Very worried about African Dwarf Frog

Annadae

Annadae

AC Members
Jun 15, 2010
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The United States
On Sunday afternoon I picked up a frog-o-sphere at Brookstone at the mall and when I got home, I did a little extra research and discovered the sheer cruelty the frogs are subjected to. I went out to Petsmart today and purchased a 5 gallon tank with a "Whisper" Filter, a Fishnet, chlornitating drops, decorations, gravel, freeze dried bloodworms, and two extra frogs :)

Well, obviously I had to move the frogs to their new tank, and I feel I might have been too abrasive out of anxiety, though all the frogs I thought seemed OK in their new tank. There was one incident in moving the heavy tank where the lid slipped and a frog on the surface was just floating there. Terrified, I slipped him into my hand and began to cry because I thought he was dead. But he hopped back into life! Now I'm so careful with them you'd think they were made of glass.

HOWEVER though three of the four frogs are healthy, active, and love to race around the tank and skim the surface, one of them concerns me deeply. She is smaller then the others, and I think gets rather picked on. She also sometimes sits in a hunched position with her legs on the gravel, and what worries me most is how whenever she tries to swim to the surface, she gives up when almost there and swims back down.

I experimented with feeding methods today, first sprinkling bloodworms on the surface and then dropping frog-o-sphere pellets in. Neither worked very well, so I'm putting the sinking pellets on a bloodworm cap tomorrow and putting them directly in the tank. Therefore, I cannot gauge her appetite yet.

So is she hurt? She swims OK to my knowledge, if a little slow. The tank is only 15.5" high.

One more question: Some of my frogs have very small patches of red on either one or each leg, and have pinkish underlegs. Is this normal? In the right light it looks like blood under skin but you can never be sure. They all have regular, skinny legs and swim great, so I'm not sure if there is anything to worry about.

Thanks so much for any answers! Any advice about whether I should continue bloodworms or just stick with the frog-o-sphere pellets on a cap is also great.

My frog names:

Rocky
Bubbles
Piper
Vanilla (my baby girl, the may be sick one)
 
Can you try to get some photos of the frogs and the red or pinkish areas? This would help. Also, be sure you have a few things for them to hide in. You can use a clean coffee cup, or buy one of those little fake caves.

Also, some silk or non-pointy plastic plants in the tank that they can hang out on will be good. If the girl is feeling under the weather she can hang out closer to the top by clinging to the plants.

When I say non-pointy... they're skin is really thin and delicate so you don't want those plastic plants that have sharp points or any sharp edges. I really like the silk or cloth type, but you have to make sure they are made for aquariums so the stems don't have a wire in them.

There is a serious illness called "red leg" that is bacterial so we need to make sure this is not what's happening. There is some natural pinkness when you scrutinize really closely and if the light is bright, but we want to make sure that's all it is.

Hunkering down on the bottom is not totally unnatural behavior, but if it's going on too much she may have a problem.

Watch out that your gravel is not so small that it can fit in their mouths easily. It can happen that a frog will get one stuck in their mouth or even swallow it and cause an intestinal blockage that would likely kill it if it can't pass it.

ADFs have very poor vision but a good sense of smell. They have trouble finding food, often, so you may want to spot feed using long tweezers. This can be a lot of fun because they begin to recognise the shiny metal and come to it.

I used to hold onto the freeze dried or preferably frozen blood worm with the tip of the tweezers and watch the frog try to pull it off the tweezer. They will grab it with their mouth and put hind legs and their "hands" on the tweezer tip flop around frantically tugging on it until it come free. This is hysterical.

Also, be sure that your dechlorinator removes chlorine and chloramine. A good one is Prime by Seachem. It's cheaper than many of them, too.

You need to test your water chemistry parameters, checking for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and ph too. A good liquid test kit such as the API Master kit is needed. If possible do not get test strips. They are inaccurate and you won't really know for sure what's in the tank, and the liquid kit will last forever, whereas the strips don't last very long, so in the long run the liquid kit is a whole lot cheaper.

You really need a small heater in their tank. You need to keep the temperature above 78F and below 82F to keep them comfortable. Seriously do not let the temp get below 78F as there is a deadly fungus that attacks frogs at lower temperatures.

Frozen blood worms are better than freeze dried because the freeze dried ones can cause constipation and worse, intestinal blockages.

