I am a beginner to frog keeping, and a short while ago I contacted the BDG regarding purchasing some additional vivariums. I was put in touch with a gentleman who was selling up, it's a long story but I ended up with 10 Mantella laevigata.

I had no knowledge of these fantastic little frogs prior to my purchase, I decided to write in as the frogs are breeding quite happily, and hopefully the information may be of use to another breeder.

The frogs were left as a colony and housed in a tank measuring 24 x 15 x 15. It is all glass with the exception of a wooden top, which has a ceramic heat plate secured to it and also UV lighting. The rear pane of glass has a gauze strip in it approx 2in wide across the back near the top for ventilation. It also has sliding doors at the front.

The floor of the tank was covered in a thin layer of very small aquatic gravel, I then covered this with organic orchid compost, piling some up to create a raised area on one side of the tank. I then covered it all with moss from the corner of my garden. On top of the raised area, a stack was made using bamboo lengths. Around the base of the raised area, I planted a couple of bromeliads (the green ones with red flowers - 99p from Tesco), and also some cuttings from another hobbyist. Two water dishes were positioned among the plants, 8 film canisters (the black type) filled with water, were dotted among the plants and around the water dishes.

The frogs are kept in varied temperatures, from a low of 68 at night raising this to 72 first thing in the morning, and generally up to about 76 for a couple of hours in the afternoon, before reducing it again to 72 and 68 at night. In the early days, I took the afternoon temperature up to 80, but there were concerns that this could be too high for the tadpoles, causing them to develop too quickly. They are liberally sprayed, three to four times a day, with the first spraying approximately 1 hour after the first temperature rise in the morning.

I use a zoo-med UV level 2 which is lit for approximately four to five hours through the day, except when there are tadpoles in the water dishes, as I am worried about too much exposure for them.

At present I am only feeding two types of fruit flies, plus springtails, but I am hoping to greatly widen the range through the arrival of the Summer! and the kind help of other hobbyists. I feed quite large quantities daily for four days, the food on the first day being given a good dusting with Nutrobal. The fifth and sixth day I don't feed, this gives the frogs a day to Hoover the tank out, and a day of rest.

I think the colony consists of, three males and six females (unfortunately, I lost one due to old age). This is only an estimate and could not confirm this ratio until the tank is stripped down and someone with a bit of experience looks at them.

You often hear the males calling out with a short and pleasant cricket like sound, shortly after spraying. The males are generally more visible, as they monitor their territory, with the females seen less frequently, during feeding and travelling too and from the nesting sites.

After only a few days in their new environment, too my great excitement, I noticed a white egg in one of the film canisters. More followed and within a couple of weeks, all of the film canisters were utilised as were the water bowels. Anything from 1 to 5 eggs, are laid directly in the water, although I am sure, these are not all from the same female.

The majority of the eggs are fertilised, and are free swimming at about 8 to 9 days. Occasionally I get a canister of eggs, all of which are infertile, but I distribute these amongst the other tadpoles, in the other nesting sites. The film canisters are inspected about twice a week, I simply lift them out of position, check for new arrivals, tip out about 50% of the water and top it up with fresh, it doesn't appear to bother the adults.

In the beginning I noticed tadpoles disappearing, it was a complete mystery. I also noticed if a nesting site was cleared for whatever reason, refreshed and replaced, fertile eggs quickly appeared in there again. Because of the need to increase numbers due to the ages of some of the colony and me availability of new stock, I decided to remove the tadpoles at approximately 1 to 2 weeks old, in order to free up the nesting sites. Initially I placed them in a small gully I made in the substrate in the flooded flat area of the tank. I put approximately ten tadpoles in there. Some of these quickly disappeared, and I feared I had been inadvertently throwing them away, as I scooped the water out manually to keep the water level constant.

I decided to house the remaining tadpoles in a big builders bucket, the type with nylon handles, which hold about eight gallons. I covered the floor with small aquatic gravel, and some Elodea in a pot was put in for cover, a small pump filter was utilised and it was filled with about 12 inches of water. I placed 12 tadpoles in this, and within a week only six were visible. I did witness one gorging on another carcass. A few days later I could only see two dismembered tadpoles on the floor of the bucket, I lifted the pot out containing the Elodea, and one remaining tadpole was there, so distorted it looked like it was going to pop. I have since housed the remaining three in two pet-pals. The largest one is approximately two months old, and is just starting to develop its rear legs. These remaining three tadpoles I believe have munched their way through half a dozen of their friends apiece. They also readily take flake and dead fruit flies.

I have another dozen or so tadpoles that are free swimming, and I intend to house them separately in ice cream tubs, and hopefully rear more to maturity. I am also going to distribute some tadpoles to some other hobbyists, before the frogs start their long earned rest in May.

Hopefully I will be able to write again in due course, with a successful conclusion with the tadpoles, and possibly some pictures, depending on camera skills developed between now and then.