Titillating Tadpoles pt. 4 ~ Coming of Age

Hey ya'll 

the first of the toads have finally began to break the surface of the water to metamorphose into their adult forms. Turns out this happened over the past few days and (because I had neglected to install a floating island device into the fish tank *I COULDN'T FIND ONE*) they did so by clinging on to the branches and leaves of the small vines that I have got growing in there. As it turned out, only one of them was truly ready to make the transition to land and it signaled so to me by making its way up the sides of the tank. As fortune would have it, toads have incredibly humid skin which (when removed from their aquatic habitat) becomes extremely sticky. Indeed I think that might have been the only thing that saved the poor thing from drowning! As it was I rescued the small animal from its little leaf-island in the fish tank and put it into a more terrestrial habitat. 

Black-spectacled toadlet. (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)

An interesting fact about these little toadlets is that they do not require food right away. When they finally grow big enough to emerge on land, they still retain a small stump of what is now a vestigial tail (no doubt a relic from their aquatic lives) and this tail will actually sustain them and provide them the nutrients that they need at this early stage in life. It is only after the tail is absorbed back into the toad's body and is no longer visible that the toad will begin actively hunting for food. Well, I suppose this saves me the trouble of culturing springtails for them to feed on!!! For now!!! 

Cheerity-cheers,
Cyren