A World's First? Producing F2 Yellow Spotted Climbing Toads

Exciting news from Josh's Frogs! Last week, a pair of Yellow Spotted Climbing Toads ( Pedostibes hosii) produced at our facility in 2014 bred! Thousands of eggs were fertile, and we now have tadpoles swimming in the water! This is an invigorating event here at Josh's Frogs - this shows we can continue to offer this awesome frog species to the world without the need for wild caught adults. To top it off we've been unable to find documentation of successfully producing F2 animals (second generation captive bred) from captive bred adults before!This is especially important for our YSCT breeding project, as not only are these animals F2s, but they were produced from adult animals 6 months off of their natural breeding cycle. Austin, our manager who oversees toad breeding, was able to artificially cycle them to produce during the fall instead of the spring. This means we should be able to offer healthy, captive bred Yellow Spotted Climbing Toads year round instead of on a seasonal basis. This also means our mission of meeting the demand for pet frogs with captive bred, ethically produced animals (instead of the current market trend - relying on wild caught imports) is that much more of a reality.

The ParentsBoth toads were from our first spawn of the species in March of 2014 ( read about that here!), making them about 2.5 years old. The toads that bred are siblings. The next several spawns will be from females born in 2014, and males born in 2015 (instead of both males and females born in 2014, like this spawn). Males seem to mature faster, and we expect them to be ready to breed at 1.5 years of age.

Failure, then SuccessIn late September, 2.1 adults were cycled up from a dry spell and put in a rain chamber during a particularly rainy week. Although the males readily amplexed the female, no eggs were produced. After a week, the adults were separated.A few weeks later, a cold front blew in, bringing with it plenty of rain (and a substantial drop in barometric pressure). Austin noticed the female Yellow Spotted Climbing Toad swelling with eggs, so into the rain chamber they went! About a week later, we were rewarded with thousands of eggs. Both males remained in amplexus with the female while eggs were deposited, so it's possible this egg clutch may have been fertilized by both males!

More Success!We held off announcing the event until we were sure fertilization had taken place and we had healthy tadpoles swimming in the water. That's happened, and we're excited to share this news with you. Keep checking back for more photos and updates as our little Pedostibes grow! Check out the Yellow Spotted Climbing Toads we currently have available on the website.

Josh's Frogs