# 6 Legged Spider Frog



## JFrog

Alright so I got a little carried away with the title, but not much. About a week or so ago while tending to my tad tub, I noticed something a little strange. I have never seen or heard of this in PDFs before. My question is, does anyone know what may have caused this? Tads are reared in food grade deli cups, so I didn't think the cups would be leaching chemicals into the water, but maybe I'm wrong. Anyways check it out and let me know what you guys think. It will be out of the water in about 2-3 days and I'll post another pic of it then. P.S. This is NOT a photoshop job, this is in fact a real pic.


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## Tuckinrim8

holly cow jay! he has started to color up and his legs are a lot thicker than the picture you sent me last week! I think tonight you should take a video so everyone can see both sets of back legs moving!


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## ChrisK

oh wow what kinda tad is that, and are you gonna try to raise it?


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## Faceless

HA ! That is just crazy man...I hope this guy morphs out
and lives, it would be one crazy frog !


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## melas

looks like a leuc? that is pretty cool! it will be interesting to see if it is able to survive as a morphed frog. good luck and get lots of pics!


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## chesney

Wow, poor thing! I'm rootin' for him!


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## Ed

Limb Malformations and Abnormal Sex Hormone Concentrations in Frogs

Ed


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## Geckoguy

According to Biology _Concepts and Applications_ by Cecie Starr this type of deformation can be caused by pesticide contaminated water. Atrazine has been widely used as a herbicide for the past 40 yrs applying it to crops, golf courses, lawns, and home gardens. It breaks down fast but has been turning up in ground water and wells especially in the Midwest of America. It acts as an endocrine disrupter and mimics, blocks, or boosts the effects of natural hormones in ways that interfere with reproduction and development. 
I was just looking at this in the book last night (along with a x-ray picture of a frog with the same defect) then saw the picture today; crazy! It could be just a normal birth defect or direct evidence of how harmful pestacides and herbicides can be even when we beleive or controlled environments to be free of all of these. 
Thought you might find this interesting. Good luck with the little guy!


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## MukelG

That is so cool. Ive always found genetic mutations so interesting.

Hope he makes it!


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## iridebmx

if both legs were "usable" it would be awesome and def be worth a little tLc to keep him going,but i would not like to watch him drag a limb around.



that said ......what does everyone do with these frogs?


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## scream-aim-fire

wow thats strange


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## JFrog

ED- Thank you for the awesome read. I'm not a biologist so I may have got lost in some of it. Does the growth of an extra set of limbs fall under the malformations discussed in the paper? It seems to me that the study discusses the relationship between decreased androgens and GnRH concentrations, and decreased limb/digit ratio in malformed amphibians. Does 2 sets of rear limbs fall under the same malformation classification in the study? Like I said I'm no biologist so go easy on me. : )

I'll keep posting pictures and letting everyone know whats going on with the lil' guy. Hopefully it will take flies without a problem. I am going to keep him for as long as I feel he is living a reasonably comfortable life. I don't think there is a single member on this board that wants to see a dart suffer, or any other living thing for that matter. I'll keep a close eye on him and keep you guys updated as well.


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## Ed

It was mainly to show that there are multiple reasons for this sort of malformation and that most of them involve the hind limbs ranging. 

In a different reference (which I can't lay my hands on at the moment), there was an estimate that a 0-5% deformation rate of this sort is normal...

The malformation you have could easily fall under the types cited in the paper but you would have a lot of work to try to isolate out the cause as the reason could have been very limited...

Ed


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## zBrinks

I've had a couple people mention to me that plastic tad containers that have been reused and washed tend to cause an increased incidence of sls.
Any chance that the container was washed previous to you putting spider-frog in it?


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## JFrog

Zach - No, the container has never been used. It was new when the tad was placed into it. 

Alright I finally got some updated pictures of the tad. He's spending most of his time on land at this point. Keep your fingers crossed.

Having a swim.









Dry land


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## beachbabe18509

Are both sets of back legs usable?


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## Ed

If one of the sets of hind legs is normally mobile then the frog will probably do fine as long as it doesn't get caught up in something. 

Ed


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## scream-aim-fire

man that is really funky looking. hopefully it will survive.


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## AlexRible

If he lives I would name him after the Mortal Kombat character that had six limbs "Goro"


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## thedude

AlexRible said:


> If he lives I would name him after the Mortal Kombat character that had six limbs "Goro"


hahahahahaha, nice one 

that thing is crazy, everytime ive seen a frog like that(not pdfs) the extra limbs were always deformed and tiny looking.

good thing its in the PDF hobby otherwise people would want to make a captive population of them!!!


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## almazan

Or how about lord Shiva Leuc..lol


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## JL-Exotics

We had a Costa Rican Green and Black auratus morph out with 6 legs last year. In this case it was 4 front legs and 2 rear legs. The froglet was fairly awkward in movement and had trouble catching food. It survived for several months and never was able to get good coordination with all those arms. I was sure I took photographs at the time but for the life of me I can't seem to locate any. In the end I think it's inability to successfully hunt was the cause for it's demise, but there may have been other factors too.

Your leuc may fare better with only 2 front arms, good luck with him!


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## hexentanz

wow, just wow! :O

I def would be interested to see its progress!

Good luck little fella


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## Tuckinrim8

Jay... i think its only fair that you break the news to everyone... poor little tucker...


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## markpulawski

...it can't be....Tucker I didn't even get to know you....


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## basshummper

wait, Vishnu died?


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## JFrog

I am writing this response with a heavy heart. Sorry it took so long to update, but spirits were down around the house. In the end, 6 legs turned out to just be too much for the little bugger to handle. It was a good tad, let's all take a moment.......sniff. I'll be alright, I'm glad I got a chance to share it with you guys.......sniff. R.I.P. Spider Frog

You're my boy Spider Frog.......you're my boy......


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## AlexRible

That is sad  did he finish absorbing his tail?


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