nznatives Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Hi all. For many years I would collect both Whistling Tree Frog and Golden Bell Frog Tadpoles from a pond near where I holiday on the coast of Manawatu. There would always be small dark brown/black tadpoles in spring from the whistlers which breed in the winter there or larger green/brown tadpoles through to end of summer. I collected many whistling tree frog tadpoles in early December 2014 for my small pond enclosure at home in Wellington. After visiting this same pond again start of 2015, the pond has been absolutely dug away and a larger swimming pool sized pond has been dug. I was then told by locals that these were dug by the forestry in case of a fire, so helicopters could fight a forest fire with monsoon buckets. At first I was very disappointed to see an entire pond ecosystem pushed aside into a sand dune. Until closer inspection. As I went down the steep slope of the newly dug pond I realised the edges were teeming with tadpoles. The water was warm/hot too. Note to my question. These tadpoles in colour are a very light yellow and transparent. More so than golden bell frog tadpoles, although only small and hard to identify. I have one thought on the colour of these tadpoles, with the newly dug pond the is no water vegetation and very few plants at the edges (at the moment, soon they will grow through) as a result the pond is exposed to direct sunlight all day. The pond base and sides is all a pale colored sand. Either: -the whistling tree frog tadpoles have changed color to avoid being predated on -the golden bell frogs have spawned early and again the tadpoles have changed colour to blend into their environment. -or highly unlikely there are albino frogs in the wild at this location If anyone of these stand true I greatly look forward to see the resulting colouration of the frog. Whatever species it is. Time will tell, I will keep you all posted. If any of you could shed some light on this for me I would greatly appreciate it, other wise I hope you enjoyed the read. Photos to come too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 If they have red eyes they could be worth a bob or six. Could be albino green and golds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nznatives Posted January 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 I noticed that unfortunately they do not have red eyes which would have signalled albino golden bell frogs. What does the term Lutino mean? A mutation in colouration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Lutino is a term used for a bird that is yellow with a red eye. Albino/lutino is lack of black colouring (melanin). Leucistic is lack of colour with a black eye (still has melanin). There are leucistic green and golds out there and it could be them. They could be worth a bob or twelve because the albinos have been very hard to breed and almost 100% of offspring have bent spines. You can get a partial leucistic such as a black bird with some white feathers or a mainly gold frog with black eyes and some green patches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 What is your location? The green and golds have a limited distribution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nznatives Posted January 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 On the coast of Manawatu. I have identified the whistling tree frog, green and gold bell frog as well as the southern bell frog in my particular area. You are right, the litoria aurea is usually only found in the far north of New Zealand as well as rotarua, I suspect that it was introduced to this area and thrived in the coast heat and abundance of food and habitat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwiraka Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 I raised 10 in a pond this year (Golden Bell Frogs) and before I put duck weed in they would go pale browny yellow during the day, but became dark once I added some duck weed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 Back to work tomorrow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwiraka Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 Back to work tomorrow? Who? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 throwing duckweed in the pond? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwiraka Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 throwing duckweed in the pond? I'm not quite following.... But if you're getting at the fact that I chose to have duckweed in a pond, it's a medium sized concrete trough that is easily drained and cleaned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nznatives Posted January 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 Posting photos, if it doesn't come through I will try again tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nznatives Posted January 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 whistler tadpole with large back legs, collected as a young tadpole in December One of many whistling tree frogs which have morphed in the last couple days Two tadpoles side by side, left is a whistler tadpole, on the right is the unknown species of the light yellow transparent tadpoles what this thread is referring too. As you can see very different in colour however no red eyes... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 I was meaning that it does not look like you will be able to retire on the proceeds of your find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 :gpo2: :lar: :cophot: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 the ones to look for are the lighter ones among 'normal' coloured ones. the whole batch can lighten or darken to surroundings though. check this out, even just night time v day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pKciWW ... 8lFWJp0JfA if all light they often just turn into normal looking frogs. if only a couple stand out they sometimes retain colour like below. (frm manawatu/horowhenua) and even adults vary but not necessarily morphs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwiraka Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 A bit :smot: , but I found two of the frogs I raised (I was wondering why my young goldfish were dissappearing) is the black one a morph? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted January 10, 2015 Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 what black one?. they vary from green / brown to dark green / brown. pic below is a good indication of variance among a batch. all normal coloured bar the yellow ones. https://www.facebook.com/nzcrickets/pho ... =1&theater and even those. some of the green will be brown some days and vice versa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjansss Posted January 10, 2015 Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 Its very well hidden but it does look like a southen bell frog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nznatives Posted January 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 Like ID said they vary green/brown to dark green/dark brown. Both frogs in the photo could change to match each other either way. If the southern bell frog hides under a log it will likely be a dark shade of green or brown. Or if it's baking in the sun it will likely change to thee light green colour you see on the left frog. See ID's photo (link in his post) to see how the green and brown varies from light to dark. Where as the yellow ones are an albino variation he has bred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwiraka Posted January 10, 2015 Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 Oh, cool! Yellow frog !drool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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