They eat worms, insects, crustaceans, and small fishes. They lack tongues and use the long, sensitive fingers of their forelimbs to search for food on the bottoms of ponds. Their forelimbs also serve to stuff the food into their mouths. The female carries the eggs in a honeycomb structure on her back until they complete development and emerge as miniature adults. Mating begins when males make a tickling call while in the water.
Males grasps the female from above and around the waist in inguinal amplexus.
The female initiates vertical circular turnovers while they're together. The male clasps the female with his forelimbs wrapped in front of her hindlimbs, and they raise off the floor of the stream or pond and swim to the surface of the water to get air. At the top of the arc, they flip, now floating on their backs, and the female releases 3-10 eggs which fall onto the male's belly. Completing their arc, they flip to their original position, bellies to the ground. The male now loosens his grip and permits the eggs to roll onto her back while he simultaneously fertilizes them.