I used to give mine an english pea once a week to keep them regular. Buy yourself a small bag of frozen english peas to keep in the freezer. Get out about a dozen peas and put in some clean tank water in a cup in the microwave and nuke for about 30-40 seconds. The inside of the pea should slip right out of the skins. You want it to be slightly mushy, not firm. Drop two or three of these in the tank. They will find this in a few minutes to an hour, but don't leave any uneaten parts or pieces in there for more than 4 or 5 hours.

You need to get yourself a turkey baster, that is dedicated to your tank only and never is washed with soap, only clean tap water. The turkey baster can be used to suck up pea or other food debris. You don't want to leave food in there to decay.

Frogs, just like fish, need clean water, and ammonia and nitrite eventually will be in the tank. Good bacteria will eventually be in the tank that will eat up the ammonia and then the nitrite that follows, but until then you need to closely monitor your water to watch for detectable levels of ammonia and then nitrite. These are very toxic and must be removed by doing partial water changes with treated, temperature matched water.

Forgive me if I've been giving you info you already know, but I just wanted to help. I have had ADFs and they are precious and can be so much fun to watch and interract with. They would come to the front of the tank and stare at me like "Where's my blood worms?"

Please get photos as soon as possible and upload to this site. Best wishes to you and your new little froggie friends.
 
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I think Mel pretty much covered anything I would be able to say about it plus some. ;) All very good info. So, I will just say congrats on getting them a bigger tank and trying to do the right thing! My ACF was also expected to live in a frog -o-sphere and she is 4 inches long minus the legs at only 6 months old lol (I put her in a 20g). Anyway, welcome to AC and I hope you enjoy your frogs and that the one that you are concerned about turns out to be healthy. - Ash
 
Well right now all of the frogs seem uncharacertistically lethargic :/ Two are playing in the front part of my whisper filter, one is just hanging at the bottom of the tank, and Vanilla is just curled up in a ball right underneath the filter vents, so I can't get a good photo of her or the others. The water is also fairly cloudy, but I'm hoping that's just new tank-itis. They were so active this morning!

I put in a small porcelin plate at the bottom with a single frog pellet on it to see if any liked that. So far, all have ignored. I may try feeding with tweezers. But their food situation is what worries me most--two of the frogs have not eaten since the day before yesterday. I really don't know what to do!

I may need to stop sticking my hand in there to put the plate and food in.

So many things to worry about :( who knew four little frogs could bring such stress?? I really hope the lethargy is just them taking afternoon naps.
 
I got some pics for you guys to look at! Since the frogs are not out and about, I didn;t get any of their legs, but here are some of the ones that concern me:

froginplant.jpg




filter.jpg

If you look closely you can see Vanilla against the filter vents and her reflection. I'm worried she's either stuck and can't get up for air, or she's just hanging out. or god forbid she's dead...it's a very awkward place so I don't wanna reach down unless necessary. And I think it's best to put her in as least stress as possible.

filterpic.jpg


Pic of the filter, the front compartment of which the frogs keep going into.
 
Well I think that may just be the new tank. And changing the water after all the stress of them being in a new home is just too much, in my opinion.
 
Do you already know about cycling your tank? If not, I would def recommend reading this part of the forum http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598 . If you just got the tank within a few days then I dont think the amonia is high yet, but aquatic frogs do put out a lot of waste so its possible. Anyway, if you already know about cycling then nvm. I just thought I would throw it out there in case.
 
Thanks for the cycling tip! I'll be changing the water once a week or two now.

So Vanilla is no longer stuck to the bottom of the filter, which is good, but I have no idea where in the tank she is, which is bad. Two of the frogs are just sitting on the tank bottom, moving occasionally. Another one I cannot find either. I think they're up playing in the filter....

Should I be worried?? And I put out a pellet on a plate, an no one has eaten it. Either they're not hungry or just don't like it.
 
Thanks for the cycling tip! I'll be changing the water once a week or two now.
Click to expand...

I would bump that to daily once the cycle starts. You can go to once a week when the cycle is over. The cloudiness may also be to over feeding. Are you removing the food that they are not eating? Left over food can also add to ammonia problems. The bottom line is ammonia is deadly. I would pick up a liquid test kit. That way you can monitor the water quality closely and do water changes as needed.
 
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