# Tadpole temperature?



## DaFrogMan (Oct 8, 2004)

My imitators began to breed about a month ago, however I have been having trouble with tadpole viability. I have had a high incidence of tadpole bloat syndrome. I have started adding methylene blue to the water surrounding the eggs (which hopefully is helping) but meanwhile I am trying to get an incubator set up because I think temp may have something to do with the tadpole bloat.

I filled a sterilite container with about 2.5 gallons of water. Then I lined up the cups with the eggs and tads in smaller sterilite containers. I am floating the smaller containers in the bigger container.

The bigger container has an aquarium heater in it. It is a 50w Whisper brand heater for aquariums from 2-15 gallons. The heater is preset to 78F, and it can't be changed. I measured the temp in the cups and it is right around 77F.

Is 77F too hot for hatching and incubating tads? I was aiming closer to around 75, but the heater temperature can't be changed.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

I don't think 77 would be too hot, as long as they are under 80.


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

temp is definitely not your problem. You setup sounds similar to mine and I have never had a problem (I just posted pics of mine in the heated tadpole setup thread if you want to look) and may even be using the same heater from the sounds of it. Sounds like it could just be young parents, but there could be other unseen factors such as water quality or feeding.


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## DaFrogMan (Oct 8, 2004)

sbreland said:


> temp is definitely not your problem. You setup sounds similar to mine and I have never had a problem.


Oops - sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I just read over my post again and it kind of sounds like I think the heat is causing the bloat... That's not the case.

I just set up this incubator yesterday. The tads and eggs have not been incubated until now, and I think they were dipping down to around 64F at night (or maybe lower.) I set up the incubator because I thought the cold temps were possibly an issue.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

That's a pretty large fluctuation. Definately want that fixed.


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## DaFrogMan (Oct 8, 2004)

Yea, since I put them in the incubator it has only fluctuated between 78 and 76.

The only thing I am worried about is that I have read that rapid growth caused by higher temperatures may lead to sls.


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

That is true, but i think that is from above 80 like Kyle said. Mine have had no problems, but i may be an exception.


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