Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 21

Thread: How do we keep our frogs?

  1. #1
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default How do we keep our frogs?

    Sometimes we have to make fewer and larger water changes, because we have to work 40 hours a week as well as take care of our kids. Sometimes we have tap water that is unsuitable for our frogs, and can't afford to buy large amounts of filtered water... We can come up with so many situations that affect our husbandry techniques.


    Since there are so many ways to care for clawed frogs successfully, I thought it would be interesting to see how everyone keeps their clawed frogs.


    Here's how I keep mine:


    I use 4 different setups. I use "eggcrate" light diffusers for lids on all my tanks (Lined with fiberglass window screen for small frogs and tads.)


    Breeding Adults


    Aquarium - DIY rack system with 6 tanks


    Filter - 29 gallon sump and canister filter with UV sterilization


    Temp 72 degrees F, raised to 78 for spawning


    Substrate - bare bottom


    Decor - 3 inch PVC pipes cut in half to make caves. Sharp edges are smoothed with a heat gun.


    Feeding schedule - sinking Xenopus pellets (Monday and Friday), nightcrawlers (Wednesday)


    pH - 7.9


    Water changes - 50% on Friday and as needed. I test the water before feedings


    Lighting - 12 hours indirect fluorescent


    Resting (non-breeding) Adults


    Aquariums - 29 gallon with max 4 frogs each.


    Filtration - power filters


    Temp - 72


    Substrate - play sand


    Decor - plastic ornaments, driftwood


    Feeding schedule - Mon & Fri sinking Xenopus pellets. Wed nightcrawlers


    pH - 7.9


    Water changes - 50% on Friday


    Lighting - indirect fluorescent 12 hours


    Tads


    Aquarium - 10 gallon


    Filtration - HOB power filter with sponge over intake


    Temp - 72-74 degrees F


    Substrate - bare bottom


    Decor - none


    Feeding schedule - Xenopus tadpole powder twice daily


    pH - 7.9


    Water changes - 25% daily or more if needed


    Lighting - indirect fluorescent 12 hours


    Froglets


    Aquarium - 10 gallon


    Filter - HOB power filters, sponge over intake


    Water Changes - 50% on Monday and Friday. More if needed. Tested daily before feeding


    Substrate - bare bottom


    Decor - PVC pipes


    Lighting - indirect fluorescent 12hours


    pH - 7.9


    Feeding schedule - daily Xenopus pellets

  2. This member thanks celticstarb for this post:


  3. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Location
    Advertising world
    Posts
    Many
     

  4. #2
    Moderator Jenste's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    North Providence, Rhode Island, United States
    Age
    36
    Posts
    1,317
    Picture Albums: Member Photo Albums

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Here's how I keep mine, granted it is not as extensive as I did in the past as I am not currently breeding.

    On all tanks, Wednesday = 50% water change. Saturdays = 75%.

    1) 72 gallon bow front as main housing of 5 adults, filtered with two Penn Plax Cascade1500 filters (rated at 200 gallons each). Light/moderately planted low tech. Housed with fancy goldfish. I have been successful with it but it is NOT something I recommend to new frog owners or others unless the tank is large enough to satisfy the needs of both species.
    2) 26 gallon bow front houses young adults. Usually 2-3. Filtered with a Fluval U4. Light, low-tech plantings
    3) 20 gallon long houses young adults. Usually 2, sometimes 3. Filtered with a Fluval U3. Light, low-tech plantings

    Diet consists of primarily Reptomin with weekly earthworms. Whole for adults, chopped for young ones.


    In the past I had these in addition to four 30 gallons (would separate males and females for breeding), an additional 20 long, and eight 10 gallons for growing out tadpoles. Ah those were the days
    In the past couple years I sold off/gave away most of these extras.
    When breeding, Tadpoles would get 2x daily 75% water changes. Froglets would get daily 50%. Breeding pairs would get daily 30-50% water changes so that when the eggs were laid and the adults removed the water was as moderately clean. All Tadpole tanks were filtered with sponge filters. Breeding pair tanks were filtered with U3s or U4s.
    72 Gallon Bow - ACF and GF tank.
    26 Gallon Bow - ACF tank.

