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Purple Frog
Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis
An endangered, evolutionary relic of a frog (7.5 cm) endemic to the Western Ghats of India, famous for its bloated purple body, pig-like snout, and subterranean lifestyle.
Class:Amphibia
Order:Anura
Family:Nasikabatrachidae
Genus:Nasikabatrachus
Species:Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis
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Environment
Terrestrial
Humidity
80 - 100 %
Day temperature
24 - 28 °C
Night temperature
22 - 24 °C
UVB
None
Species description
Geographical Origin and Habitat: Endemic to the Western Ghats of India. This unique amphibian leads a strictly fossorial lifestyle, staying underground in moist soils and emerging only for a few days during the monsoon season to breed.
Taxonomy and Genetics: Family Nasikabatrachidae, genus Nasikabatrachus. It represents a highly distinct evolutionary lineage and is often referred to as a living fossil, having diverged millions of years ago.
Behavior and Habits: Strictly burrowing and subterranean. It digs deep tunnels up to 3 meters using its specialized hind limbs and feeds almost exclusively on underground termites and ants.
Morphology: Extremely bloated, dark purple body with a small, pointed head and a pig-like snout. Females are significantly larger than males.
Care, breeding and tankmates
Terrarium Setup: Requires a highly specialized setup with at least 30 cm of deep, soft, clay-like soil mix to allow burrowing. Add smooth river rocks to mimic breeding stream beds.
Lighting and Heating: Maintain stable temperatures between 24-26 °C. Dim lighting or no active light source is preferred, as this species lives almost entirely in darkness.
Humidity and Hydration: High humidity levels between 80-95% are critical. The substrate must be damp at all times but not waterlogged to prevent skin damage.
Feeding and Supplementation: Highly specialized diet consisting of live termites and ants. Supplement the food once a week with calcium and reptile multivitamins.
Compatibility: A solitary and highly secretive species. It must be kept individually to reduce stress and prevent competition over specific subterranean food sources.
Health and Common Diseases: Prone to skin abrasions if the substrate contains sharp rocks or coarse sand. Susceptible to bacterial skin rot in stagnant, overly wet soils.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Endemic to the Western Ghats of India. This unique amphibian leads a strictly fossorial lifestyle, staying underground in moist soils and emerging only for a few days during the monsoon season to breed.
Origin
South and Southeast Asia
Amphibian profile
- Diet
- No verified data available
- Life expectancy
- No verified data available
- Adult size
- 9 cm
- Lifestyle/Microhabitat
- No verified data available
- Activity cycle
- No verified data available
- Sociality
- No verified data available
- Reproduction
- No verified data available
- Toxicity
- No verified data available
- Life stage
- No verified data available
- Handling tolerance
- No verified data available
- Brumation
- No verified data available
- Molting
- No verified data available
The catalog's scalar value is 9 cm. The AmphiBIO v1 source reports a maximum adult measurement of 9 cm for this species, recorded as snout–vent length (SVL). These figures are not interchangeable: the first is the profile's editorial reference, whereas the second is a published maximum under a specific measurement convention; differences among sources can reflect sex, population, life stage and measuring method.
Image gallery
Licensed images linked to the species or, when marked, to the closest representative taxon.
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