Xenopus laevis - What’s That?
By Terry Tankersley trtntank@juno.com
From Splash, newsletter of the Milwaukee Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Let me begin by saying a few words about the Milwaukee Aquarium Society. When I was
searching for a fish club to join I searched for one that would meet my needs as a
hobbyist. As a fish enthusiast I am interested in all species of aquatic life. At the
Milwaukee Aquarium Society you will find someone who has, or has had, any type of aquaria
you are interested in. Not to take away from the specialty clubs, but Milwaukee has
something for everyone. So if you are interested in all aspects of the aquatic hobby check
us out in Milwaukee.
Now to Xenopus laevis. I was introduced to this species many years ago but
never owned any until early in December 2003. I was at a swap meet and a man asked if I
was interested in a pair and, of course, I said yes. He said it was a mated pair, so I
gave him the exorbitant amount of $2.00 for the pair and headed home. On the way home my
thoughts were "Where do I put them?" As with most hobbyists I never have an
empty tank. Well upon arrival at home they were placed in a 2½ gallon tank half full of
water with an air stone, I figured this would keep them until the next day.
Well day 2 comes around and the pair are definitely showing spawning behavior (males
have black stripes on their front legs and the females have a short tail). I decide not to
move them but I added a heater and a ¼" grid for the bottom of the tank because from
my research I found that they will eat all of the eggs as soon a spawning is complete. The
temperature was set at 78F and a partial water change was done since I had no filter in
the tank. Well this is a good time to tell you what the common name for this aquatic
animal is. It is the "African Clawed Frog".
The spawning behavior is simply the male wraps his arms around the female at what would
be her waist. He will hold on for days until she releases her eggs. For my frogs this
happened on day 3.
I now have 500 or so frog eggs which stick to anything they come in contact with. The
frogs seem to be a scatter spawner since the eggs are all over the tank. The parents are
removed and placed in a 10 gallon tank. Time for more research, where I discovered that I
should just leave the eggs alone and they would hatch in 2 or 3 days. The eggs hatched and
I now had 500 tadpoles which stick to the sides of the tank and are about 1/8 inch long. I
discovered that they were filter feeders and ate spinach that had to be ground up. You
just put it in the water and they will eat. This proved messy and time consuming so I
tried crushing spirulina flake. This worked and the tadpoles grew. They grew at different
rates, some seemed to double daily and yet others seemed to barely increase in size at
all. The tadpoles were left in the 2 ½ gallon tank for a week doing 50% water changes
every day and being sure to remove any dead tadpoles and any uneaten food. During week 2
they were moved to a 20 High tank. I now had around 300 of the little tadpoles left. They
did real well and the larger ones grew even faster in their new home. Water changes of 25%
were done every other day and a sponge filter was added. Less tadpoles died and there was
no food left over as they ate everything. The water could be green from the crushed
spirulina and in less than an hour the water was clear. The tadpoles were growing but
there was a slime building up on the glass so I added 5 one-inch plecos and they cleaned
the glass well. Things continued good for a couple weeks and the largest tadpoles
developed rear legs. When I say larger I mean maybe 5 or 6 times larger than the next size
group.
Week 4 things are going fine I am down to about 150 tadpoles but no longer see any dead
ones in the tank. I assume that the larger tadpoles would eat the smaller or dead tadpoles
(adults will eat anything including feeder fish).
The tadpoles also have barbels (they probably had them all along but now you can see
them) like catfish and look a lot like young catfish.
Most of the tadpoles are close to the same size at week 5 the only thing I see that is
different is some have rear legs and some don’t. They are fed spirulina and now I
have added some baby brine shrimp. Front legs are showing up on some. Week 6 and it’s
time to bring some young to a MAS meeting for my BAP points.I didn’t put the common
name on the bag and anyone who looked at the tadpoles wasn’t sure what they were
taking home and I got rid of all but 6 of them. At this time they are 1½ inches long.
It’s week 7 and the six I kept are now frogs and readily eat just about anything
that is put in their tank. It was a very interesting spawn and very enjoyable. If you have
a couple of empty tanks anytime soon give them a try. If you have any questions email me.
I will be happy to share information with you.
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