26 July 2010

It's a Little Crowded in Here Already

My boys discovered our fire-bellied toads, uh, wrestling the other day. They thought this was hilarious, that the one on the bottom (the "boy" frog named Beans) kept jumping around the entire tank, while the one on the top (the "girl" frog named Bella) just kept right on...holding on, so to speak.

Apparently, our random gender assignments were backwards.

Imagine my not insignificant consternation when I found this on Wikipedia:

Fire Bellied Toads mate several times with the male embracing the female in the pelvic region. The female of the species typically lays 80–300 eggs that can be found hanging off plant stems. The offspring develop in pools or puddles. Their metamorphosis is complete within a few weeks, peaking in July–August.

Later today, I will be making a panicked call to the East Bay Vivarium, from whence came Beans and Bella.

Because this is cute, right?


Well, 1 or 2 of them are cute. 300 of them? Not cute at all.

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1 comment:

nicole said...

this happened in our house last year...we still have 2 frogs. what did the vivarium say?

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