# Raising tinc tads communally



## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

I've always done the individual deli cups, but recently I saw a video from Black Jungle where they were raising tinc tads communally in plastic shoeboxes.

I'm already caring for 17 Bakhuis tads, with more on the way and will soon have my two female cobalts paired up. Suffice to say, that's a LOT of deli cups to do water changes on.

Has anyone else had success with this method?

Edit: Meant to put this thread in the breeding section. Any chance mod could move it?


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## SamsonsFrogs (Mar 4, 2009)

The video you saw should explain everything. Richard tells you why they do it that way. They raise Tincs communally because of the amount of eggs each clutch has. They raise Thumbs in single deli cups because of the low count of eggs in their clutches. Thumbs will only have 1-2 eggs per clutch but have heard of 5 in a clutch before. I am not a pro at PDF's but I have been doing my research and this is what i have learned.


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I rasie all my tinctorius seperately, but in plastic screw boxes that have adjustible compartments. This way, I can have 9 tads per box and stack multiple boxes on top of each other (this really saves on space). There is a certain amount of personal preference in which technique you use, but I feel seperate raising allows me to watch the development of each tad (I have about 125 that I am raising this way right now and it isn't too much work).

Good luck, Richard in Staten Island.


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## reggorf (Oct 24, 2006)

I have been doing both methods. I raise some in shoe box containers and some in 16-32 oz deli cups. What I have noticed so far is that Leucs do well together up to a certain point. Right before they are about to pop front legs, I notice the tads skin turning a little white/iridescent and actually had some die that late in development(these was the first clutch I raised this way). So, I have been raising them communally until that point then I put them into their own cups with just a little bit of water to morph. I don't know what was causing the skin changes, but once separated, they morphed fine. I have also noticed that super blue auratus morph out *considerably* larger when raised communally rather than individually. I am currently trying this with azureus(which just recently started breeding) so I have not had any morph out yet. I raise my terribilis communally as well. I have a very large community tad container now with 30 terribilis tads in it. They are little pigs. I have not tried it yet with my cobalts, since they took a very long break. But they just laid a clutch last week so I will try them as well. As long as there is always food available for the tads, they seem to do just fine. There may be a weak one in the bunch sometimes. But this way does save on space. Good luck.


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

Figured I'd give an update on my experience. I decided to raise two clutches of six together as an experiment. They all hatched at approximately the same time and were approximately the same size. I fed them heavily every day, and they had almond leaves to nibble on. I also changed the water twice weekly.

Out of twelve tadpoles, four have damage to their feet, either missing toes or a missing foot. When I noticed, I separated them out. Now the first tadpole has come out of the water, but it's from the clutch AFTER these two, which was raised individually in a deli cup. All the communal ones have yet to pop their front legs.

While this method might work for Black Jungle, for me it was not a success. I've since gone back to raising the tads individually.


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## MzFroggie (Mar 22, 2008)

I have tons and tons of Azureus tads and tried raising them communally and seperate..Well I put two to a cup just to start out and each cup that had two in it one always vanished..So now I just do them seperate.


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## reggorf (Oct 24, 2006)

I am still raising azureus, super blues, leucs, terribilis, and bassleri communally. I occasionally loose a tad here and there but not often. And I have never had any with missing toes or feet. I feed tad bites every few days and use indian almond leaves. The bassleri, I feed sera micron instead of tad bites and live riccia or duckweed instead of leaves. The bigger the container the better. I have terribilis clutches in 34 Qt containers that are long but short. I put 30 tads in one of those containers and morphed out 30 froglets. I only put a couple inches of water in the containers. I dont change water, just suck out the nasties. Glad this method is working for me because I definately dont have space to individually cup ALL of my tads.


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

You could always build Brian's tadpole system, that way water changes are easy and all are individual. 

Tadpole system


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

Well, like I said... For others communal raising might not be a problem, but for me it hasn't been a success.

