Xenopus Care Questions

[Beatlesbabe97]

I was wondering if anyone knows of any good care sheets on Xenopus. I may be getting a pair with in the next couple weeks, I know the basics of care, but as always I wish to set up the best possible habitat I can. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Herpvet]

Hi,

Some useful websites I found:

http://aquaticfrogs.tripod.com/id9.html

http://www.clawedfrogs.com/

http://www.xlaevis.com/

hope this helps,

Bruce.

[Kurt]

Don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but Xenopus are known carriers of chytrid. They are immune to it, but most likely your other frogs are not. Good news is chytrid is easily destroyed. Wash your hands and anything else that comes in contact with the clawed frog or its enclosure. Alcohol can be used on your hands and a bleach and water solution on equipment. Rinse thoroughly before coming contact with any amphibian after that. The temperature can also be raised to 37 C for about 16 hours according to an article I saw. If your other frogs do become infected they can be treated with itraconazole.

I had a fire salamander die of chytridiomycosis about 2 months ago, so I have been very aware of the disease and paranoid about its spread.

For more info see - http://www.amphibianark.org/chytrid.htm

[Kurt]

OK, now a much more positive response to your inquiry. African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis are easy to care for. The are totally aquatic and will eat anything that will fit in there mouths. So be very careful what or who you put in with them. I had one choke on one of it's roommates, a Corydoras julii. They will eat all varieties of tropical fish food, small fish, crickets, mealworms, smaller frogs, basically anything that they can fit into their mouths. You can keep them like tropical fish. Keep the water clean and keep the pH from going into any extreme ranges and it should do fine.
If you hear it calling that doesn't necessarily mean you have a male, as both genders call in this species. The call sounds like the winding of a wrist watch, at least to me it does, and is rather loud considering that the frog is underwater when its calling.

[Beatlesbabe97]

Thanks for all the tips, I have another question though...I know for a fact that one of the frogs is a male and the other a female. Can they be housed safely in the habitat?

[Kurt]

Thanks for all the tips, I have another question though...I know for a fact that one of the frogs is a male and the other a female. Can they be housed safely in the habitat?

You're welcome. They can be housed together no problem as long as they are close in size. Breeding is said to be easy. I know someone that has bred them and he said he was getting so many eggs from them that he ended up throwing fist-fulls away.

[jody]

fist fulls of frogs? or eggs? people who raise snails flush the eggs.

[Kurt]

Eggs.