    20 Gallon Long - ACF tank.


    "If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty. But the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it." C.S. Lewis, Four Loves, 1958

  5. #3
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    I sold off or gave away most of mine, too. I miss having tads, but had to slow things down to concentrate on school. I kept a pair of laevis, and a female and froglet borealis for future breeding. I am thinking of adding muelleri soon. I would love to add as many different species as I can, as many are not available to hobbyists.

  6. #4
    Moderator Jenste's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    North Providence, Rhode Island, United States
    Age
    36
    Posts
    1,317
    Picture Albums: Member Photo Albums

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    I had Laevis, Borealis and Tropicalis at one point (wasn't breeding the Tropicalis, just keeping). I was also breeding Axolotls. When we decided we wanted to start having our own family I cut back so it would be less work. Now I am finally pregnant and keeping just Laevis, I am looking forward to one day rearing little tads again just for fun.
    72 Gallon Bow - ACF and GF tank.
    26 Gallon Bow - ACF tank.

    20 Gallon Long - ACF tank.


    "If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty. But the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it." C.S. Lewis, Four Loves, 1958

  7. #5
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Congrats on the baby! That's wonderful! In a few years, raising tads with him/her is a great way to teach him/her about the wonders of nature. My great nephew is turning 2 next week and is starting to appreciate animals. Right now he is in a kitty phase. Every time he visits, the first thing he does when he comes in is yell, "kitty," and chase them around the house. It's amazing how gentle he is with them. He has also started taking an interest in the frogs. He will sit and watch them for 15 minutes at a time. He points and giggles at them when I give them worms. I think that watching their personalities and interests develop is the most rewarding thing in the world.

  8. This member thanks celticstarb for this post:


  9. #6
    Moderator Jenste's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    North Providence, Rhode Island, United States
    Age
    36
    Posts
    1,317
    Picture Albums: Member Photo Albums

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    It's a girl and she is due in a little less than 15 weeks. And I showed restraint and designed her nursery with owls, not frogs lol.
    I can't wait for her to see the frogs and goldfish. Our cats will have the biggest adjustment

    Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk
    72 Gallon Bow - ACF and GF tank.
    26 Gallon Bow - ACF tank.

    20 Gallon Long - ACF tank.


    "If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty. But the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it." C.S. Lewis, Four Loves, 1958

  10. #7
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Owls are a wonderful choice. I love the folklore about them. My mom collects owl figurines.

    Yeah, the first time my nephew came over he was just starting to walk. My cats would look at him then look at me, and back and forth. I could almost hear them saying, "Daddy, what is this thing?" Once my nephew started running, the cats decided that was enough for them. Now they scatter any time he visits, lol. Probably smart on their part, although my nephew is surprisingly gentle with animals and younger kids. He's never tried to hit them, and when I hold one for him to pet, he pets them very gently. My niece and nephew are doing a wonderful job raising a loving gentle boy. Sorry if I wax eloquent, but I am so proud of my new nephew.

  11. #8
    Moderator Jenste's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    North Providence, Rhode Island, United States
    Age
    36
    Posts
    1,317
    Picture Albums: Member Photo Albums

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    You'll never need to apologize to me for being proud of your family!

    We are looking forward to raising her to be an animal lover like the rest of our family members. Cats to cuddle with, frogs and fish to watch and "help" care for. My nieces (from my husband's side of the family...all my sisters are teenagers and I do NOT want to be an aunty from one of them anytime soon!) are wonderful girls but my 13yr old niece Leigha is the Dr. Doolittle of the family - animals just adore her unlike anything I have ever seen before. We all hope she becomes a veterinarian when she is older, she has such a gentle touch and soothing presence that even the most nervous, least friendly animal seeks out her affection.
    72 Gallon Bow - ACF and GF tank.
    26 Gallon Bow - ACF tank.

    20 Gallon Long - ACF tank.


    "If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty. But the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it." C.S. Lewis, Four Loves, 1958

  12. #9
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    One piece of info I forgot to include is salt. I add one teaspoon of salt per gallon of water. I find that this small amount of salt is a great preventative for many pathogens. I haven't had any issues with fungus or bloat. I also noticed decreased mortality rates in tads after adding salt to their tanks.

