New baby ACF questions

[reptileszz]

Hi there, I just got two baby ACFs last weekend. I looked into them before I purchased them but I think I confused some of the info for dwarfs vs the ACF. Like I said, they have been here a week and all they do is hide and freak out when we turn the light on. I am a little disappointed that they are rarely sighted.

Some info on their setup. I have them in what I believe to be a 33 gallon tank with an eclipse filter/light hood on top. I hope this is not too "loud and busy" for them?? I like it as it is easy to deal with and the cover is solid.

I HAD the temps set too high until a few minutes ago when I read on this forum that I had it way too high for them (would that make them hide all the time?) This is the info I think I confused with the dwarfs. Anyway, there were cichlids in this tank until a few weeks ago when the last one standing finally died (he had killed everyone else over the course of about 6 years). There is still a biggish pleco still in there but I gathered from research online that he wouldnt be an issue for the frogs.

I didnt want to do fish again so decided to get the frogs which have always sort of fascinated me from afar.

They do not seem to go for floating pellets. Once again, I just learned on this forum that I need to get some sinking ones for them. I just put in a few "slow sinking cichlid pellets" to see if they go for them but not sure if they ever sink. They must be seriously slow sinkers. Anyway, what is the best sinking pellet for them? These guys are pretty small, around an inch. When I first put them in the tank last week they ran around shoving all sorts of **** in their mouths. I thought the tank was pretty clean but they were scrounging around in the gravel and shoving all kinds of **** in their mouths. I have since vacuumed out the tank once and am going to do it again today with a partial water change.

I plan to go the store and get sinking pellets and some live plants. I already jotted down water sprite, bacopa and xmas moss plant? any others I should consider? Also going to get some ghost shrimp if I can find any. (all learned from this forum

A lot of convoluted questions in there. Any advice on the setup and pellets appreciated.

Oh, and I am not new to reptiles/amphibians, just new to ACFs

Thank you,
Carole

www.reptilecare.com

[mpmistr]

33 gallon is pretty decent for two adult frogs. I'm kind of iffy about the pleco though, is it a common pleco? Those are too large for a 33 gallon and really need a 55 gallon minimum. Small ACF more than likely aren't fond of sharing a tank with a largish pleco that's probably why they are shy, they could see the pleco as a threat/predator. I would remove it but that's just me, I never felt like plecos and ACF mixed well they tend to like to share the same hiding spots and plecos are a bit territorial.

In my own experience when my frogs were ~1inch they were kept in a tank with a few zebra danio, which are harmless but they seemed to hide a lot. When the fish were removed they were suddenly more active.

It takes a while to get these frogs to eat floating pellets but it can be done, I'm not a huge fan of sinking pellets because they tend to be harder to clean up and I would seriously reconsider the gravel as it is not a good long term substrate for these frogs (they can swallow it and get intestinal blockages, its rare but the danger is there).

Far as plants go water sprite is good, bacopa grows well, xmas moss is nice but you may have to wait several months for it to take hold (mine is just now starting to really take hold and it's been months and months). You could do crypts, they have strong roots and stand up to ACF abuse well.

[reptileszz]

Hi, thank you very much. I just removed the pleco after doing a 50% water change, vacuuming gravel etc. ATM I am hoping they are too small to ingest any gravel. I will change that to those big river stone things I think, the ones that are like 1-2 inches? Does that sound good? I just cant do it today.

I got some "Wisteria" at the local fish shop. The only thing they had on my list was bacopa and I guess I would have to plant that. I was looking for floating plants. I saw wisteria mentioned on another thread here so grabbed some of that. Also got some HBH sinking pellets to see if I can entice them with that.

Thank you again!
Carole

33 gallon is pretty decent for two adult frogs. I'm kind of iffy about the pleco though, is it a common pleco? Those are too large for a 33 gallon and really need a 55 gallon minimum. Small ACF more than likely aren't fond of sharing a tank with a largish pleco that's probably why they are shy, they could see the pleco as a threat/predator. I would remove it but that's just me, I never felt like plecos and ACF mixed well they tend to like to share the same hiding spots and plecos are a bit territorial.

In my own experience when my frogs were ~1inch they were kept in a tank with a few zebra danio, which are harmless but they seemed to hide a lot. When the fish were removed they were suddenly more active.

It takes a while to get these frogs to eat floating pellets but it can be done, I'm not a huge fan of sinking pellets because they tend to be harder to clean up and I would seriously reconsider the gravel as it is not a good long term substrate for these frogs (they can swallow it and get intestinal blockages, its rare but the danger is there).

Far as plants go water sprite is good, bacopa grows well, xmas moss is nice but you may have to wait several months for it to take hold (mine is just now starting to really take hold and it's been months and months). You could do crypts, they have strong roots and stand up to ACF abuse well.