# Unusual tadpole



## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

I spent most of yesterday helping a friend pack a ton of tads for shipping. I didn't ask for a final count but here's a picture toward the end of the day prior to packing boxes. I have painter's tape burns. 











During all of this we ran across this poor little guy. Frankly, I spend very little time thinking about frog genetics. We house our frogs in an environment in which we hope they thrive. Most of us then hope that we are rewarded with tads. As froggers, we don't spend much discussing genetics unless some type of potential problem arises.

Any idea what would cause this? Is it simply genetic mutation or was the egg somehow damaged ?


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

It looks like a love frog with that heart shaped head

Seriously I have never seen this before.It almost looks like it could be a two headed frog.Are you going to raise it to see if it survives?I'd like to see how it turns out.

Lou


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## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

It was two-headed. 

It was sent to the great rain forest in the sky. Highly unlikely it would have survived. Heads were so close together that there would likely be fused jaw issues. Seemed like the responsible thing to do.


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## Gnarly (Mar 3, 2011)

Yes, putting it down was probably the most humane thing to do for that poor little dude. 
It would have been interesting to know how long it would have survived for, and what kind of development it would show, though. 

I wonder, how common is a birth defect like this?


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## Krenshaw22 (Apr 21, 2011)

Gnarly said:


> Yes, putting it down was probably the most humane thing to do for that poor little dude.
> It would have been interesting to know how long it would have survived for, and what kind of development it would show, though.
> 
> I wonder, how common is a birth defect like this?


I second that also on it being humane and the birth defect


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## Dendroguy (Dec 4, 2010)

Zoomie said:


> I spent most of yesterday helping a friend pack a ton of tads for shipping. I didn't ask for a final count but here's a picture toward the end of the day prior to packing boxes. I have painter's tape burns.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Holy mother of all things froggy


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## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

What kind of frog was it? I suspect enough inbreeding might cause something like this to occur....

Froggers talk about genetics, you just need to know where to look


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Many years ago I had some wild Zapparo's that would throw a two headed tad every 3 or 4 clutches. Never survived for long. They actually threw a three headed tad once!


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## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

SmackoftheGods said:


> What kind of frog was it? I suspect enough inbreeding might cause something like this to occur....
> 
> Froggers talk about genetics, you just need to know where to look


Smack, I think it was a Patricia although I'll have to verify. Adults are very well documented so highly unlikely (but not impossible) that there is a line breeding problem. This is the first of any issues for the parents in what is likely hundreds of offspring.

Speaking with huge ignorance, I was just curious if it was a genetic anomaly or if it could occur during egg handling. Having written it here, it sounds like a stupid question. I suspect that it's just a freak thing that happens, with no intelligent way to speculate on cause, with the exception of your comment of course.

Doug, that is very interesting. Care to speculate on what was causing it since this ain't exactly your first rodeo?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Sorry, not a clue. The others were all fine. The challenge was generating enough springtails as they morphed out big clutches but were too small for fruit flies.


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