I have been fascinated with a small in viv experiment I have been undertaking in my retic viv. Basically I wanted to find out who decides which brom axil or film canister (fc) is used; is it the transporting male or the transported tad or tads.
Factors - single tad being carried unsure who makes the decision. So once the tad has been deposited I moved the fc's around. The male would revisit the 'occupied' fc but the tad would stick fast and although the male would revisit and submerge into the fc no jump off. Add another fc and pretty soon after the tad would be in there. Could it be that the occupying tad releases a hormone that signals to other tads that the space is 'taken'?

Now another factor. My male retic regularly carries two tads at a time.


Never have two tads jumped off into the same fc, always two go in on the males back and one is still there when he comes back out. So I think the decisions are down to the tads not the frogs. - or am I croaking out the wrong brom?

What's your thoughts

Regards
Marcus

wow, this sounds interesting.....let us know what you find out.

Awesome experiment.....Im totally interested how this will pan out.

I had a similar thought recently. I was gone for a week on vacation, and when I came back I checked under coco-huts for eggs. I actually interrupted my azeurus in the process of transporting. I could tell he wasn't stoked to be interrupted, but they are super bold, so I stood back to see if he would continue transporting.

What struck me as just really odd was the pickup. I'd never seen it before and always wondered how a frog flipped tads onto his back. It was nothing like that. He would sit in the tadpole mass and kick at them a little, then they would squirm up his back in the most deliberate looking way. They would get centered on his back, then he would take off. I usually pull the eggs, but I let him transfer a second one because I couldn't believe my eyes. Very cool, but eerie in a way.

I saw my male Azureus carry a tad around for a couple of days. It was the last one to be transported unless they had other tads hidden somewhere in the viv.

I did watch him at the waters edge for hours and the tad would not get off. Eventually the tad got off, but I was wondering why it took it so long. It seems it's all up to the tad to me.