    I use instant ocean salt. I prefer marine salt. Others use water softener salt or "aquarium" salt, but these only contain sodium chloride. Marine salt is a mix of many different salts and trace elements. I think these trace elements are very beneficial to our frogs.

  13. #10
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Nationality
    [United Kingdom]
    Posts
    120

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jenste View Post
    It's a girl and she is due in a little less than 15 weeks. And I showed restraint and designed her nursery with owls, not frogs lol.
    I can't wait for her to see the frogs and goldfish. Our cats will have the biggest adjustment

    Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

    Congratulations, Jen!

  14. This member thanks Gemma for this post:


  15. #11
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Anyone else willing to share their techniques?

  16. #12
    100+ Post Member mpmistr's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Effingham, Illinois, United States
    Age
    45
    Posts
    1,045

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Can't really say I have much technique for keeping clawed frogs since they're very easy to keep, but here goes..

    I keep 3 females and 1 male in a 40 gallon breeder. I use an Eheim 2217 canister for filtration. I have a lot of drift wood pieces in the tank on the bottom, the frogs like to chill out in it. I attached java fern to the drift wood so it makes it look nicer. Substrate is just simple aquarium sand. I did try adding oak leaves for 'leaf litter' on the bottom, but it turns out oak leaves degrade pretty quickly, so I don't bother anymore.

    I have an abundance of duckweed and water sprite growing up top and I have added some pothos growing down the side of my tank with the roots in the water. There's some vals growing in the sand but I removed most of those plants because the frogs uproot them anyways. I try to keep the temps at 70F if possible but my tank is 75F right now because it's still summer. The lights on my tank are a Current Satellite LED+, which is kind of cool because it has a remote and is competely adjustable and even has presets for weather effects (like clouds, storms, night time, ect). I usually don't keep the lights on very high, I am pretty sure clawed frogs dislike bright light in general, the floating plants cut down on light quite a bit, I feel this makes the frogs more active in general.

    For food, one or two nightcrawlers a week and reptomin. I used to keep feeder mollies and ghost shrimp in the tank but I got tired of breeding mollies and ghost shrimp aren't for sale around here anymore, either way the frogs ate them all anyways. I do kind of miss having the shrimp, they added some variety to the tank and do live a surprisingly long time with clawed frogs since the frogs don't notice them that much (but do find them eventually..).

    Once a week I change out 15-20 gallons of water and replace it with treated tap. I've never had any issues with the health of my frogs, I've kept them this way for about three years now.

  17. #13
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Thanks. This is a great way to show how people can use different techniques and still keep healthy happy frogs.

    I have never tried leaf litter since hard water gives better breeding results, and my tap water is very hard. But I have heard others use it and have similar results with their breeding. I am using leaf litter for my Pipa pipa, but just to give them a since of security (plus it's fun to play "Where's Waldo" with them since they blend in so well, and look like a leaf.)

  18. #14
    100+ Post Member mpmistr's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Effingham, Illinois, United States
    Age
    45
    Posts
    1,045

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    I've never had any luck with breeding, my male sings now and then but nothing seems to come of it.

  19. #15
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    If you feel like trying to breed them, there are a few things that can help induce breeding behaviors. Try dropping their water level by 1/3 for a few weeks, then fill their water back to it's original level with 78 degree water. Keep the water at that temp for a week and increase feeding. This is reverse of normal pipid breeding. But if you look at the African climate, their rainy season is actually during the warmer months. I have had luck with lowering the temp, but it isn't as successful as raising the temp.

  20. #16
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Nationality
    [United Kingdom]
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    105

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Quote Originally Posted by mpmistr View Post
    I've never had any luck with breeding, my male sings now and then but nothing seems to come of it.
    I've posted this information before but it may be helpful to do so again.

    I had two pairs of young frogs which, on reaching sexual maturity after approximately a year, produced eggs. For the next 7 years they remained healthy and went into amplexus but there were no more eggs. During those 7 years I kept them in a lavishly planted natural-looking tank which, although pleasing on the eye, did not provide any significant changes in environmental conditions in terms of lighting (10 hours a day - controlled by a time switch) or water temperature, which was roughly in the 68°F to 70°F range. Their tank was in a north-facing room and never received any direct sunlight.

