Red eye cannibalism

[hostensteffa]

The weirdest thing happened to me the other day. One of my red eye tree frogs ate the other one. Now I know that if you put a dart in with a grown red eye that the red eye will devour the dart, but I didn't know they would eat each other. One was smaller than the other but still not edible size (at least I thought) and I always keep plenty of food in there. I had suspicions about this for a couple of weeks, but verified it the other day when I cleaned the cage. Bear in mind that there is no way possible for the buggers to escabe their setup so that was not a possibility. I have read nothing on this before. Has anyone heard of this type of thing? Is there a way to prevent this in the future?
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[Ravnos]

Its pretty typical for most amphibians to eat pretty much anything that they can catch and will fit in their mouths, which is why it is so important to get animals as close to the same size as possible if you're going to make them share space. I've never heard of it specifically with red eyes before, but green tree frogs will do it, almost all aquatic frogs will do it, all species of toad will gladly cannibalize if they can... I don't see why red eyes wouldn't too. Sorry for your loss, it sucks, but as they say **it happens.

Rav
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[hostensteffa]

The weird thing is they were from the same litter. So they were very very close to the same size. The one that's still alive was slightly larger but still not a lot bigger or anything. Oh well, i guess he'l be alone for a while. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]
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[melis]

Another possibility is the frog decomposed... I have had occasions when I will loose a frog and set the tank aside, when I go back to clean up the tank & look for the dead frog (remember, I know it died & I knew where it had died within the tank) there will not be a sign of the frog.

I have heard from others about Red Eyes eating each other, but when frogs die it doesn't take much time at all before they turn into mush & then disappear.


Melis [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]
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[hostensteffa]

Hmmm... that's a new one by me Melis. I'll have to research into that and see what I can find. I doubt that was is as it just disappeared one day. But still worth researching just for the fact. Thanks. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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[atheris]

ya, it could've decomposed, but not likely unless you didn't check on em for a few weeks... a tiny little dart or mantella, or froglet, might disappear that quick, but i wouldn't expect a larger red eye would be mush and gone that quick! just a thought...
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