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Melanophryniscus klappenbachi
Bumblebee Toad
Description:
A small diurnal toad species. Females to 1.5", males to 1". Black body color with irregular yellow speckles. Red coloration on belly and undersides of feet. This red coloration is faded in captive specimens due to a lack of carotenoids in their diet. The limbs are short, the body is stocky, skin texture looks like dry velvet. These toads walk rather than hop.
Natural Range and Habitat:
This species naturally occurs in parts of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Specimens that have come from the wild into the North American pet trade originated from Paraguay. These toads inhabit the Pampas, hilly grasslands. This habitat is dryer and cooler than the nearby rainforests. These toads experience seasonal changes; a cool - dry season and a warm - humid season. They are explosive breeders, utilizing vernal pools that are formed by heavy rains.
Housing:
These small toads can be housed communally. They are diurnal and bold, making for attractive vivarium inhabitants. Always provide the largest size enclosure you can for captive amphibians, allowing for a minimum of 1 square foot floorspace for 1 or 2 bumblebee toads, and moving up from there. Provide good ventilation, much more than a similar dart frog enclosure, These toads thrive in a naturalistic enclosure. choose a substrate that does not stick to the toads skin. Use a drainage layer and keep the substrate damp but not wet. Live plants, appropriate hides, and a shallow water dish that these small toads can easily walk in and out of.
Temperature and Humidity:
A good maintenance temperature for bumblebee toads is 72-78f. Nighttime drops of 5-10 degrees are natural. Healthy toads can tolerate temperatures to 85f provided they are hydrated and have good ventilation, but I do not recommend maintaining them at temperatures in the 80s. Adults can be brumated at temperatures of 50f-55f for a few weeks each winter.
Feeding:
Bumblebee toads are microphagus, consuming all the typical live insects commonly offered to dart frogs. Fruit flies, springtails, isopods, pinhead crickets, hatchling roaches, termites, etc.. Dust the insects every feeding with a multivitamin and calcium supplement that contains D3. Repashy Calcium Plus is a reliable choice. Use new supplements every 6 months. Feed daily or every other day, enough that most but not all food items offered are consumed within 24 hours.
Breeding:
Adult female bumblebee toads are a half inch longer, and more rotund than males. Males will call within hours of being placed in a rain chamber. To breed this species, start with healthy mature individuals, at least 18 months old. In the fall, gradually reduce photoperiod to 10 hours per day and temperatures into the 60s. Then brumate the toads for 3 weeks at 50f-55f. Several days before brumation, stop feeding the toads. If you have a cold basement or garage, move their entire enclosure to that location. If you will use a refrigerator or wine chiller, you can move the toads to a small plastic bin with damp (not wet) moss, deep enough and loose enough to burrow into. After 3 weeks of exposure to temperatures in the 50s, move the toads to their enclosure and gradually raise temperature from 60f to 76f over the course of a few weeks, increase photoperiod to 14 hours per day, and increase feeding. After 4 weeks or so post-brumation, the toads will be ready for a rain chamber. I use shallow water, only 2-3", full of live plants and floating pieces of cork bark, maintained at 78f. Arrange a method of raining on the toads with a small aquarium pump and tubing. Run the rain pump intermittently during daylight hours. Males will begin calling within hours. Amplexus will occur by 24 hours. If the females are properly conditioned, you will have eggs laid within 48 hours. If 3 or 4 days passes without getting eggs, remove the toads back to their regular enclosure and try again in a few weeks. Be sure to supplement with an amphibian specific vitamin A source once per month, year round, to ensure the females can produce healthy eggs. Repashy Vitamin A Plus is a good choice.
Raising offspring:
Tadpoles are very small and develop into toadlets in as little as 3 weeks. 76f is a good maintenance temperature. I raise the water level to 6", use an air driven sponge filter, do partial water changes every few days, and feed a mixture of high quality fish and tadpole foods. I keep small pieces of floating cork bark and emergent live plants in the tadpole tank, but notice that mose toadlets climb the glass when they are ready to leave the water. Toadlets are extremly small, 3-5mm. I set up small groups in deli cups and feed springtails. This is a delicate phase because a diet solely of springtails is not nutritionally complete and may lead to short tongue syndrome or calcium deficiency, both of which result in death within days. Once the toadlets are large enough to eat melanogaster fruit flies, you can overcome these nutritional deficiencies by dusting the flies with vitamin A, calcium, D3, and other vitamins and minerals. To get the young toadlets through their first few weeks, it is important that as tadpoles they were consuming the best possible nutrition, and that you are culturing springtails with high quality culturing foods. The toadlets will need a lot of springtails to grow large enough, quickly enough, so they can start taking dusted fruit flies. Plan for one 8oz deli cup springtail culture for every 2-3 toadlets you expect. Setup these springtail cultures weeks before you even try spawning the adults. I use calcium bearing clay as my springtail culture substrate as this may help with toadlet nutrition.
