Greetings. Need help on feeding male & female African Clawed Frogs.

[t22]

Greetings,

I have two African Clawed Frogs in an 18 gal aquarium. I had one for a few months before getting another as a companion. When the second one got fairly close in size to the first, I put them together. Turns out, I have a male and a female, which I have had now for about 5 years. Now the problem.

The female has grown about 50% larger than the male. For a few years I fed them every day using repto-min. For the last 6 months or so, I have been feeding freeze dried grub worms and repto-min every other day. Even though I place equal amounts of food on each side of the tank. The female always eats voraciously and the male never seems to get much food. The female seems to intimidate the male.

Due to the female's size, I thought I might have been overfeeding, so I cut back on the food a bit.

The other day, I noticed the male coming out of one of the shelters, jerking as if his foot was caught in something. He exited the shelter, and the female was right behind, attempting to eat his foot (or so it appeared).

Needless to say, I'm feeding them more now, worried that the female will eat the male if I don't keep her appetite in check.

Should I think about separating these two? It seems that the female dominates the food consumption due to her size, which makes the size difference worse. Can anyone offer advice as to what I should be doing differently?

Thanks.

[Jenste]

welcome!

You will probably get more responses if you post under "Aquatic Frogs"



As for ACF, females are always much larger than males, that is not an issue - - however do stop feeding the freeze dried grubs, freeze dried anything should be avoided. It easily messes up their digestion and can make them impacted.


Reptomin sticks are great - - try breaking them up to make them take longer to eat.

You can also try frozen blood worms (thawed prior to feeding) and let the worms scatter so the frogs have to hunt them up. Usually one cube per adult frog works well.

Earth worms are also a big hit - buy from a bait store, do not use ones you "find" - you have no way of knowing what fertilizers or pesticides they may have come into contact with. If you need to, cut the worms in halves or thirds - the frogs will go nuts.


if you have a secure fitting lid (VERY secure) you can also do the random cricket feeding. a bag of 10 small crickets would probably work well. it takes the frogs a little longer to hunt them down as the crickets attempt to swim away. make sure there are no surfaces (floating decorations or plants, or the top of the filter) that they can climb on to.

[t22]

Thank you so much. You help is greatly appreciated.

[ARMS87]

welcome

[FrogmanGav]

If you want to go the extra mile another thing you could do is hand feeding. If the male is not getting a chance to get to the food, take it to him. This works especially well with live earthworms as they will take them straight off you

[ARMS87]

welcome

[kellym5505]

Greetings,

I have two African Clawed Frogs in an 18 gal aquarium. I had one for a few months before getting another as a companion. When the second one got fairly close in size to the first, I put them together. Turns out, I have a male and a female, which I have had now for about 5 years. Now the problem.

The female has grown about 50% larger than the male. For a few years I fed them every day using repto-min. For the last 6 months or so, I have been feeding freeze dried grub worms and repto-min every other day. Even though I place equal amounts of food on each side of the tank. The female always eats voraciously and the male never seems to get much food. The female seems to intimidate the male.

Due to the female's size, I thought I might have been overfeeding, so I cut back on the food a bit.

The other day, I noticed the male coming out of one of the shelters, jerking as if his foot was caught in something. He exited the shelter, and the female was right behind, attempting to eat his foot (or so it appeared).

Needless to say, I'm feeding them more now, worried that the female will eat the male if I don't keep her appetite in check.

Should I think about separating these two? It seems that the female dominates the food consumption due to her size, which makes the size difference worse. Can anyone offer advice as to what I should be doing differently?

Thanks.

I have a 5 year old Male (Mr Croaker), I feed Him frozen blood worm pellets 2 times a day by hand they seem to have bad eye site at times. i Used to have him and 2 Dwarf's in the same tank. had one issue when i first got all of them Mr Croaker grabed one of the darwfs feet but let go, that was when i started feeding 2 times a day.They or she may not be eating enough you need to make sure she eats. I would not keep feeding them the food you have been i would change to a frozen Pellet of some kind Mr Croaker will only eat the Blood worm pellets. i place one in the tank and wait until is starts to sink then grab it and place it by his face until he takes it. i think you are not feeding both of them enough. they are hungry. i have heard of male and females getting along just fine , but if they are hungry Very Hungry they will try to eat one another.

[kellym5505]

Greetings,

I have two African Clawed Frogs in an 18 gal aquarium. I had one for a few months before getting another as a companion. When the second one got fairly close in size to the first, I put them together. Turns out, I have a male and a female, which I have had now for about 5 years. Now the problem.

The female has grown about 50% larger than the male. For a few years I fed them every day using repto-min. For the last 6 months or so, I have been feeding freeze dried grub worms and repto-min every other day. Even though I place equal amounts of food on each side of the tank. The female always eats voraciously and the male never seems to get much food. The female seems to intimidate the male.

Due to the female's size, I thought I might have been overfeeding, so I cut back on the food a bit.

The other day, I noticed the male coming out of one of the shelters, jerking as if his foot was caught in something. He exited the shelter, and the female was right behind, attempting to eat his foot (or so it appeared).

Needless to say, I'm feeding them more now, worried that the female will eat the male if I don't keep her appetite in check.

Should I think about separating these two? It seems that the female dominates the food consumption due to her size, which makes the size difference worse. Can anyone offer advice as to what I should be doing differently?

Thanks.

no just make sure you are hand feeding them both. i have a adult male , he eats frozen blood worm pellets he gets fed 2 pellets 2 x daily by hand, these frogs will get lonely if separated they enjoy the company of others, not sure what you feed them but i would do so by hand, possibly give female extra. i had my Mr Croaker with 2 dwarfs for almost 5 years,9 they passed away from old age 1 week apart and Mr croaker is lonely) he never ate them because i made sure he was fed enough.

[tgampper]

The other day, I noticed the male coming out of one of the shelters, jerking as if his foot was caught in something. He exited the shelter, and the female was right behind, attempting to eat his foot (or so it appeared).

The main way these frog can detect prey is through their lateral line system (like fish). If you look closely, you will see what looks like stitching along the back of the frog. These lines are sensitive to water movement and allows the frog to detect possible prey around them. The frog may not be interpreting the waves properly. Also, the placement of the eyes could be a factor. The eyes are designed to view activity above the surface of the water not in the water (typical prey of these frogs are usually above the surface of the water, like birds). These frogs also have very poor eyesight, so "attacks" are fairly common.

Should I think about separating these two? It seems that the female dominates the food consumption due to her size, which makes the size difference worse. Can anyone offer advice as to what I should be doing differently?

I don't think that separating them is necessary. My female is much larger than the male and usually bites the male's foot. I see this behavior during feeding and I use my finger to separate them, they will calm down quickly. Just keep an eye out for injuries.