# Mantella laevigata tads, front limbs!



## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

So when I finally turned in last night around 2am the front limbs were still beneath the skin. However, woke up about 9am to the first front limb coming through!! Looks like the other will come through later today. For those with mantella experience, does this look good? Hard for me to gauge since I've been worrying about SLS so much that its automatically become my default. 




















Thanks!


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## bellerophon (Sep 18, 2006)

no experience with morphing mantellas but it does look like a little something is going on there. keep your fingers crossed, looks like a cutie.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

the front arms do look a little thing, but i have had healthy froglets come out like that and then just fatten them up, great looking tad!! keep us posted.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

It's hard to say-- but I would say the prognosis may not be good. In my experience, if one arm comes first, and the other doesn't pop out, it generally means spindly leg-- at least in my experience.

Here is my crocea tad for reference-- you can see thicker arms. 

ImageShack - Image Hosting :: crocea1oh2.jpg

I wish I had better news, but I wouldn't give up on it yet. Just wait and see what happens. A sure sign it's spindly if a frog can't climb out of the water.

Don't get discouraged though. Like chad once said, it may take time before mantellas become better breeders, if this is the first clutch.

Even in the last batch of ebenaui I raised successfully, I still had quite a few that were duds, and I always lose half of the tinc tadpoles.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Thanks, Doug.

The second arm is clearly going to come out so I'm hoping all will be well and the little guys will morph out ok. Oh well!


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Ray, check out my response in amphibian forum.com I tracked down some of Rattler_mt's old posts when he bred his laevigata. Pay attention to how he raised the tadpoles.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Thanks Doug!


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## Brian Ferriera (Nov 1, 2006)

Awesome man good luck!
Brian


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

"VICTORY is mine, victory is mine, bring me all the bagels and donuts in the land."

Whew, sorry for the obscure West Wing reference but man, I am so EXCITED. 

So after spending the latter part of the week generally depressed that both of these tads had SLS I came home this evening to find the first one (above) out of the water (first below) and (most importantly) able to use his front limbs to keep his head up as well as to move about. He might still be vulnerable but better than a bad case of SLS, right? 










And, well, the other tad that I thought was also afflicted...well, he looks AWESOME! (below)










This tad was raised almost the entire time in tank whereas the first was raised artificially. Seems I know what I will not be doing in the future.

Thanks again for all the feedback... I'm totally psyched.


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## insularexotics (May 3, 2005)

I totally agree that the second one looks FABULOUS! Good job Ray!


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## gretchenellie (Aug 7, 2007)

wonderful job!! 

no doubt you are wound up about this!! congrats on the tads/froglets and hopefully many more to come!!


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

It finally happened:

Ray line laevigata! 

It's a good thing I showed you that post what Rattler_mt did. The trick, from what he did, was raise them in the tank from start to finish, not isolate them. You could try just offering them food along with the food eggs.

Yes, the first tadpole has spindly, but the second clearly looks normal and healthy.


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