A Surprise in the Classroom!

Fiona, our pipadae aquatic frog, laid eggs for the first time in five years this week!  It was such a surprise!

Eggs everywhere!  Even on the plastic plant!

I spoke with the company that I get my frogs from, and they said, don't get too excited (as if that was possible!), they are tricky to hatch.  She told me to separate the frogs from the eggs so they won't be tempted to eat the eggs (which look a lot like the food I feed them).  She also told me, if the eggs hatch, it's usually takes around 36-48 hours.  The first day, the eggs looked like a period.  The second day the eggs looks like a comma.

Will they hatch? 

On the third day....they hatched!  Around 100 little tadpoles are hanging out in the habitat.

Once the tadpole hatches, it hangs around for a bit before
exploring the habitat.

I was worried that over the weekend, the tadpoles wouldn't survive.  I was so amazed when I came in on Monday!  I had so many eyes looking up at me! They seem to be doing well and double in size every two days.

These tadpoles are especially interesting for the classes as their skin is transparent.
When they get big enough, you can even see the tadpoles heart!

The Chubby Frogs are Here!

You may have heard that our dear Cuban Tree frog Hoppy passed away last month.  She lived a good long life, but we were all sad.  

So, I called my local pet store to find out if they had any frogs available!  The had three different types: a fire-bellied toad, an Argentinean horned toad and a chubby frog.  All 22 classes that I teach voted on which frog they would like to have as a new class pet. Twenty one classes voted for the chubby frog!  

After many attempts to get the chubby frog (they kept selling the frogs before I got there), we are proud owners of not one, but two chubby frogs!  The next thing we have to do is name them!!

Our new chubby frogs!

So far we have discovered that chubby frogs like eating crickets and love to burrow in the soil.  They burrow backwards so only their eyes are showing! Stay tuned for more information about the chubby frogs as we observe it!