Sexing Bombina orientalis

[Glenn Bartley]

Any suggestions for a sure (or fairly positive way) way to tell the sexes of adult Fire belly Toads (Bombina orientalis) apart?

Thanks,
Glenn B

[Clay Davenport]

The only reliable method I know of is the male will develop nuptual pads just behind his "thumbs" when entering the breeding season.
Males will also call if grasped in amplexus announcing the fact they are a male so they'll be released.
I can't remember if the females call or not.

I usually considered the largest and fattest ones to be female, but I have nothing to back up that assumption.

Sexual activity isn't a reliable indicator, they just have a big frog orgy with everyone grasping everyone else. This suggests the frogs have a hard time telling their sexes apart too haha.

I kept a group for 2 or 3 years but I never successfully reproduced them. I also never set them up in a rain chamber, which I believe is an important factor.

[Glenn Bartley]

Well I guess that my trioare all of the alternate lifestyle. Two keep going into Amplexus with the other, but it always gives the call, and tries to push off the others. Now to find a nice fat female or three. Thanks for the info.

All the best,
GB

[mattsbettas]

I currently have two adult breeder pairs and 75+ tads and 75+ baby fire bellied toads. I get about 100 eggs every week and a half or so and They have done this for over a year. I am selling them right now, but I don't know what I'm doing but almost everyone I talk to can't get them to breed. All I do is have them in a 55 gallon tank with half water and half marble sized gravel and a little fountain. and I put live plants in the water, and they just take off. I sex the males from the females simply by leaving them together and you can hear the males calling all night. I don't knoe if it's the fountain or what, but the reproduce all of the time and the males are always grasping the females. Well if you have any more ???'s email me at mattsbettas@yahoo.com and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Thanks