# Morphing out



## ivas (Jan 24, 2009)

I keep killing my tadpoles when they are ready to morph. I am using small food storage containers for rearing the tads. 

My current strategy is: when I notice the front legs almost ready to pop (within 3-4 days), I put the container on an incline, so one side is less than 0.5" of water, and sloping up to a dry side. I put the lid on the container to keep humidity up, of course. The tadpoles always seem to drown in the "shallow" side after one of the front legs pop.

I used to add gravel to provide "dry land," but the tadpoles would wiggle up onto the incline and get stuck and die there; usually before either of the front legs popped.

Thanks for any suggestions, 

Tomas


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

sounds like you are having a water quality issue, you might wanna leave all the water in there until both arms pop then wait another day and then reduce the ammount of water to allow the froglet to climb out. Too little water and the tad is drowning in its own ammonia


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## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

I wait until three or four days after the front legs pop to move them to anywhere where they may encounter dry land....


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

i personally dont move tad to a container with incline.

all i do is i lower the water in the container and if the tad is healthy enough , it will be able to climb out of the water vertically


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## jeeperrs (Jan 14, 2010)

What he means by drowning in ammonia is that when you lower the amount of water, the level of ammonia increases. It is not that the frog is making more ammonia, but it is not diluted due to the lower water ratio. Hope that makes sense.


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## vugger#1 (Jul 20, 2009)

Its a little more work but I wait 2 days after the front legs come out and put them in clean RO water only a 1/2" deep on the incline. I don't do this with every speices just the ones that I have had problems with in the past.


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## mtolypetsupply (Dec 18, 2008)

What kind of tads are you raising? Are you supplementing with heat or at room temp? What are you feeding them? Are you using R/O or spring or treated tap water?

I use the tiny ziploc containers (that fit say, 3 oreos) while the tads are small, and move them up to small deli cups when they get almost full size. 

I wait until front legs pop and the tail starts to reduce, then move them into a 12qt sterilite box with a mound of sphagnum on one end, and about an inch of water. I find they still hang out in the water, on and off, for a few days after morphing out. They swim, climb out, swim some more, or hide at the edge of the water. Once they aren't spending any time in the water, I fill the rest of the floor of the box with sphagnum so it's all land. Seems to work fine for my auratus tads.

You may already know this, but if you don't...
They don't eat while their mouth parts are changing, so I don't feed anymore and put them in clean water when the fronts pop. If you're continuing to feed, that may be fouling the water, too.

Good luck with it, and keep us posted!


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