuations. Any other suggestions??? The tadpole food was fresh. The azureus male is pretty young, could that also be a factor? SLS sucks.


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## volsgirl (Mar 29, 2012)

So Sorry to hear, what a bummer.


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

what supplements are you using?


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## jackjack2011 (Jun 20, 2012)

im sorry. thats really sad


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Sorry to hear that


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## chesney (Jan 18, 2007)

I just saw this thread and thought I would comment even though it is a bit off topic. Sorry to hear about your SLS. I have had it in show up in froglets in the past, and it really does suck. I teach middle school science and have a Giant Orange pair in my classroom tank. My students get to see the process of sexual reproduction all the way to metamorphosis, which goes along with our state standards. As cruel as SLS is, perhaps you could use pictures of these guys (or the actual tad) to teach the mutation aspect of the TN state standards?


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## Gabez (Jun 18, 2012)

chesney said:


> I just saw this thread and thought I would comment even though it is a bit off topic. Sorry to hear about your SLS. I have had it in show up in froglets in the past, and it really does suck. I teach middle school science and have a Giant Orange pair in my classroom tank. My students get to see the process of sexual reproduction all the way to metamorphosis, which goes along with our state standards. As cruel as SLS is, perhaps you could use pictures of these guys (or the actual tad) to teach the mutation aspect of the TN state standards?


That would be a sad class for these children, a very sad class...


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## Bfrog (May 5, 2010)

no doubt... We discussed it in class and I showed them pictures but luckily they got to see the successful side. Our cobalt froglets are HUGE and healthy.

I use rep-cal, herptivite... I'm going to refresh the supplements just in case, but it should be fine. For tads I was feeding a variety of foods: tadpole/newt bites, tropical flakes, algae bites, and occasional flies. I had them in tadpole tea using RO water, java moss, and indian almond leaves in 16 oz deli cups with occasional water changes (as needed). I provided tons of food so over eating is a possibility but I don't think obesity is connected to SLS. These guys were penny sized with a tail and morphed out fat and colorful... but with SLS. - sucks. I really think temperature fluctuations were the big factor after I moved them but I could be completely wrong.


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## jhmreeves (Jun 23, 2010)

Sorry to hear about this. Do you have more eggs waiting to morph? Maybe the frogs will work this out themselves. 

How extreme were the temperature fluctuations? It seems like you've been pretty careful.


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

BoydR said:


> I use rep-cal, herptivite...


i'd recommend changing to Repashy Calcium Plus because herptivite doesn't have a usable source of Vitamin A.


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## Bfrog (May 5, 2010)

temperature fluctuations were nearly zero in the classroom because of the tadpole setup. Once school let out I had to move them home because they're painting my classroom and working on the floors. I'm having trouble with my A/C at the moment at home (renting so no easy fix) so it can get down to 68 at night and shoot up to 80+ during the day... The thing is I've managed to stabilize the tads back out and I'm not sure if it was enough change over a long enough period of time to have really been the culprit. 

I'm watching with anticipation as my next 3 azureus tads are about to leave the water. They're growing hind legs so I'm probably a good week or two from knowing if they have SLS too. I have about 30 azureus tads in the water right now from this one pair. This was also their first clutch so I'm hoping they'll work themselves out - otherwise I'm in for months of disappointment.

For teachers out there, I've decided to save any SLS specimens for the purpose of educating students about SLS... send me a pm if you'd like one - hopefully these will be extremely limited  To the scientist in me, it seemed like a waste not to preserve the euthanized froglets for the purpose of education.

For those wanting pics:








a normal tad that just popped its front legs... and my first morph 









healthy in every other visible aspect - and big.









One of the saddest things I've seen









this little guy did pretty good hopping around and hunting, but still couldn't bend his arms or toes









first attempt at Euthanizing froglets via orajel - epic fail I thought the guys were dead but I found them hopping around later... I felt horrible.


But to end on a happy note, this is my classroom vivarium at home:








sorry - all cell phone pics

And the successful side of my classroom project:








this was at 1-2 weeks out of the water. These little guys make me smile inside and out.


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## jdooley195 (Oct 19, 2009)

From what I've read on here...High temps for the tads and lack of vitamin A in the parents can contribute highly to sls.

Whats worked for me (for azureus)...temps in low 70's for the tads, the parents' food dusted with repashy cal every feeding, and repashy vitamin A every two weeks. Food and water quality similar to yours.

Your froglets seem huge though for just being out of the water, so you're doing something right for sure 

Good luck!

Tommy


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## Bfrog (May 5, 2010)

I originally had them at 78 degrees as an attempt to speed things up so I could get a froglet out before school was out (had 2-3 months from when I brought the frogs in). I lucked out and had my first morph the last week of school so it worked.

Now, I've lowered them down the low 70s and I'm refreshing the supplementation and see if that helps. I think you guys are right on about the vitamin A... fingers crossed on these next morphs though.


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