# Pitcher plants and Tadpoles



## froglet (May 18, 2005)

A few weeks ago i was watching a documentary on rainforest animals. In one of the segments they showed a PDF tadpole living inside a Carnivorous Pitcher, eating mosquito larvae and such....... I found it strange since the plant is able to metabolize insects but why not the tadpole ? I am very interested in putting some of these plants in my vivarium since i think they are very nice...... Anyone have any factual imput feel free.. 

thanks 
Damian


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Uh... you sure it was a PDF tadpole? Because not only do I believe that they don't occur in the same parts of the world, but it's actually (at least) Rhacophoridae tads that are known to pop up in certain types of pitchers. It seems the tadpoles are not affected by the digestive enzymes (that evidently haven't been completely proven anways?) and only a few pitchers are actually even strong enough in digestion and actually built to capture frogs... so I wouldn't recomend _N. rajah _in a tank with frogs as it's a known frog eater. Not to mention frogs and inverts have different outer layers... what breaks apart the shell on an invert may not do anything to the skin of a tadpole...


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

i think i know the program that was on. it was "planet earth" and it was never said what kind of frog tadpole it was or the location. understandable for someone to assume its a PDF tad though.

however ive been wondering for a while now if a PDF tad could live in a pitcher plant in the vivarium. lets say for one of the more common species of pitcher plant that stays kind of small. and can it get out easily when it morphs?


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## andrew__ (Sep 23, 2007)

There are claims in this thread about tads and pitcher plants, don't know enough about either to comment though, I'll leave that up to the experts


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

thanks now that ive read that im glad i didnt put my VFT in one of my tanks


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## froglet (May 18, 2005)

The show wasnt actually planet earth, i wish i would have seen that one as well ........ As far as it goes like andrew sais this is all speculation and no hard evidence....... =( Maybe i'll just add some smaller carnivores :wink:


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

It would be interesting to see if a thumbnail tad would show up in a pitcher... a more arboreal species may be able to easily get in and out of the pitcher better than a more terrestrial species, but then again most of the frogs associated with nepenthes are highly arboreal treefrogs with massive toe pads so I'd be careful. If the parents were depositing tads all over the tank and not in the pitchers full of water... likely the tad doesn't like it and the plant wouldn't be used. Or worse case, the tadpole doens't know any better and dies.


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## Frognut (Jan 31, 2005)

I have had nepenthes in with my creeks for over 2 years, the parents don't even go neer the pitchers at all. And have never found any tads in them? At one point there were 7 tads that had been transported and I could only find one of them? I cut off all the pitchers and checked and no tads? After that I just left it be. I will tell you that the older pitchers on there way out are quite smelly and full of dead ffs and springs.


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## roberthvalera (Jun 9, 2006)

ever poured out the goo from a nepenthes pitcher? Its just as thick as syrup sometimes.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

There is a guy on here named Andy (nycfreeride) who has a very large display tank that was full of imis and auratus. He said that his imis raised tads in the pitchers no problem.

You should be able to find his awesome display viv in the Member's section if you search for it.


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## froglet (May 18, 2005)

Disturbing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhcOYgCJK4o


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## brooklyndartfrogs (Nov 19, 2005)

Frogtofall said:


> There is a guy on here named Andy (nycfreeride) who has a very large display tank that was full of imis and auratus. He said that his imis raised tads in the pitchers no problem.
> 
> You should be able to find his awesome display viv in the Member's section if you search for it.


Yeah the Imis love the pitchers, I had a group of five about two years ago but lost all of them. They were eaten by the two Coqui frogs that I put in the viv not thinking that they would bother them but not true. Those buggers are like piranha! They have since been moved to a separate tank and loving it. I have recently purchased another group of five and low and behold they have started to breed, I found a tad in one of the pitchers already!
The viv has changed alot over the years due to over growth and swapping of plants so I'll try and put a new set of photos up.
Andy


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