# Tad Surviving Out of Water



## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Hey Ladies and Gents -

I just experienced something really interesting, so I thought I'd share. 

I've got a breeding pair (plus 2 others) of imitator Varaderos in an 18x18x24 Exo tank and about 3-4 weeks ago, I got to witness the first 3 tadpoles being transported by the parents into film canisters. It was really cool! I decided to try and experiment of sorts and I pulled 2 tads out to raise outside, and left one in the tank for the parents to raise. I wanted to see which grew faster, bigger, etc. 

Well, the mom was always laying feeder eggs for the one I left and it seemed to be growing quicker than the 2 I pulled. Sadly, one day I noticed the tad was missing from the film canister. It was on a fairly shallow angle, so I figured it jumped out somehow. I looked around the ground a bit but to no avail.  I still had the other 2 from their first clutch that were continuing to grow outside the tank though so I accepted my loss. 

Well, today I saw the male squirming around in the leaf litter in front of that film can. It didn't look like he was foraging, as he was kinda wiggling his butt around under the leaves. I thought maybe he was making a deposit for the female to come lay on, and then I saw something shiny just under him. I've never seen what that "deposit" looks like (or if you can even see it), so the shiny just confirmed my guess.... until it moved! I then thought maybe it was a new tadpole that was laid in the leaf litter that he was about to transport. Well, he moved a bit more and I could finally see the tad, and it was definitely not a newly hatched one, as it was pretty big. Then I realized it was the one that disappeared! 10 days later it was still alive, laying just under a couple leaves. I thought maybe the male would try and transport it, but he eventually hopped away after his girlfriend. So, I got my trusty slurpee straw and scooped it out and into a cup next to it's siblings.

Once I put it in the water, it was definitely disoriented and swimming very quickly and doing somersaults and loops in the water. That was about 30 min ago, and it's definitely calmed down some and seems to be swimming normally. I'm truly hoping it will adjust to being back in the water after 10 days on the ground. Strange thing too is that this little guy is smaller than the others I pulled (same clutch) presumably from not having anything to eat, but it's already sprouted two tiny back legs and the other, bigger ones, haven't yet.

So... has anyone ever seen or known tadpoles to survive on land? Any thoughts on how this guy might fare after the ordeal? 

Regardless, nature is a crazy thing!


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## Blueper (Feb 27, 2016)

10 days is a while to be out of water.
I'm wondering if the parents were able to keep it alive by making frequent fluid deposits on it.
Even with that, it's amazing it survived.


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## Fingolfin (Jan 31, 2016)

Interesting that the tad sprouted legs, I wonder if the little guy was trying to adapt to ground life, which seems unlikely, or just a coincidence. Very interesting that the tad could survive under a leaf without being underwater too! Great story!

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


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## RRRavelo (Nov 21, 2007)

Wild story. I had something similar happen with my varaderos when my film canisters kept detaching from the viv. wall. I had one tad dumped in the leaf litter that I was able to rescue almost the instant it happened. I was able to scoop it right back into the canister from a leaf it ended up on. 
Not long after that I lost another one that was about to sprout legs in the same way only I was not around to see him fall. I checked the leaf litter but found nothing. A few days later a very tiny froglet came out of the leaf litter. I think it may have accelerated it's change due to its falling out too soon. 

It could also have been a surprise froglet that morphed out of a brom. It was extra tiny thu. and the tad that fell was extra plump. I have tried the canister vs outside container experiment and the tads fed by the parents came out much larger.


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Blueper said:


> 10 days is a while to be out of water.
> I'm wondering if the parents were able to keep it alive by making frequent fluid deposits on it.
> Even with that, it's amazing it survived.


Possibly... I only noticed it because the male was wiggling around on top of it. I couldn't tell what he was doing, but the tad was wiggling under him which was how I noticed. 



