African Dwarf Frog Breeding Guide

How to breed Hymenochirus boettgeri: male humming, amplexus, floating surface eggs, removing eggs from cannibal parents, and raising carnivorous tadpoles.

Overview

Hymenochirus boettgeri is a fully aquatic frog native to forested parts of equatorial Africa, from Nigeria and Cameroon through Gabon and the Congo River basin. It breeds readily in the aquarium, laying floating eggs at the water surface, but the adults are cannibalistic toward their own spawn, so eggs and tadpoles must be raised apart from the parents.

Sexing

Males develop a large subdermal gland on the hind part of the forearm, visible as a white spot near the armpit, which enlarges during the breeding season. Females become noticeably wider when ripe with eggs.

Conditioning

Males attract females by singing or humming, and amplexus typically follows one or more nights of humming. Conditioning ripe adults on a varied carnivorous diet brings females into spawning condition.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

During amplexus the male grasps the female around the abdomen just in front of her back legs, and the female becomes motionless. The female then swims, towing the male, laying eggs one at a time at the surface of the water and returning to the bottom between layings, while the male releases sperm to fertilise them. Amplexus can last several hours. Females lay only about a dozen eggs per spawning but may release roughly 150-700 eggs in total, depending on size, and the eggs float at the surface.

Egg & Fry Care

The adults will eat both eggs and tadpoles, so the eggs must be removed and the young raised separately. Eggs hatch in about 1-2 days. The tadpoles are entirely carnivorous and, because of their tiny size, need microorganisms such as infusoria to feed on during the first days, moving on to baby brine shrimp as they grow. Metamorphosis to a froglet takes roughly a month, with the back legs appearing first and the front legs developing later.

Common Challenges

The two biggest hurdles are the adults' cannibalism, which requires prompt egg removal, and the carnivorous tadpoles' need for a dense supply of microscopic live food in their first days to avoid starvation.