# O. sylvatica eggs



## Danieloc (Sep 27, 2015)

Hello,
This is first post, so i wasnt sure where should it goes (sorry for my english) .
I got a pair of Oophaga sylvatica from wikiri six months ago, they are my first atemp at keeing dart frogs. Today after the normal cleaning routine, i found a group of eggs in a orchid leaf. i understand that the female should move then to a water source, there is a middle size bromelia in the terraium thats holds some water but i dont know if it is enough or should i place a bowl of water for them?

these are the eggs:









this is the bromelia plant:


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Natural deposition sites for most Oophaga include heliconia and bromeliads, so you may have better luck with taller/deeper vessels, as opposed to a dish. It looks like the brom in your viv is holding some water in the center axils, but more possible sites will allow the frogs to exercise a greater degree of selection for an appropriate location to deposit the larvae.


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## Jjl (Feb 2, 2014)

You may also consider putting some wide pill bottles in there for artificial tadpole homes. I've talked to a few large obligate breeders on here who do that with success.


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## Danieloc (Sep 27, 2015)

Thanks for the advises! The wikiri staff suggested to use those old plastic film containers so tomorrow i m going to placed them. i am so new to this and i have to read a lot about their breeding.


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## oldlady25715 (Nov 17, 2007)

Add a little piece of a oak leaf or moss in the canisters with the water so iconditions are more favorable to tads that strait RO water.

What are you using for the substrate in the tank? Don't see any leaves on the bottom.


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## Danieloc (Sep 27, 2015)

Oldlady
I have some indian almond leaves that i use in my fish aquariums, i guess they have the same properties as the oak leaves right? The substrate is a mixture orchids soils and coconut substrate, but it isn't covered with leaves, i used some roots and plants to make some hiding places.


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## Jjl (Feb 2, 2014)

Danieloc said:


> Oldlady
> I have some indian almond leaves that i use in my fish aquariums, i guess they have the same properties as the oak leaves right? The substrate is a mixture orchids soils and coconut substrate, but it isn't covered with leaves, i used some roots and plants to make some hiding places.


Sorry to steal Oldlady's thunder, but I just wanted to add that while the Indian almond leaves will be fine as leaf litter, they do break down faster than something like Magnolia. (Then again, if you have a big supply of them from your fish tanks I suppose it doesn't matter).

You will want to add more leaves in the future; they aren't just for aesthetics. They provide vital living space and food for the microfauna that baby obligates thrive on. That's also why lots of people use calcium-bearing clay substrate for their obligates.


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## Spaff (Jan 8, 2011)

I use almost strictly clean pill bottles as tad deposition sites for my large Oophaga. The only tanks that have bromeliads are ones that are relatively newly planted, and the broms are more to give the frogs cover and a place to roost than for tad deposition. The argument of broms vs. cans has been around for a long time, and both sides have good points. 

Don't take the following as gospel. This is just what has worked for me...While many say that providing females a choice in their deposition sites is beneficial, I have observed that my frogs will deposit to any site that has an adequate volume of water and will attempt to fill every site with a tad, regardless if they are capable of raising that quantity or not. This is why I choose artificial sites. The pill bottles can hold a larger volume of water than the average brom axil, and my bottle froglets are a good bit larger than brom froglets. I can also easily monitor tad development in cans without even opening the doors of the tank. 

The main reason I prefer artificial sites, though, is that I can limit the production of my pairs per clutch. When my frogs have the freedom to deposit as many tadpoles as they want, they normally deposit an entire clutch (5-7 tads usually). I have a hypothesis that females have a pre-determined number of feeder eggs, so when a female attempts to raise an entire clutch, the total number of eggs per tad is low. This leads to many tads either wasting away or tiny froglets morphing out. I get 1-2 frogs to adulthood in a clutch like this. I began limiting my pairs to three deposition sites (bottles) per tank. Since doing this, my pairs have always filled the bottles with tads and froglets morph out significantly larger. Only once have I not been 3 for 3 in taking froglets to the 6 month mark and in that situation, the pair was new to one another and only one tad made it to morph out.

I don't add anything to my bottles, and I rarely clean them out. They are refreshed by the misting and enough flies drown in there/frogs climb in to "dirty" the water.


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## Danieloc (Sep 27, 2015)

> You will want to add more leaves in the future; they aren't just for aesthetics. They provide vital living space and food for the microfauna that baby obligates thrive on. That's also why lots of people use calcium-bearing clay substrate for their obligates.


Whoa! i spent all night reading about the calcium subtrate and how it stimulates fungal develoment. i used to work with micorrhizal and other soil microorganisms for pest control, but i never thought on them when i was installing this vivarium, now everything makes sense jeje. So i'm going to add some leaves after placing the water containers. 
I understand that one of the first foods for the froglets are springtails, so i'm going to start a culture of them, but i was thinking if it is more comvenient to prepare a smaller place to raise the babies?



> I use almost strictly clean pill bottles as tad deposition sites for my large Oophaga. The only tanks that have bromeliads are ones that are relatively newly planted, and the broms are more to give the frogs cover and a place to roost than for tad deposition. The argument of broms vs. cans has been around for a long time, and both sides have good points.


Here its dificult to find those pill containers, but i found these plastic bottles, i think they are the same size:










While i was placing them, i found a other group of younger eggs .


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