big news from the tadpole tank!

 I posted this on instagram/facebook on Sunday ...

I couldn't believe it when Annicka said "one of them has legs"!

I guess I thought we'd notice bumps or something developing - but we didn't!

this is our big guy, and now he has teeny tiny legs - so cute!

Spring has sprung ...

technically (by date, that is) it was not quite spring yet! 

but it was definitely feeling like spring (and the first day of spring was just days away)

as we were getting nicer days, more sunshine, and more opportunities to play outside!

so, we got something for the "babies" ... 

 

a shiny, new swingset!!!

Liam was actually our first tester - he loved testing out the swing!!!

later Zoey got her first try ... she went for the slide first and wasn't quite sure

about her plop-on-the-ground landings!  ha ha ha!!!

also that day - THIS happened!!!

craziness, my baby boy lost his first tooth!!!

it was quite wiggly and I guess Jericho explained to Liam how to get it out,

Liam must have been really listening because he got it out!  lol!!!

back to the fun outside!!!

they both love it!

Zoey often asks to "go ouside"!

(she doesn't quite pronounce the "t")

happy spring to all!!!

adventures in raising African Dwarf Frogs ...

this "adventure" began on March 9 ...

Jericho actually said that morning "whoa - who dumped all the fish food in there"!

a little later I decided I better check the tank ... hmmm ... weird -

didn't really look like the fish food we use!

a little research online and it was confirmed:

our African Dwarf Frogs, Popeye and Leonardo 

(named by each boy, apparently Jericho's "Popeye" is a girl, he has since renamed it Diamond)

had decided to get hitched and start a family!

without permission, I might add!

LOL!!!

at first I didn't know what to do, so I had to do some online reading!

I decided to give it a go - and removed all the eggs to a separate tank - to give them a chance!

two days later, March 11, we woke up to hundreds more eggs in our tank!

again, I removed them and added them to our tiny back up "tank"!

and yet, a week later -March 19- we found hundreds more eggs ... yes, again!!!

by this time I had gone out and purchased a bigger plastic tank, so this new batch 

went in the small one ... I did, however, put them all together a few days later, on March 22!

as of March 22, we had 15 living tadpoles and over 90 (I stopped counting) new eggs!

I have shared quite a few pics on instagram/facebook - and I won't repeat those!

but I've also taken some with my good camera, so ... 

prepare for photo overload ...

this is a fairly early pic, March 16

 I know the water looks gross in many of these pics, but I guess you could say it's the 

nature of the beast!  I have tried to keep their water clean, but honestly it seems

to do more harm than good (I always find a few dead ones after water changes) so I have had

to "let it go" a bit and just deal with the murky, stinky, pond like water!

I searched and searched but had no (local) luck finding a liquid food source - and, for

whatever reason, I wasn't wanting to order it from online!  several resources, including the "fish guy"

at a local pet shop, said that those liquid foods are primarily egg yolk - so I

just started making their food for them!  at first it was just mushed egg yolk and water,

but I did find a powder-like baby fish food and starting adding that in as well!

in this pic you can see a few of the "early" tadpoles, after hatching but before taking on 

that "head and tail" shape!  it's been really need seeing these little guys transform!

this is the tiny tank, to give some perspective - this tank is no more than 4"x6"!

I tried little pieces of some algae stuff I got, but it didn't seem to make a difference!

March 17, decided to slide a quarter under the tank to show size!!

March 22, this is the third batch!

also March 22 - you see the difference between those from our first two batches and 

the newer ones!!  that third batch has proved to be much hardier than the first two!!

I did decide to order a brine shrimp hatchery ...

it's pretty cool - but I couldn't tell if the tadpoles were eating them,

so haven't ordered more to hatch!

here they all are (still March 22) in the bigger plastic tank!

again, note the difference in size and development!

feeding them the newly hatched brine shrimp!

this pic is kinda fun - just to see the size of each: brine shrimp, 

first batches, and third batch of tadpoles!

that's their "egg mixture" - as I call it - right in the middle!

March 27

they are all growing!

March 28

we had 85 "tinies", as I called them - and 13 medium/big ones!

March 31

we had 76 "tinies" and 9 med/big ones!

April 9

we had 71 "tinies" and 9 med/big ones!

that's the last time I counted!

and now for some much more recent pics - these are all from April 24...

 look at that big guy!!!

he is fast too!

 

 they all remain in the larger plastic "tank" ...

you can see that some of them haven't grown all that much - but we have a few

from those first two batches that have gotten quite big!

I can't wait for little frog arms and legs to start forming!!!

and that's where we're at right now!  everything I read online said it's very hard to keep these little guys alive, but somehow I have managed to keep quite a few of them alive and growing!  my hope is to have at least a few frogs by the end of it all!!!