African Dwarf Frog

[Myrtle]

Hi, among the fish in the tank I'm picking up tomorrow is "1 small frog". I am assuming it's the ADF, not the other one!Does anyone have any experience with these critters? How do I provide a way for it to access the air at the top of the tank or do they float whilst taking in air? I'm getting images of lily pads and rocks to sit on out of the water!

 

[aaronnorth]

They stay under water, feed them frozen bloodworm, just before the lights go off (they are nocturnal & use sense of smell) Keep the water parametres good. Watch out for red leg which is a common disease amongst frogs. They sometimes float at the water surface and they look dead! When getting air, they quickly swim to the top and break the water surface.

Anything alse you need to know just ask

 

[GreenNeedle]

I posted on another post possibly from yourself that I have seen a "ladder" for frogs. It was made of resin pieces siliconed to the side of the tank which let the frog swim from ledge to ledge. I have read that shallower tanks are necessary for ADF due to them getting tired when swimming to the surface in deeper tanks but I assume these ledges negate the problem in that the frog can swim shorter distances from ledge to ledge.

I saw another that had done a similar thing with small pieces of slate like you get from P@H in a net bag.

AC

 

[Ray]

In one of the nature aquarium world books doesn't Amano say he puts a frog in every tank he does in order to help control snails?

 

[aaronnorth]

ADF dont eat snails, i had 2 large apple snails with them and they never touched them. The frogs used go for a ride on my plec though, they used to sit on top of it then he would swim away lol. Good fun to watch.

 

[Egmel]

ADF dont eat snails, i had 2 large apple snails with them and they never touched them.

I would imagine that it would need to be quite a large frog to eat an apple snail! Maybe they eat baby snails...

 

[altaaffe]

My daughter bought 2 ADFs to add to her tank & quickly realised her mistake when they started snacking on her shrimp. When I watched them they used to sit near food and try to catch neons as well!
I moved them in with larger fish but they still tried to have a go at the likes of Plecs.

 

[Myrtle]

Thanks for all the replies!
Re the eating of small fish, I did read that the African clawed frog does this, but not the Dwarf one. Maybe that's what your daughter got?
I'm looking forward to seeing the little fella tomorrow!

 

[aaronnorth]

smallest fish i had were 1". they could pick at the snails though

 

[aaronnorth]

also they keep some ADF's with apple snails of all sizes in my local MA

 

[Myrtle]

Would ADF eat shrimp? they aren't small shrimp - bigger than the frog in fact!

 

[Ray]

So I found the quote in Amano's Nature Aquarium World 1, page 149:

THE RISE AND FALL OF ANABAS
... So now I put a dwarf shimegaeru (frog) in from the beginning as a snail eater. It is one of the essential tank cleaners, along with Ottocinculus for brown algae, and yamatonumaebi (shrimp) for filamentous algae...

So does he eat snails?

 

[Myrtle]

Perhaps they eat small snails, but he's not touched my apple snails (yet!).

 

[aaronnorth]

no they dont, they are kept in a tank with loads of snails (at shop) and they didnt bother my snails when i had them either.

 

[Wolfenrook]

Frogs are vertebrates.

Ade

 

[Myrtle]

That is true, but they're not plants or fish either! No section for frogs!