Bumblebee Toad
Description:
A small diurnal toad species. Females to 1.5", males to 1". Black body color with irregular yellow speckles. Red coloration on belly and undersides of feet. This red coloration is faded in captive specimens due to a lack of carotenoids in their diet. The limbs are short, the body is stocky, skin texture looks like dry velvet. These toads walk rather than hop.
Natural Range and Habitat:
This species naturally occurs in parts of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Specimens that have come from the wild into the North American pet trade originated from Paraguay. These toads inhabit the Pampas, hilly grasslands. This habitat is dryer and cooler than the nearby rainforests. These toads experience seasonal changes; a cool - dry season and a warm - humid season. They are explosive breeders, utilizing vernal pools that are formed by heavy rains.
Housing:
These small toads can be housed communally. They are diurnal and bold, making for attractive vivarium inhabitants. Always provide the largest size enclosure you can for captive amphibians, allowing for a minimum of 1 square foot floorspace for 1 or 2 bumblebee toads, and moving up from there. Provide good ventilation, much more than a similar dart frog enclosure, These toads thrive in a naturalistic enclosure. choose a substrate that does not stick to the toads skin. Use a drainage layer and keep the substrate damp but not wet. Live plants, appropriate hides, and a shallow water dish that these small toads can easily walk in and out of.
Temperature and Humidity:
A good maintenance temperature for bumblebee toads is 72-78f. Nighttime drops of 5-10 degrees are natural. Healthy toads can tolerate temperatures to 85f provided they are hydrated and have good ventilation, but I do not recommend maintaining them at temperatures in the 80s. Adults can be brumated at temperatures of 50f-55f for a few weeks each winter.
Feeding:
Bumblebee toads are microphagus, consuming all the typical live insects commonly offered to dart frogs. Fruit flies, springtails, isopods, pinhead crickets, hatchling roaches, termites, etc.. Dust the insects every feeding with a multivitamin and calcium supplement that contains D3. Repashy Calcium Plus is a reliable choice. Use new supplements every 6 months. Feed daily or every other day, enough that most but not all food items offered are consumed within 24 hours.
Breeding:
Adult female bumblebee toads are a half inch longer, and more rotund than males. Males will call within hours of being placed in a rain chamber. To breed this species, start with healthy mature individuals, at least 18 months old. In the fall, gradually reduce photoperiod to 10 hours per day and temperatures into the 60s. Then brumate the toads for 3 weeks at 50f-55f. Several days before brumation, stop feeding the toads. If you have a cold basement or garage, move their entire enclosure to that location. If you will use a refrigerator or wine chiller, you can move the toads to a small plastic bin with damp (not wet) moss, deep enough and loose enough to burrow into. After 3 weeks of exposure to temperatures in the 50s, move the toads to their enclosure and gradually raise temperature from 60f to 76f over the course of a few weeks, increase photoperiod to 14 hours per day, and increase feeding. After 4 weeks or so post-brumation, the toads will be ready for a rain chamber. I use shallow water, only 2-3", full of live plants and floating pieces of cork bark, maintained at 78f. Arrange a method of raining on the toads with a small aquarium pump and tubing. Run the rain pump intermittently during daylight hours. Males will begin calling within hours. Amplexus will occur by 24 hours. If the females are properly conditioned, you will have eggs laid within 48 hours. If 3 or 4 days passes without getting eggs, remove the toads back to their regular enclosure and try again in a few weeks. Be sure to supplement with an amphibian specific vitamin A source once per month, year round, to ensure the females can produce healthy eggs. Repashy Vitamin A Plus is a good choice.
Raising offspring:
Tadpoles are very small and develop into toadlets in as little as 3 weeks. 76f is a good maintenance temperature. I raise the water level to 6", use an air driven sponge filter, do partial water changes every few days, and feed a mixture of high quality fish and tadpole foods. I keep small pieces of floating cork bark and emergent live plants in the tadpole tank, but notice that mose toadlets climb the glass when they are ready to leave the water. Toadlets are extremly small, 3-5mm. I set up small groups in deli cups and feed springtails. This is a delicate phase because a diet solely of springtails is not nutritionally complete and may lead to short tongue syndrome or calcium deficiency, both of which result in death within days. Once the toadlets are large enough to eat melanogaster fruit flies, you can overcome these nutritional deficiencies by dusting the flies with vitamin A, calcium, D3, and other vitamins and minerals. To get the young toadlets through their first few weeks, it is important that as tadpoles they were consuming the best possible nutrition, and that you are culturing springtails with high quality culturing foods. The toadlets will need a lot of springtails to grow large enough, quickly enough, so they can start taking dusted fruit flies. Plan for one 8oz deli cup springtail culture for every 2-3 toadlets you expect. Setup these springtail cultures weeks before you even try spawning the adults. I use calcium bearing clay as my springtail culture substrate as this may help with toadlet nutrition.