    Eventually, I decided to move things around and transferred the frogs to another tank, which was sparsely furnished with plastic plants, no substrate or artificial lighting, a few short pieces of upturned plastic guttering to provide shelter, a basic air-powered box filter and a sliding glass lid. This tank was situated in a south-facing room, which received direct sunlight (when it was sunny) for a large part of the day, although the tank itself did not. However, the room had a fluctuating temperature range. In winter, there was no heating on in the daytime when I was at work. In summer it got fairly hot (most homes in the UK don't have AC), which meant that the tank's water temperature gradually fell and rose accordingly from the low 60°sF to the upper 70°sF range.

    The result was that the frogs started producing eggs again during the first summer of being in the new tank. They did it again the following spring and, even after the males had passed away, there was at least one female who expelled unfertilised eggs in April of one year. Unfortunately, I didn't keep detailed records.

    The experience was unexpected and an unintended consequence of relocating the frogs. The main lesson I learnt from it is that what we may perceive as a "natural" tank can sometimes amount to little more than a pleasing visual effect to satisfy our own aesthetic requirements rather than a true replica the frogs' natural conditions.

  21. #17
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    That is great information. And, I agree with it 100%. When breeding, I put my frogs into a DIY rack system that is bare bottom with a piece of PVC cut in half to form a cave. These are the only frog tanks that have a heater. That is all they have for "decoration." My rack system is in the warmest room in the house, and the lights are on a timer and the rack receives more light than the display tanks. The display tanks I keep my frogs in when not breeding are in our living areas, and the lights are on when we require light, not based on the frogs requirements (I do keep a small led light on each tank that is on a timer jut to make transitioning to indirect lighting when we turn on lights.) I almost never have eggs in the DT.

    What I find most interesting is that temperature variations, either up or down, can trigger spawning. Most aquatic amphibians require a temperature drop to breed, but clawed frogs will breed with a temp increase. In fact, I have had better luck with an increase.

  22. #18
    100+ Post Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Nationality
    [United Kingdom]
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    105

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    Quote Originally Posted by celticstarb View Post
    What I find most interesting is that temperature variations, either up or down, can trigger spawning. Most aquatic amphibians require a temperature drop to breed, but clawed frogs will breed with a temp increase. In fact, I have had better luck with an increase.
    It's not so surprising really. You have to bear in mind that most species of Xenopus don't originate from tropical regions of Africa but from regions that have more of a Mediterranean zone climate, similar to parts of California, with a seasonal variation of dry, hot summers and mild but cool and wet winters.

    The description I gave above of my own experience of breeding them strongly suggests that what stimulated them to breed was the seasonal fluctuation in ambient air temperature and hours of daylight, which were more or less natural and not controlled. Hence, the onset of spring, with warmer temperatures and increasing hours of daylight, created the right conditions to trigger egg laying.

  23. #19
    Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    69

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    I keep 6 laevis in a 40 breeder tank; 1 male albino, 2 female albino, 1 male pigmented, and 2 female pigmented. The tank is filtered with an Aquaclear 50 hob filter. I perform two 20% water changes a week. Temp is around 70 F in the cooler months, and mid-70s in the summer. Decor is sand substrate with a few drift wood pieces, some rooted plants (which usually get dug up), and floating hornwort. There are also several pothos vines on top of the tank with roots in the tank.
    I feed them a menu of red worms, shrimp, krill, squid, scallops, silversides, tilapia, and Reptomin sticks. No set feeding schedule, will feed them heavy and then skip a couple of days before their next meal.

  24. #20
    100+ Post Member celticstarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Nationality
    [United States]
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    164

    Default Re: How do we keep our frogs?

    I like the varied diet you give them. I believe a good varied diet is great for long term health. And a 40 breeder is great for a large volume and footprint!

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 19
    Last Post: May 1st, 2014, 04:34 PM
  2. Replies: 1
    Last Post: November 29th, 2013, 07:32 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •