# Lost a tad :(



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

He popped his back legs 5 or 6 days ago, and was starting to show color change and arm buds. He was fine this morning,. but is grey and upside down now..

My 9 year old is going to be crushed- this was his tad and I am dreading telling him. 

Our largest tad is absorbing his tail, and hopefully will be oow soon. The 3rd looks like it just popped it's back legs a few days ago.

What a crappy way to end a kids weekend!


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

That's a drag, sorry to hear it.


----------



## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Rats 

Do you have any idea what happened to him?


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

No idea 
After I brought them home this one was having some issues "sinking" down to the bottom of the container he was in. That resolved itself in a couple days, and no other problems were noticed until I found him dead while topping off the water in the cup. I just fed them 2 days ago, and have been trying to let them alone. He was just upside down on the bottom, not breathing.

He was also grey and seemed to have a bit of white slime on him that wasn't there this morning. I guess just like you would see on a fish that was starting to decompose.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

I had a couple Leuc tads contract some sort of fungus and die.....it appeared mostly near the head / mouth area.


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Phil, this white stuff was right at the abdomen area.. 
I checked the other tad over again and I don't see anything on it, so hopefully we'll only have the one loss.
Now we're waiting to figure out if we're going to purchase another froglet for him instead of getting another tad.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

dreamcatcer98 said:


> Phil, this white stuff was right at the abdomen area..
> I checked the other tad over again and I don't see anything on it, so hopefully we'll only have the one loss.
> Now we're waiting to figure out if we're going to purchase another froglet for him instead of getting another tad.


I wonder if it's some sort of immunodeficiency.....seems so, with the fungus (white stuff) presenting.

Well...I still have a few Leuc and Azureus froglets should you want to replace it.


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Thanks Phil!
I will certainly keep that in mind! I emailed Chris to see what he has since I'm planning to go through him for Imi's if he has them when I have the funds. (which is questionable time wise). I'll shoot you a PM if things fall through with him


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

One thing you can do to combat this is to use a lot of tannins in your tad water. Make a 'tea' with it. Tannins are an anti fungal agent.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Yep....the Tads I lost were 4 years ago, when my use of Indian Almond leaves was not....good.


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Got it- They all have had the leaves in the cups with them since I got them.
They were indian almond leaves as well. 
Couldn't the white stuff I saw just be the start of decompsition? I don't know how fast a tad could start to decompose in the water which was at 75 degrees, but when I checked on them at 6am there wasn't anything there. 
Do the fungi grow that fast and show up so suddenly?


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

And thank you for the advice, I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

Well it sounds to me like you did everything right then. I'm really not sure. I do know when frogs go they go fast. You can also try tetra black water extract. The guy's at black jungle swear by it. Could you take a pic of your tadpole rearing setups?


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

It's just a small drinking glass in sterilite shelvings with a rack. I have a water heater in the water, and the glasses were sitting on the rack in the shelf.




















Morph container-


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

Check these out for ideas:











Hope this helps.


----------



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

fleshfrombone said:


> One thing you can do to combat this is to use a lot of tannins in your tad water. Make a 'tea' with it. Tannins are an anti fungal agent.


I boil oak leaves for my tea. Make sure your leaves are pesticide free!
Doug


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

fleshfrombone said:


> Check these out for ideas:
> 
> YouTube - How To Care for Poison Dart Tadpoles : Changing Water for Poisonous Dart Tadpoles
> 
> ...


Those were good to watch! 
I'm a bit confused though, I keep getting different opinions on changing the water. I had been doing it once a week by sucking out the nasty stuff with a turkey baster. After I put the clean spring water in I'd replace the Indian Almond leaves and put a tadpole bite or two in. I stopped doing the water changes 2 weeks ago I think. The water in the cups was getting pretty nasty. I did do a partial change on the surviving tad a little bit ago. So many different husbandry ideas!! 

Thank you for the vids!


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Pumilo said:


> I boil oak leaves for my tea. Make sure your leaves are pesticide free!
> Doug


Good to know!!! I've got tons around my house, and I know there's no pesticides. That would save me from having to go buy special water conditioners and additives too! Thanks!


