Clawed Frog Eggs! Female spawned last night!

[lord_matthias]

Hey- I just woke up this morning to witness a miracle in my 12 gallon african clawed frog tank- eggs, eggs, eggs! Little black and white dots littered the surface of every inch of gravel and cave. Normally, this would just be cool, and not quite a miracle, except for two facts- the only female in the tank (X. borealis, the Kenyan purple frog) is a different xenopus species than the males (X. laevis, the common pet shop albinos), and I just got her in the mail through Xenopus Express yesterday! The conditions must have ben perfect for spawning just by accident, but I had no idea these species could hybridize! I know what everyone thinks about hybridization, but now that the deed is done, and was beyond my control, I'm not about to just kill my new guys. My plan is to immediately siphon out the eggs into a 5 gallon tank of their own and wait. But I have very little idea of what to feed the little wonder-tykes (crushed up flakes, algae, etc). So- what then? Anyone have experience with breeding these frogs?

[Zagz]

Congratulations! Good luck with the breeding. I've never had any success with frogs spawing to be honest.

[Toirtis]

Congrats....but the eggs are not likely hybrids....she was probably fertilised and waiting to deposit when you got her.

[lord_matthias]

Nah- ACF's reproduce externally, and based on the fact that only one male has black "nuptial" pads for breeding, it's plain to see who the proud father is. Phew, I've just done the job of syphoning and transfering most of the eggs to three separate experimental tanks- no easy task. My room and desk are totally splashed in excess water, much of it from hasty water changes, but finally, I'm prepared to sit back and watch the froggy miracle take unfold before my eyes. Apparently blender-ized spinach is the food of choice for these guys, so I'll start to stock up. I sure hope I can get at least a couple of metamorphosed juveniles out of this! I wonder if there will be any strange colorations arising from the possible mix of albino and purple/green? My guess is they will all take on the same pigmented colors of the mother.

[Toirtis]

Oh yes, right (I deal so little with amphibia these days, and with Xenopus only as feeders)....might want to wake up before I start posting, eh?

[lord_matthias]

Xenopus as feeders?! Perish the thought!

[Joey17]

Sheesh, what would you feed a Xenopus too?

[Toirtis]

I occasionally buy eggs by the 500-1000 lot from lab supplies, and feed them to my Polypteridae, one of their natural predators.