Keeping Hyperolidae in captivety

The Hyperolidae includes several famylies in differen size. Everything from the small Hyperolius, Hetrixalius, Afrixalus up to the larger Leptopelis.

All of them comes from Africa and Madagascar.

Keeping them in captivety is fairlt easy and breeding occure.

They do not requeire any extra heating. Roomtemperatures at 22 to 15 degrees Celsius is enough. As for the humiduty it is best to keep them at 70 % whe not in breeding. During breeding season it should be up to 85 %.

They are most active during the night and spend most of day hidding. It is recommended to keep a red light on during night so you can observe and enjoy your frogs.

As food I give mine Small crickett, friutflies,houseflies and and moths that I catch in the wild.

Feeding shuold be done just before the light go off.

I keep mine in glasterrariums that are 40 cm long, 40 cm wide and 50 cm hight. In that I have two to three groups. Each group contains three males and two females. It is importent to have more males than females when breeding these species, especially Hyperolius.

My terrarums are well planted with many different live plants. I use a small ( 12 cm wide and 3 cm deep) waterdish during the dry season. During breeding season I change it to a larger one ( 18 cm wide and 9 cm high). The waterdish is always placed under some plant.

When breeding occure the males will sing up to several weeks. When a female is ready to breed she will allowe a male to enter here back. She will then lay her eggs on leaf over the waterdish. One clutch can obtain up to 400 eggs. It takes 10 to 21 days for the egg to hatch and they will then fall dawn in to the waterdish.

I feed my tadpoles with fishfood such as Tetramin and Wardleys. The grow qiuckly and will transform in to small frogs within six months. They are then large enuogh to eat friutflie. If kept under the best condition they will be sexual mature whitin a year.

In many species of Hyperolius the adult females will have a different color than the juveniles and males. So it might be hard to see the correct sex on juveniles.

With the right care the smaller speices can live up to 7 years, the larger one such as Leptopelis up to 10 years.