Sorry, I forgot to take my camera with me to work yesterday. Some of the toads were still in their feeding tanks (even though I
know I fed them yesterday...), so here's a pic of them:
These are three male fire-bellied toads. The little guy in the middle is albino. He didn't seem to be feeling well yesterday (wouldn't eat or swim), so my guess is that they're staying in the feeding trays as a temporary quarantine until they get a tank set up.
Anyway, to the tadpoles. The set I've got here are juvenile
Bombina orientalis, which are probably used in the animal development lab. Their tank's a mess, so they'll be staying in these feeding trays until the cleaning crew is done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlftorI9TSw
That's what their water looked like before I got there. Yuck! The whole tank was like that...
Amphibians are very sensitive to ion content in water, which is why they're often considered measures of a watershed's health-- any change in the water will visibly affect amphibian populations. As such, we're very careful about the water we use in the lab. All tanks are cleaned with deionized water. The tadpoles also live in a solution of 90% deionized water and 10% Holtfreter's solution.
Here are the tadpoles in their new, clean trays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlvxAxsRO0U
I also gave them enough lettuce to tie them over until next time.
Delicious!
