# Of Bombinas and Fruit Flies



## Guest (Feb 8, 2006)

Does anyone here feed your firebellies fruit flies? I do. They love going after them. I usually feed crickets, but I give fruit flies as a side meal or between the days I give them crickets. ANyone else done this?

The bad thing about it is that they usually end up with a mouth full of moss along with just one little fruit fly.


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

I offer my FBT's D. hydei from time to time... usually for fun. It is not a staple of their diet. They love roaches too!

-J


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Well, I don't know if tomato frogs count, but I tried to give some to mine and they were just too small to catch their eye. They didn't eat them.


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2006)

thats too bad. I think it would be nice to use all the excess fruit flies to keep your frogs/toads active, and satiated.


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2006)

Yup...but only as an occasional treat to keep things varied. Their staple (during the warmer months) is earthworms and some field plankton.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

in my mixed species viv i made when i first started, i feed a mix of foods and my fire bellied toad will eat the ffs, so do fire bellied newts, and fish.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

My extra FFs go to fish, and the clown TFs which even as adults go for them, even the melanogaters, tho I tend to try and feed them hydei and larger food items more. I'm very excited about the flightless house flies cuz the Clowns will love them! I'd imagine the FBTs would go crazy for them as well.


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2006)

Oh yea my fire bellies love to eat the smacked house flies I give them. I smack them with a fly swater, and then give them to the firebellies. I think they get full with one or two.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

my bombina go for both fruit flies, but they definitely prefer hydei. They tend to only go for them on occasion, and generally if they are collected on a smooth area (say on a rock or bowl). They have difficulty getting them individually floating on water or land. 

I'd really like to try rice flour beetle larvae with them.


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2006)

We help maintain the habitat for the firebellies at our daughter's Montessori school. They were feeding crickets exclusively so we thought we'd add to their variety. 

Unfortunately, feeding them fruit flies was a DISASTER! They moved way too fast for these two old toads to catch, so they ended up with fruit flies crawling all over them. It disturbed them a great deal. One practically did cartwheels to get them off, and the other jumped into the water up to his eyeballs.

Now wax worms on the other hand....those were a HUGE hit!


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

For an experiment, I fed out the larva. Roger just couldn't get enough of them. Chris seems to prefer the flies more, while Roger licked off every maggot he could get just like my tinc does. You guys might want to try, just rinse them off good with your spray bottle or the frogs will spit them out (yucky media).


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2006)

Doug-

Great idea! I'll give it a try!


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2006)

I get the feeling that Bombinas are more complicated than most frogs. Some like the flies, others don't. But I don't think it stops there. My Bombinas (who shall remain nameless) have different tastes. Well they both enjoy crickets. But one of them likes the fruitflies more than the other. The other will happily eat waxworms and mealworms while the other will spit them out. I just dont get it.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

That's about how my frogs behave. Chris is pretty picky, he mostly eats crickets and mealworms on occasion. I can get him to eat waxworms sometimes, but many times he spits them out. He doesn't care much for guppies either. However, he is very fond of freeze dried flies off your finger tips. He goes after fruit flies like no tomorrow. Roger seems to eat just about anything, and ate an adult female guppy once. However, he has a tendency not to go for smaller or slower things like fruit flies or freeze dried flies. Roger also spends more time on land than Chris who is often much darker.

I don't find it unusual at all. I like the color violet, while many others like blue or green. Everybody's different.


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2006)

Yea I once fed mine guppies too. They both loved them. I heard someone say it wasnt safe due to parasites or something similar found in the fish.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Yeah, that can be a problem, but I hear that is more of an issue with goldfish and rosy reds. But also goldfish and rosies have an enzyme that can deny pipid frogs of Vitamin B. I don't know if it would do the same thing to bombina, but I'm sure it would because bombina are more allied to Archaebatrachian frogs like xenopus.

My guppies are raised in their tank, and when I get tired of so many in my water feature I toss a few onland and let them take care of it. My frogs pretty much have their own guppy farm. :wink:


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2006)

Rain_Frog said:


> My guppies are raised in their tank, and when I get tired of so many in my water feature I toss a few onland and let them take care of it. My frogs pretty much have their own guppy farm. :wink:


Oh God, I thought I was the only one who was cold hearted enough to do that. LOL. :? 

I still remember each and every guppy who died because of me. :shock:


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Actually, I love guppies. They are beautiful, cute little fish. But, nature must take its course and some must be selected by nature (or at least artificially by man) in order to prevent overpopulation, and to weed out recessive genes. 

My old colony of guppies I didn't have the heart to feed them all to my old xenopus so I let them live in an outdoor pond. The next year though, we got a cold snap during late spring and it killed them. :?


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2006)

Gambusias are good for surviving the winter. They have a better chance of getting through it. 
When feeding my guppies to my toads, I was also doing it to get rid of the runts and deformed. I got alot of hunchbacks with interbreeding. Have you seen that?


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## Guest (May 19, 2006)

I've been feeding fruit flies pretty regularly now to my bombinas. They both go after them with equal ferver. I've never seen them jump so high. The difference now is that they are now living in a 55 gallon tank. Lots more room to play! 
I'm also feeding fruit flies to my green tree frog, and my Cynops orientalis who spends all its time on land.

By the way, how is everyone's Bombinas doing?


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## Guest (May 19, 2006)

Mine are doing well. Temps in my unheated basement have warmed up, so obviously the Bombinas' viv temps have as well...so they've gotten really dark and taken on a bit of a burnt brownish color.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

In a sense, good, in a sense, bad.

The bad, they're not in a very good enclosure. Too simple and the frogs are more skittish than they ever used to be. I've already told you of the hydrogen sulfide problem, but turning the pump on just raises the temp.