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

I did the same actually with my lamasi tads. I crammed about 4 oak leaves per deli cup (lid on to prevent evaporation/cooling and debris from falling in). I also had some live pothos cuttings for growing algae, oxygenating the water a little bit, and helping clean waste materials. My tad water looked like a batch of lipton's sun tea. One thing I noticed with that setup was it created an underwater labyrinth for the tad to explore and hide in.


----------



## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

dreamcatcer98 said:


> Those were good to watch!
> I'm a bit confused though, I keep getting different opinions on changing the water. I had been doing it once a week by sucking out the nasty stuff with a turkey baster. After I put the clean spring water in I'd replace the Indian Almond leaves and put a tadpole bite or two in. I stopped doing the water changes 2 weeks ago I think. The water in the cups was getting pretty nasty. I did do a partial change on the surviving tad a little bit ago. So many different husbandry ideas!!
> 
> Thank you for the vids!


You are welcome, I hope they are helpful to you. There are as many answers on that subject as there are froggers. No two seem to agree on tadpole water cleanliness. I did what you mentioned with mine. Sucked up the funk and replaced what was removed.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

dreamcatcer98 said:


> Those were good to watch!
> I'm a bit confused though, I keep getting different opinions on changing the water. I had been doing it once a week by sucking out the nasty stuff with a turkey baster. After I put the clean spring water in I'd replace the Indian Almond leaves and put a tadpole bite or two in. I stopped doing the water changes 2 weeks ago I think. The water in the cups was getting pretty nasty. I did do a partial change on the surviving tad a little bit ago. So many different husbandry ideas!!
> 
> Thank you for the vids!


Tad raising methods are pretty varied. I pretty much do what you described above but leave the Indian Almond leaf in the cup / container forever. It gets chewed and skeletonized. After a long time, the leaf collects and grows "biofilm" and other tasty goodies. I let it stay in there until the tad morphs and even then I sometimes re-use it for another tad....


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

It looks like we're loosing the 3rd tad 
The guy that's morphed is doing fine.
I had stopped doing waterchanges a few weeks ago, and sucking out just the nasty stuff. I don't get it! 

I think if I end up with tads again I'm going to keep cleaning the water on a weekly basis since that's how the first tad was kept til I put him in a morph out container. I didn't change anything else as far as feeding or temps.

This tad doest have any fungus on it, and is currently still alive- so I don't think it's a fungus... I did an emergency water change, so we'll see.


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The reason you are getting so many different responses is because everyone has a number of different items going into the mix. Water can be very different even over a small distance, additions to the water can be very different not only in the type of addition but the quantity of additions (even between cups as not all leaves are the exact same size). 

It can take a little bit to work out what is best for your system. You may have some issues with your morphing container as the large amount of organics can screw with the water quality pretty quickly. 

Tadpoles decompose very rapidly after death and the warmer the temperature the faster they decompose. 

Some other thoughts

1) have you checked the actual temperature in the water bath? There can be as much as 5-8 degrees difference in the water bath as those heater can be off by that much. 
2) as the water bath is not circulating, there can also be differences in temperature between where the heater is located and the edges of the tank
3) have you actual checked the water quality in the cups as you get close to the time when you are losing them? If you spend the money and get a decent test kit you can rule out some items. 


Ed


----------



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

The tad is dead now- 
I have been monitoring the temps in the cups the tads were in. They were down to around 75 at night, and 78 max during the day.
I have a testing kit from when I kept fish, so if I can find my vials I'll test the water if I end up with more tads.
I've been using bottled spring water when I clean or change the water out of the container.

The tad that was in the morphing container is fine, and is now a froglet, so I guess that worked this time.

Thank you, Ed. I appreciate you taking the time to think this through and give me some insight!


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

One of the things about bottled spring water is that they are often nothing more than repackaged tap water.. so it may not be an improvement over your local water source. 

Ed


----------



## eldalote2 (Jun 3, 2009)

Sorry to hear that! It really sucks when you lose tads that you did not produce. Even if it is not a husbandry issue, tads die. I vow not to baby my tads so in theory I will only raise out the strongest froglets.


----------

