Depth of water for African Clawed Frog & tips needed for preventing an escape!

[mpmistr]

I have a 36" tank too. (40B), I'm using a Finnex Ray2.. it's considered "high light" and quite powerful.. actually it's an algae making machine on my non-high-tech tank. I think if I could of done it over again I would have gotten a less powerful light.. I've elevated it a bit and am going to add more floating plants so I hope that helps! I know my frogs weren't fond of it before I elevated it, I only run it 6-8 hours a day then switch to a Marineland Single Bright, which is about the weakest LED strip out there, the frogs tend to become more active then..

[Namio]

Michael had pretty much covered everything about water depth and much more. But I would like to re-emphasize that having a screen top, lid, or cover is a MUST for AFC, even if the water level is 4 inches+ below the tank height. As previously mentioned, AFCs are very powerful swimmers and they can jump out of water at will, although usually unlikely. I take care of three adult females at my school and my co-worker told me that these frogs had escaped by jumping out of the tank about two years ago (the water was about 3 inches below the top), so we've been keeping a screen top that completely covered the tank at all time. The moral of the story is that a cover should be required for these frogs just to take the possibility of escaping out of the equation.

[mpmistr]

Michael had pretty much covered everything about water depth and much more. But I would like to re-emphasize that having a screen top, lid, or cover is a MUST for AFC, even if the water level is 4 inches+ below the tank height. As previously mentioned, AFCs are very powerful swimmers and they can jump out of water at will, although usually unlikely. I take care of three adult females at my school and my co-worker told me that these frogs had escaped by jumping out of the tank about two years ago (the water was about 3 inches below the top), so we've been keeping a screen top that completely covered the tank at all time. The moral of the story is that a cover should be required for these frogs just to take the possibility of escaping out of the equation.

Very true. One of my frogs managed to escape even with a glass lid because there was a very very small gap on the back where I was hanging a Whisper filter clip which holds it on the back of the tank (less than 1/2 an inch???).. the gap was extremely small (the frog is a ~7 month old male about 3.5" snout to butt) and he still managed to find his way out.

I had to cover the whole back where the lid meets the tank with tape to stop further escapes until I installed my canister and cut holes for the tubing.. I still covered everything around the tubing up again with tape, because these frogs are just insanely good at escaping when you least expect it.

[froglett]

I never knew there we're xenopus wild in England. I had read somewhere online about there being some in Wales.
I live in Scotland, probably too cold for to survive in the wild.
It seems impossible to even find a shop that sells captive need ones!

Im currently waiting for silk plants to arrive cos the Ebay shop messed up delivery. Once they're in I can hopefully order frogs online if the water tests ok. I might look at getting floating plants as we'll as the silk ones.

I can't wait to get my frogs. I've recently got dwarf ones in another tank and I find them fascinating.

[packer43064]

That is awesome. I wish I had a tank of that size, I am keeping my 3 ACF in a 40B and it seems pretty spacious, I bet with a 180G you could probably have more than quite a few ACF!

Honestly I'd keep the water depth around 20 inches (or 4" below max, if your tank is 24" high), I think at that depth the chances of an ACF escaping are virtually nil. (I'd still keep a top though) I wouldn't worry too much about filtration or current, unless it's like a river rapid in your tank or something. I use an Eheim 2217 on my 40B, which I think is a bit beefy for an aquarium of that size and I have no issues. I do keep the spray bar directed toward the glass though to cut down a bit on current. HOB are kind of meh, I don't care for the noise they make and Whispers are the best HOB for these frogs IMO but they take up a lot of real estate inside you tank.. ever since I picked up a canister I don't think I can go back to a HOB again.

Here's some tips (from a newb who is still learning):

--Add some floating plants, they love floating plants a LOT. I have read that apparently keeping floating plants actually lowers their instinct to jump and escape (oddly enough I tossed a bunch of my floating plants because they kept getting algae-ridden and my frog flew the coop a few days later -- go figure). At night my frogs all rest in my floating plants with their noses poked out above the water, pretty sure they are sleeping when doing this. They will almost always exhibit this behavior if there are floating plants present so I assume it makes them happier. Some good examples would be pennywort, watersprite, indian fern, amazon frogbit, ect..

--People say that hiding spaces aren't 100% necessary but.. they really like having hiding places.. I made some caves out of mopani driftwood in my tank and they make great use of it. It just seems to make them very content to have a place to hide out. During the day my frogs almost always are hanging out in their driftwood caves, it just makes them feel secure and reduces their stress I guess.

--I think rather than silk plants perhaps you could add some real plants? Anubias, Java fern, Crypts (they root well and frogs love to hide in them!), Java moss, ect. Helps a lot with water quality too (ACF are poo machines.. plants help absorb waste). These are all low light plants (ACF hate bright lights anyways) and don't really have any special needs (Crypts might like having a root tab under them though).

Here's a couple pics of the tank. It has since changed though. Added some plastic eggcrate to the back where it's open with weights on top. So it's impossible for them to get out. Added some on the front covers too just in case. So not worried about it being full to 24 inches. I lost an albino male and have since then learned my lesson. Crafty frogs they are. Also siliconed some silk plants to the sides of the tank so they can hang mid-level if they choose. I want to get some plants. If i get floating plants, I'll have to devise something to block the plants from getting sucked in the overflow since it skims water from the top. Probably something from eggcrate again. I'll look into the plants you have suggested and try a few here and there though.

I don't turn my lights on much just when I want to enjoy them. Usually a couple hours a week at night if I get home in time. Will probably have to set an actual plan if I get plants.

My plan is to breed my older female and section off a quarter of the tank for tadpoles. I've bred her a couple of times with the aformentioned albino male. That's the plan at least.

Are there low-light floating plants? I have technically 6 bulbs in the light setup, I doubt anything strong though. Just whatever came with it.

[mpmistr]

I think the biggest problem I've had with floating plants is since they are so close to the lights they tend to take on algae.. I just removed my pennywort because it was just getting riddled with green algae. I just replaced my pennywort with water sprite which I am reading is a "low" light plant so we'll see!