RRRavelo said:


> Wild story. I had something similar happen with my varaderos when my film canisters kept detaching from the viv. wall. I had one tad dumped in the leaf litter that I was able to rescue almost the instant it happened. I was able to scoop it right back into the canister from a leaf it ended up on.
> Not long after that I lost another one that was about to sprout legs in the same way only I was not around to see him fall. I checked the leaf litter but found nothing. A few days later a very tiny froglet came out of the leaf litter. I think it may have accelerated it's change due to its falling out too soon.
> 
> It could also have been a surprise froglet that morphed out of a brom. It was extra tiny thu. and the tad that fell was extra plump. I have tried the canister vs outside container experiment and the tads fed by the parents came out much larger.


That's pretty nuts that it was able to finish morphing into a froglet like that! This guy was also fed solely by feeder eggs, and was bigger than the 2 I took out up until it disappeared. I just noticed the other two are just barely showing tiny little back legs, but this one's are about 3x longer (still tiny though). 



Fingolfin said:


> Interesting that the tad sprouted legs, I wonder if the little guy was trying to adapt to ground life, which seems unlikely, or just a coincidence. Very interesting that the tad could survive under a leaf without being underwater too! Great story!


Not sure, something might have jump-started his legs to develop. 

-----------------

As of today, he seems to be doing ok in the cup. I'm using blackwater extract tea, a piece of indian almond leaf, and some java moss with all my tads, including this guy. He's swimming normally and I put some soilent green in for him on my lunch break, so hopefully he'll adjust to the new food as well and eat some.


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## RRRavelo (Nov 21, 2007)

My guy was much bigger than his other siblings and was far along as he was getting all the eggs but the other two made it to the grow out and this one morphed out tiny and has not been seen after the 1st week of so. 
Could have been another tad altogether though my breeders are very big on using containers. They tend to refill the containers regularly. Your story made me think of that incident. 

Cool that yours survived. The one I pulled out of the leaf litter did well.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

It is not unknown for tadpoles after they are placed to get back onto one of the frogs in the cage. If the tadpole was large enough it may not have been able to sustain its grip and ended up sliding off in the wrong spot. This is much more likely than the idea that the adults kept it wet as there would have been too little water to dilute waste materials or provide enough moisture for it have sufficient food to get through the development. 

There are a lot of documented evidence in a lot of anuran species that a more rapid metamorphosis can happen under bad conditions but it comes at a trade off of fitness and long-term survival. 

some comments 

Ed


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Ed said:


> It is not unknown for tadpoles after they are placed to get back onto one of the frogs in the cage. If the tadpole was large enough it may not have been able to sustain its grip and ended up sliding off in the wrong spot. This is much more likely than the idea that the adults kept it wet as there would have been too little water to dilute waste materials or provide enough moisture for it have sufficient food to get through the development.
> 
> There are a lot of documented evidence in a lot of anuran species that a more rapid metamorphosis can happen under bad conditions but it comes at a trade off of fitness and long-term survival.
> 
> ...


Thanks Ed, that's very interesting. Of course, I can't be certain what actually happened, but the observations that the tadpole was so close to the film canister opening where the one went missing, it was about 3-5x larger than the newly hatched ones I've seen them transport, and it already have developing back legs - were all what made me think it could be the missing tadpole that could have jumped out of the canister. I've seen tads being transported on the parents' backs for close to a 24 hour time frame before they were finally deposited. Obviously they are able to be outside water in that stage for a period of time, but I'm curious as to just how long they are able to survive outside, and if it's even possible that the tadpole in question could have survived in those conditions for that time frame.

Your comments seem to point to it being a different and newer tadpole it seems. That still begs the question of why this one was so much larger with the legs. 

I have seen them transporting tadpoles I had no idea were even in there, so your thoughts are definitely valid. 

Thanks


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Here's the little guy now. Those front arms look painfully close to breaking out, and he's finally got some color!



His 2 other clutch siblings are also about the same stage with their front arms close and getting color. Pretty cool to see! My kids are really excited to watch it turn into a little froglet.


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

And, here he is now! 



So far so good. It seems that stint in the leaf litter as a tad didn't appear to cause any damage as far as I can tell. 

I've got one more right behind this guy with 1 front arm out and the other close behind. Fun times!


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