Rearing Dendrobates leucomelas

Day 1:

Here I will be following a brood laid on June 17 in 2023. The first thing to notice is that I have a petri dish. I started out with leaves, but I have found that survival is better with the petri dish and the frogs don't seem to mind them. When the eggs are laid they are often dark gray. As can be seen on the close ups it is during the first day they turn more light gray. This may seem worrisome at first but is normal for the fertilized eggs. Since my enclosure has dirt substrate I clean the outside of the petri dish with tap water and spray the 'inside' with the eggs with de-ionized water (you can also use reverse osmosis water or distilled water). After this "cleaning" I add a bit of 'tadpole tea'. I make this tea by boiling a large catappa leaf in 1 liter of de-ionized water and let it cool. I also place a small piece of that catappa leaf in the dish. The water should only create a damp environment and not entire cover the eggs. I then put a lid on the petri dish and to maintain a stable temperature around 25ish C, I place it on top of my fish tank which is kept at a stable temperature from the heater used to warm the aquarium water. After this we will be good for a couple of weeks before we need to take action, but of course I do daily check to ensure it is not drying out or eggs are going bad. Eggs that go bad I try to remove, but sometimes they are "glued" together with other eggs and then I let them be unless it looks like they will impact survival of the surrounding eggs.

Day 3 and 5: Embyo formed (left photo after 3 days and right photo after 5 days)

Nothing to worry about at this stage, but just to give you an idea what to expect if your eggs were fertilized and develop properly. You can clearly see on top of the eggs that a little embryo has formed with head being the bulkier part. Depending on your incubation temperature your eggs may be more or less developed after three and five days. 

Left: 1 week old and blood vessels clearly visible from the body looking like a mesh extending from the front of the body. Middle: 2 weeks old with one hatched (indicated by the straightened body).  Hatching time may span over several days and the last sometimes up to a week after the first one. No need to rush them as it perfectly fine for them to develop at different rates. Right: From another batch, example of an obviously bad egg. Remove such eggs if it can be done without damaging other eggs. If they stick together, leave the bad egg in place unless it starts to mold on the outside as then it may compromise the other eggs. 

Once your larvae is clearly out of the egg, it is time to transfer it into a small beaker of some kind. I use plastic containers intended for keeping food for humans as then the plastic is less likely to give off toxic substances to the water. Water is still the same tadpole tea, but now it needs a bit of volume as the larvae will live in the water. I use contained of about 1 liter and fill upp about 3/4. I cover with a lid to reduce evaporation as the air where I live is usually quite dry.  

I start feeding me larvae 1-2 days after transfer to the water container. At first they don't eat, but I want there to be food when they do start. Every morning I remove uneaten food (and give to my fish instead) and provide fresh food. I use Quappo from Lucky Reptile (but it seems to be out of stock everywhere now July 2023 so may have to look for something else for the future).

Given that hatching spans over several days, I now skip worrying about the age and instead look at developmental stages. So photos below are from other batches of eggs. At first your tadpole will look the same as when hatching, except that it adds bulk. Then rear legs will develop followed by front legs and color. Note that one front leg may pop out some days before the other, and that this is fine.

The time for this development will depend primarily on rearing temperature. I try and keep it around 25 C as this is not too high to rush development and create malformations, but also not too low to stall development. The other aspect here is feeding. I feed every morning and if all food is gone by late afternoon, I feed a second time. Feeding only once per day is likely to slow growth slightly and possible delay metamorphosis or result in smaller froglets. This may have important implications for survival in nature, but less so in captivity so no need to worry about it much.

What you need to worry about, however, is once the little one start absorbing its tail. It is then time to provide it with some land area to move to, or else it will drown. At this stage I transfer my little ones from the smaller round container to a longer one that it easy to tilt. I then only keep a little water in so that about half the container is dry and the other half is under water.