Albino Bull frog habitat set-up?

[ablino bullfrog]

I bought a pair of albino bull frog tad poles for my son's preschool class. One didn't make it, but the other is now the new pet in my home. The pet store where I bought them gave me lots of erroneous information and has since closed. I found a new pet store that seems a bit more reputable where I now buy crickets.

So when he first changed from a tad pole, I bought some gravel and made him a sloping beach out of the water. This was OK until the gravel started to stink (even when we cleaned thoroughly and often). The new pet store recommended a habitat with much less water and a lot of moss. I bought this and included a bowl of water in the aquarium. The bowl was attached to a sloping rock where he could easily get out of the water and go sit on the moss if he wanted. The thing was that he just floated in the bowl of water for the entire week that he cage was set up like that. I don't think he liked it.

Based on his extreme preference for the water, I changed the aquarium to be mostly water again. It has maybe 6 inches of water. There is a floating lilly pad where I have fed him crickets. I sandstone bridge that sits about half an inch out of the water and then another rock that sits just below the surface of the water.

Here is my burning question, if bull frogs are supposed to like less aquatic environments (per the new pet store), why does he almost exclusively swim or float in the water??? I took him in so that the new pet store could confirm that he is a bull frog and not a regular frog. I bought a light that is on during the day. I just bought another black light bulb, so I can go back to having the light on at night. Is he cold? is he OK? Should I worry about him swimming all the time? Does he need less water? Should I have given the moss more than a week?

I am a newbie and want to do a good job of caring for him. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Also, how much should he eat and how often?

[danfrog]

Heyo! Welcome to frog forums. African bull frogs are way different than American bull frogs. You might have a better chance at getting the answers your looking for in the Frog section of these forums.

[MatthewM1]

Bull frogs love water they should actually have a 50/50 land/water set up. And could probably go 30/70. A good rule of thumb for for tank size is 10 gals/inch of frog. Most recommend 100gals for a full grown adult. Avoid putting anything in his tank that is small enough he can accidentally swallow it, like pebbles or loose moss.

For young frogs feed as much as he will eat in 10-15 mins everyday, then everyone day or 2 as he nears adulthood. Also make sure to dust with calcium with vitamin d3 every other feeding and multivitamin once a week.

I'm not sure about the black light, i would go for a low watt red night bulb personally.

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[Psychotic]

The info given so far is very good. I have an albino bullfrog and two normal bullfrogs. I would like to add that they like it on the cool side. So if you are giving them lights, you need to make sure it doesn't get too hot inside the enclosure. That's one reason I prefer LED lights. They put off very little heat.

Another thing I would like to add about albino bullfrogs in particular is they have sensitive eyes. They don't like bright lights. They also do not like UV lights and I think it can damage their eyes.

Don't worry about your frog staying in the water. I have my aquarium with 6" of water. I made a platform that takes up about a little less than half the tank. It has a ramp for easy access. I went with a platform so that the frogs can swim underneath it if they choose (they spend a lot of time under there). I would say my frogs spend about 95% of their time in the water. Sometimes they will rest on the platform half in and half out of water. They only come completely out of water to eat lol.

One last thing. They love earth worms! I chop them up and they go crazy over them. Nothing like a bullfrog feeding frenzy. They will even try to nab your fingers!

[N3XU5]

He never said they were african bullfrogs.

[N3XU5]

Heyo! Welcome to frog forums. African bull frogs are way different than American bull frogs. You might have a better chance at getting the answers your looking for in the Frog section of these forums.

He never said they were african bullfrogs. In case your blind, this is the frog section.

[Mentat]

...Here is my burning question, if bull frogs are supposed to like less aquatic environments (per the new pet store), why does he almost exclusively swim or float in the water??? I took him in so that the new pet store could confirm that he is a bull frog and not a regular frog. I bought a light that is on during the day. I just bought another black light bulb, so I can go back to having the light on at night. Is he cold? is he OK? Should I worry about him swimming all the time? Does he need less water? Should I have given the moss more than a week?

I am a newbie and want to do a good job of caring for him. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Also, how much should he eat and how often?

Pet Shop employees might be well intentioned but you have to understand something... most will have little to no frog knowledge but will give lots of advice and sell you stuff you do not need or could risk your frog.

Currently we do not have an American Bullfrog care article; but here is a bit of a discussion Caspian had on them: http://www.frogforum.net/care-sheet-...caresheet.html . For an enclosure most Ranas do well on a 1/4 to 1/3 dry and rest water set-up. Can start yours on a 20L tank but be ready to upgrade, specially if a large female. How long is your frog snout to vent (SVL)?

Can either do a set-up with pieces of slate to create a platform above water level or build a false bottom under the dry area and fill up with clay aggregate to an inch above the water table. Then a layer of plastic window screen or similar and above that shredded coco or ABG soil if keeping live plants. No gravel, no pebbles frog could swallow, and no moss!

The water section will need a filter and you need to get a power one that is overrated at least for twice (4 is better) times the actual (not tank) volume. If you need help determining that post your tank length, width, and the water depth and I'll get you the approximate water volume. For a 20L to 40B would go with this internal one: Amazon.com: Ovation 1000 Submersible Power Jet Filter - 265 gph: Pet Supplies . For larger tanks a canister filter overrated 4X the water volume is a better choice.

Please search forum or web for more info but in general terms your frog excretes urea which contains highly toxic ammonia. Once set-up with beneficial bacteria (around 30 days but can cut that in half with a product like Seachem's Stability) they will reduce that to nitrites (half as bad) and then other bacteria will reduce that to nitrates which are bad only in high concentrations. You get rid of those with weekly water changes. Until your filter is cycled (has enough bacteria to reduce all of frog's metabolites) recommend doing daily 1/2 volume water changes. Once cycled 25% a week should be good. The filter medium should be rinsed with tank water during water changes. Replacing all medium at the same time will create a mini-cycle and should be avoided.

Normal Ranas enjoy a basking spot with light (2.0 UVB content). Due to albinos sensitive skin and eyes; can do that with red bulb or a ceramic heat emitter. Flukers has dome units with a built in dimmer that can help adjust bulb output as required.

Feed all frog will eat to satiation once a day around 30 minutes after frog is active. Can use gut fed crickets, dubias, and night crawlers. For insects feed one same size as distance between frog's eyes. For earth worms pieces the length of frog are OK (cut from pointy end and worms will heal). Dust feeders with CA/D3 2X and vitamins 1X weekly on different days with skip day in between.

Well, hope this helps you a bit and let us know if can be of further assistance, good luck !