However, I will be working on my old 10 gallon and try the "original" idea. I used to keep them in this style tank and had no issues with cleanliness. That technique requires more work....but all I need to do is take careful measurements of a glass divider and get some silicone from Herpsupplies. Too bad I discarded the old tank with the divider, but I used crummy white silicone that looked ugly.

On the positive side, ever since they've been kept cooler, cleaner water, they've REALLY put on weight and seem much healthier. Unfortunately, despite cold water (almost never above 72) Chris is still a drab olive, but he's not "black" like he used to be...you can easily see his black blotches. Roger is green though, but not fluorescent green. His coloration doesn't look too bad though.


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## Guest (May 19, 2006)

I discarded my divided 10 gallon tank too. I had also used white silicone on that one. 
These toads really like large enclosures with plenty of land and water, in my opinion. 
Im not really sure why they turn green then?


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Cesar, I have noticed that the darker frog spends much more time in the water....but these days they spend about equal time in there. 
I've heard there's a correlation, and it seems that Skylsdale witnessed that as well (darker frog is in water more). But it could just be an individual thing.

My frogs like water mostly, and I think its mean to just put them in a land tank just because it "will make them prettier." But, they would appreciate me putting something in there with some more hiding spots and some moss to sleep on...which is why I'm going to setup that other 10 gallon.


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## Guest (May 22, 2006)

When I had mine in my ten, I also noticed that they were almost always dark when they were in the water 24 hours a day. Then when they felt like spending some time on land the turned back. But they bright colors when in the ten is nothing compared to the bright green they are now in my 55 where they have a 1foot by 1 foot by 3" deep pond, and lots more land to frolic around on. This is why I think temperature has alot to do with it. Maybe the water temperature is high when they turn brown in the water???


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

nope. Water temp is a brisk 68-72 degrees. But my frogs spend more time in the water than land regardless. 

I have noticed when frogs turn brown in the water, they match perfectly with the gravel/rocks. On land, they match the moss or plants perfectly if they turn green. 

Cesar, do you have a full tank shot, as well as a humidity reading for the tank? Humidity makes bombina bold like tincs and more diurnal.


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## Guest (May 23, 2006)

I will try to get the full tank shot. 
Speaking of them taking on the color of what they are stanging on, Today I couldnt find one becuase it was sitting on a patch of tropical moss. The broken pattern of the green and black of the moss was matched identically by the broken patern of the green and black on the back of my Bombina!!! I didnt find it till it made a strick at a fruit fly. I was very impressed.
I keep the temps in the tank between 65 and 75. I fight really hard to keep the temps in the tank below 80.
The humidity stays above 80. ANd the tank gets misted for about 1 minute about 5 times a day. 3 in the early morning, 1 right before 5, and one at 6. Then they get a few more hours of day light, lots of ventilation with the fan, lights out, the fan continues till about 1 am. Starts up again at around 4 in the morn, first mist "shower" is about 6 am.
All these things are on a timer ofcourse. All the plants and the animals seem to enjoy this routine.


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## Guest (May 26, 2006)

Here are some pics of my 55 gallon viv and pics of the temp and humidity meters.


























I couldnt get a pic of my Bombina standing on the moss, but trust me when they do, I can't find them they blend in so.


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

Anyone have a thick coat of duckweed in there tanks? I'd bet in the water the green ones would match that perfectly.


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## Nuggular (Apr 8, 2005)

There is 2 things I want to make you guys aware of. 

1. Feeding house flys to any of your herps is a big mistake. House flys, along with most insects from outside or inside your house, carry parasites. I can pretty much guarantee you that if you feed your FBTs house flys, they now have a parasite of somekind. Sometimes the parasites are harmless, when in small numbers, but if those numbers continue to increase, you will have one sick/dead frog on your hands.

2. Wax worms are not very nutricious and are very high in fat and should only be fed as a treat. Your toads will soon become very overweight. It will lead to health problems in the future and a shorter lifespan.

Other than that, this thread is very interesting. I never thought of feeding my larger species FFs. But like Kamul said, they get a mouthful of moss. Not good. Your toads could become impacted and die. That's the reason I never fed larger species FFs. I do feed my Cynops Orientalis FFs that only stays on land. Just like Kamul. He loves those FFs. I might try to feed them to my treefrog, but only because he will most likely be trying to eat them when they are up in the "trees" and not on the ground.


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## Guest (May 26, 2006)

Khamul1of9 said:


> Oh yea my fire bellies love to eat the smacked house flies I give them. I smack them with a fly swater, and then give them to the firebellies. I think they get full with one or two.


Nuggular, thanks for the warning! I believe I gave them one house fly earlier this year, and then maybe two or three in the past 4 years. THose things are hard to smack in just the right way so they stay alive enough to move, but dead enough to not fly away. I will not feed my toads these anymore.
As for the fruit fly feeding, the Bombinas have gotten really good at it. They seem capable of picking them off the moss without swallowing moss.
Practice makes perfect I suppose.
They also become much more active. I see them jumping up to 7 inches into the air every now and then, they do this to reach a fruit fly that is crawling on a leaf over their heads. Thats good eyesight!!!
The firbelly newt also seems to enjoy the fruitflies, but hunts them down much more slowly, and therefore never gets moss or anything that isnt food in his mouth.
I have stopped feeding anyone waxworms as there doesn't seem to be any demand for them. My Bombinas stopped eating them, they are too big for the cynops, the mole salamander is happy with earthworms, crickets, and fruit flies, and the green tree frog ignores them also.
THanks for your input Nuggular.


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Cesar,

Just noticed this thread. My Bombina go after anything that moves. Most of the time they get crickets, but they do like hydei as well. For some pics of my unorthodox fbt setup see http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewt ... dler+crabs


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