The male sits on the female's back and fertilizes the 800-1,300 eggs as she deposits them. The eggs, only a fraction of an inch long, are laid singly on underwater vegetation. Depositing eggs can take up to one day to complete. Once breeding is finished, peepers return to the trees. They spend most of their time eating and growing.
Tadpoles are herbivores.
They feed by inhaling water and filtering blue-green algae. After five months, tadpoles metamorphose into adults. Gills are replaced with lungs, legs grow, and tails are absorbed into the body. Since adult frogs are carnivores, a tadpole's intestines shrink and the mouth becomes larger to adapt to eating and digesting animal material. The new, tiny frogs leave the water for their new woodland home, continuing to grow and mature.