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 Chinese
Fire-Belly Toads
(Bomina
orientalis)
The Chinese Fire-Belly Toad is
one of 6 members of the genus Bombina.
It is found at 5300-10,000 feet above
sea level in southeastern Siberia,
northeastern China, and Korea. It spends
most of the time floating or swimming in
ponds and streams.
Description
B. orientalis will grow to a size of
2½". It's green or brown (and
sometimes a blotched mixture) with black
spots and patches, except for the ventral
region which is red and black.
One
major problem is distinguishing males from
females. Males generally have rougher backs,
and their forearms are thicker than the
females. These minor differences make them
almost identical, except during the breeding
season, when males have black horny nuptial
pads on their fingers and forearms. One way
of telling which frogs are male and which
are female is to observe the frogs'
behavior. Whenever one frog tries to jump on
the back of another frog and use the arms to
grasp it, it's definitely a male. If the
male isn't rejected immediately, there is a
good chance that the second frog is a
female, and that she is even prepared to
breed.
If the frogs haven't yet reached sexual
maturity, there's no easy way to make sure
that you have both males and females.
Housing Requirements
A group of 5 - 6 Fire-Bellies can be kept in
an 18 gallon aquarium with about 4 inches of
water. Using fine gravel or sand will make
it a lot easier to remove the eggs when the
frogs start breeding. One-quarter of the
surface should be kept 'dry,' and will
primarily be used as a feeding area. Put
lots of floating plants (Pistia
stratiotes, Riccia fluitans,
etc.) in the aquarium, and the frogs will
spend a lot of time floating among these.
Keep the temperature between 68-75ºF.
Feeding
A fire-bellied toad will eat almost anything
that will fit in its mouth: Houseflies,
bluebottles, assorted moth larvae,
earthworm, mealworm, Zoophobas ("king"
worms), crickets, and guppies. If you have
guppies swimming in the water, the frogs
will catch one from time to time.
Breeding
There are several ways of trying to make
B. orientalis interested in breeding. A
6 - 8 week 'hibernation' at 50º F will
usually do the job. Remember to lower the
temperature gradually over a period of a
week before the hibernation, and similarly
raise the temperature gradually afterwards.
Another method which sometimes works is to
change most of the water in their aquarium,
and replace it with water which is a few
degrees colder.
When
the frogs are ready to breed, the males
began calling. The sound is somewhat like
the sound of a small dog barking at some
distance. The males constantly try jumping
on the backs of any other frog in the
vicinity. If a male inadvertently jumps on
the back of another male, the second male
makes a special croak just to inform him
that he's made a mistake. The first male
doesn't always get the hint, and
consequently the second male can carry
another male around for hours.
Unfortunately the male/female ratio can be
as bad as 10:1. If a female is present and
she's ready to breed, she'll swim around
with a male on her back, and the eggs will
be attached singularly or in small groups to
plants, rocks, roots, or whatever can be
found in the water. One female may produce
more than two hundred eggs.
The eggs should be transferred to another
aquarium. After 3 days at 77º F, the eggs
will hatch. For another 3 days, while
consuming the yolk sac, the tadpoles don't
move around at all. After that they'll begin
swimming around, trying to find something to
eat.
The tadpoles can be raised on finely crushed
flakes, frozen or freeze dried fish food.
The hind legs will begin to break through
about 3 weeks after the eggs hatched, and
the 'arms' will begin to appear about a week
later. Five weeks after hatching, the first
frogs will go through metamorphosis, and
will be ready to leave the water.
The froglets will eat any kind of small
insects and larvae. They'll be ready to
breed before they are a year old. The eggs
of younger and smaller females tend to be
fewer and smaller in size.
A Few Peculiarities
The ventral region of a captive bred B.
orientalis is yellow and black, rather
than red and black. This can be corrected
permanently by a adding little beta-carotene
to their food over a period of a few weeks.
People breeding canaries have similar
problems, and apparently that market is more
lucrative, because they have several
products available.
If a
B. orientalis is scared while on
land, it will arch its ventral side upwards
and display the bright colors of its ventral
region. This is called unkenreflex,
and is named after the German name for B.
bombina.
Literature
-
Duellman,
W.E. & Trueb, L. 1986. Biology of
Amphibians. McGraw-Hill, New York, St.
Louis, San Francisco. 687 pp.
-
Mattison, C.
1987. Frogs & Toads of the World.
Blandford Press, Poole, New York,
Sydney. 191 pp.
-
Obst, F.J.,
Richter, K. & Jacob, U. 1988. The
completely illustrated atlas of reptiles
and amphibians for the terrarium. T.F.H.
Publications, Neptune, New Jersey. 830
pp.
-
Rogner, M.
1986. Tropische Froesche. Albrecht
Philler Verlag, Minden. 112 pp.
-
Schulte, R.
1984. Froesche und Kroeten. Verlag Eugen
Ulmer, Stuttgart. 240 pp.
-
Zimmerman, E.
1986. Breeding Terrarium Animals. T.F.H.
Publications, Neptune, New Jersey. 384
pp.
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