What has been successful for me so far is raising them individually in deli cups and including about three square inches or so of almond leaf. I'm doing minimal water changes, only replacing water lost to evaporation. So far those tadpoles are doing just fine. I used to do a lot of water changes in the past, but read that other froggers had tried doing no water changes, so to lighten my workload I gave it a try. So far it's working out great.

Unfortunately, I don't have the space for a large system of dedicated tadpole tanks like Brian's. Maybe sometime in the future I will try something like that, though.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Arklier said:


> Figured I'd give an update on my experience. I decided to raise two clutches of six together as an experiment. They all hatched at approximately the same time and were approximately the same size. I fed them heavily every day, and they had almond leaves to nibble on. I also changed the water twice weekly.
> 
> Out of twelve tadpoles, four have damage to their feet, either missing toes or a missing foot. When I noticed, I separated them out. Now the first tadpole has come out of the water, but it's from the clutch AFTER these two, which was raised individually in a deli cup. All the communal ones have yet to pop their front legs.
> 
> While this method might work for Black Jungle, for me it was not a success. I've since gone back to raising the tads individually.


If you are seeing damaged feet etc, then your tadpoles probably want more animal protien in thier diet. You can use live blackworms if you want to be lazy as the worms will stay alive and the tadpoles will chew off the ends (which then regenerate) until they slurp them down... 
Even with tadpoles known for cannibalisitic tendencies (like R. ventrimaculatus), even in high densities (5 tadpoles in a quart yogurt container) I was unable to get them to bite each other... 

Ed


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## tkromer (Dec 20, 2007)

I have raised mine communally, once or twice I've actually had them eat a smaller tad though. Normally I see no aggression at all, but normally they all grow at similar rates as well.


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## sidney (May 15, 2009)

Hello I’m fairly new to the hobby. I have a breeding pair of luecs, they have hade four clutches so far. I decided to raise the tadpoles together in trays that are 12 inches by 10 inch, recently my young luecs have sprouted back legs and today I noticed one of the tads was missing a foot. I separated them immediately. Could this be because they are too crowded? There was six of them in a 12 by 10 inch tray. Or is it the nature of the beast?


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## SamsonsFrogs (Mar 4, 2009)

How often do you feed the tads? I feed mine 2 times a days with small amounts. When I get lazy I will feed every other day. I have not had any cannibalism yet.


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## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

I have raised azurieus, cobalts, leucs, yellow galacks and raise them all individually in 16 oz deli cups with dechlorinated tap water and a piece of magnolia leaf in each cup. I feed every other day and only change water if it gets cloudy or smelly. Once the tads get started I have no trouble with them in this way. I put lids on the cups and can stack them that way so space is not wasted. I have been feeding about 60 -75 tads on average at one time and it takes very little time. They morph out fine and I have not yet had a case of spindly leg.


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## chuckpowell (May 12, 2004)

These are my observations over a number of years and thousands of tadpoles. For me tadpoles raised separately are larger than multiples raised together under similar conditions. The larger the container the larger the tadpoles. I visited a friend recently and he talked about the large size of his tadpoles - he kept them in small condiment cups and feed them daily. I keep mine in pint size mason jars and feed them most days. My tadpoles were half again as large as his at a younger stage. My resulting froglets were significantly larger. Ian Hiler (Aquarium of the Americas) wrote an article in the 1980's about using critter keepers to house individual tadpoles and he was impressed with the resulting size of the tadpoles and froglets. My suggestion, if you can, keep them individually and in the largest containers you have room for. This will result in larger, healthier tadpoles and froglets. You can do it other ways and it'll likely work, but the resulting frogs will not be the best we can produce and if we don't start producing better frogs overall in the hobby many of the species we're working with will be inferior and eventually lost from the hobby. From what I've seen many, many frogs produced now days are a sad example of wild caught animals. 

Best,

Chuck


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## ErickG (Nov 28, 2004)

Very well put, Chuck. I certainly agree.


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