An aquatic way of life

By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
FRANKLIN SQUARE -- Their cannibalistic parents eat them. Snakes steal them. And insects attack them.
With so many odds against them, it's a wonder any baby frogs make it to maturity, let alone Japan.
In Japan, albinism is considered a sign of purity and highly coveted. Albino bullfrogs, with their bright red eyes and milky yellowish skin, are in especially high demand. That's good news for David Peel, whose hobby of breeding unusual-colored frogs has turned into a successful international business.
Peel started breeding and selling frogs about 15 years ago. "I call it a hobby gone amok," he said of the business that has grown into a full-time, year-round operation and also incorporates breeding and raising fish, turtles and swans at his 5 F Fish Farm, 2938 Lisbon-Canfield Road.
At one time, Peel was breeding 200 species of frogs and was one of only five professional breeders in the country.
Since then, he has scaled back the frog-breeding operations, specializing in albino bullfrogs and red-eye tree frogs native to Nicaragua. Both are in high demand for the pet industry and aren't as difficult to handle, or as dangerous, as the bright red and bright blue poison dart frogs he once raised.
Although retail prices for albino bullfrogs range from $20 to $200 -- he's paid as much as $1,400 for a male needed for breeding -- and from $25 to $75 for red-eye tree frogs, Peel said breeders sell the fruits of their ponds for a fraction of that.
"The middle man gets all the money," he said, chuckling.
Raising fish
His main source of income is raising fish, mostly colorful koi for backyard ponds, perch for the game-fish industry and decorative pond plants -- water irises, water lilies and water hyacinths.
He also raises leatherback and snapping turtles for their meat -- a sideline started to control losses on his farm as the result of wild turtles eating on his baby swans.
Fish and pond plants are in highest demand in the spring and early summer, Peel said. Frogs, which lay their eggs in the spring, usually aren't large enough to sell for months. Selling frogs, he explained, "gets me through the winter."
Frogs are sold in lots of 100 to wholesale distributors, such as Strictly Reptiles, who ship them to pet stores throughout the United States and to customers overseas, Peel said. Selling frogs retail himself is too labor intensive.
Shipping
Readying shipments to wholesalers in itself is a challenge, he said.
Each baby frog -- 1-inch to 1.5-inch size -- is placed on a wet paper towel inside a four-ounce cup, like the ones fast-food restaurants use for individual servings of cole slaw. A live cricket is placed inside the cup, too -- froggy lunch. Then, a breathing hole is poked through the container before the lid is sealed.
The cups are placed inside an insulated crate with a heat pack or a cool pack, depending on the temperature outside, and shipped overnight to wholesalers in Florida and California.
If the frogs are going to Japan or Germany -- Peel's largest foreign markets -- the wholesaler opens all of the frog cups, places another cricket in each, reseals the lids, packs them back into the insulated crate, replaces the heat pack or cool pack and ships it overnight again.
Albino bullfrogs produce about 5,000 eggs in one laying spree each spring. The red-eye tree frogs lay about 200 eggs once a week for about a month each spring. Their eggs hang from the undersides of leafy tropical plants that overhang a pond in the rain-forestlike enclosure inside a climate controlled building that was once Peel's garage.
Mating
When they are ready to mate, the female chooses the best leaf and mates with the male who occupies it -- tree frogs stick to the back of the leaves like suction cups on glass. "She doesn't choose the male," Peel said, "she chooses the leaf."
As tadpoles form inside the eggs of the red-eye tree frogs, they drop from the leaves and into the pond below.
Peel relocates the babies to another rain-forest enclosure as soon as they are large enough to net to prevent them from being eaten by their parents. Frogs are among the most cannibalistic creatures on earth, he noted.
It takes at least three months, and sometimes much longer, for the babies to leave the water and then another month after they leave the water for them to grow strong enough to be sold.
Peel said he tries to ship them out as soon as they are large enough and strong enough. Harboring large groups of frogs in the same place puts them at risk for disease, he explained.
Frog food
Frog food consists of crickets fattened up with dog food and greens. "It's called 'gut loading' and ensures the frogs get enough nutrients. Otherwise, you end up with a calcium problem," Peel said. "Frogs need a lot of calcium." He feeds his breeding frogs 1,000 crickets a week. Peel buys his crickets through the mail. He feeds the tadpoles blended fish food.
Turtles, which grow about one pound a year in the wild, grow faster when confined to their fenced-in ponds and fed fish food. It takes about three years for them to grow to 5 pounds, the minimum weight Peel expects to sell for slaughtering. Collectively, they must weigh at least 1,000 pounds before he can sell them, he said. He will sell his first crop of meat turtles this fall.
Peel's two pair of swans produce about 10 baby swans -- cygnets -- a year. As soon as they hatch, he removes all but one from the nest to protect them from coyotes, which have jumped over and tunneled under fences in years past and killed all of the babies.
The baby swans sell for $75 a piece, $200 a piece for the adults. "We don't make any money on them," Peel said. "They basically just pay for themselves."
Profitable fish
Koi generate the most sales. The brightly colored fish live up to 200 years and are the most popular fish for decorative ponds. Some pond owners are such koi fans that they will seek out the most perfect fish and work to assemble schools consisting of fish of specific colors.
In Japan, koi are so valued that they are often willed to heirs, Peel said. At auction, perfectly colored koi bring astronomical prices. Peel said he knows of one pure white fish with a red spot in the middle of its forehead that fetched $90,000 at auction.
Unfortunately, the most beautiful, brightly colored koi are most likely to catch the eye of predators. To help protect them, Peel surrounds his pond with electric fence and covers it with a net.
The fish are sorted and priced according to size and color, and buyers can choose exactly which fish they want.
Peel sells 80 percent of his fish and aquatic plants at a retail center on his farm. His fish and pond plants are also available at several area nurseries.
The retail center at the farm is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.
kubik@vindy.com