Is my adf healthy, sick, happy, sad, lonely, did I cure him or did he never have a problem at all?

[dessny]

Long story, but I sort of inherited a male Beta from an ex-roomate. Almost a year ago. In January, I got bored and looked into potential tank mates for him and decided to get an adf. They sort of pick on each other but live in harmony at the same time.. like siblings. The fish is happy until we look at the frog too much, the he comes over and bites or pretends like he's going to bite at the frog.
My frog seems to be shedding all the time, but I never thought much of it after having an iguana growing up who shed all the time. I started to find out this could be a sign of chytlid fungus. He had the milky color with skin hanging from him for a week or 2 straight... or maybe longer.
I've never seen him eat frog pellets, he started getting really skinny, so I went into the garden and put some different bugs into the tank to see which ones he would eat. Of course they both loved the worms, but I wanted to find something that wasn't beneficial from the garden for him to eat. He loves slugs (when I can find them small enough.) And even when I put a big slug in, he goes after it until he has stringy stuff all over him and he's trying to wipe it from his face... hilarious! So he's fattened up a little this past week.
Before I ever brought anything in from the garden, he had skin hanging all the time, so he didn't catch anything from my garden's toads.
So now, I really started worrying he was sick even though he's decently chipper. So this morning I decided to create my own concoction, I crushed a little garlic into the water, and cut some oregano from the garden and put that in the water too. Tonight, I got some benzalkonium chloride, put a little in a separate container with water from the tank and soaked him for a half hour. When I put him in the bath, he shed a little extra skin from his foot and is now loose skin free!
Seems a bit quick for if he was sick, but its been weeks with this! An hour later, he started singing for the first time! He looks over at the sofa, where we are, and sings. So I don't know if he's happy or sad or if I should get him another frog?

[frog fan 13]

i am not an expert but i would suggest you get another frog for him as these are social creatures

[dessny]

Daniel, I agree completely. The thought of getting him a friend played a big part in my worrying he was sick.

[frog fan 13]

i had one and he would sing a lot at night so my mom got so fend up with it that she got him a friend and now hes okay

[dessny]

We think the singing is so cute! So does yours not sing at all now that you have 2? or just less?
BTW, he already looks again like he needs to shed, and has a little skin under his skin and on his leg starting to come off. Isn't that soon?

[frog fan 13]

he sings every now and then when he thinks its mating season and i dont know how long it takes for them to shed but i'm sure he will soon

[frog fan 13]

i just looked at mine and it looks like he is getting ready to shed too

[Jenste]

Sorry but I completely disagree with Daniel. Most ADF keepers will tell you that most of the time the Betta and Frog combo does not work in the long run, for reasons you are seeing.

The betta has great vision and can really hone in on the food, the ADF is nearly blind and has to sniff around for the food. Often, the betta eats most of it and the ADF is left with scraps, making it underweight and malnourished.

The betta also loves going after things like the frog's toes and eyes. Not a good situation for the frog and one that makes him extremely stressed.

Tattered or frequent shedding is a sign of a stressed and ill frog. The skin is always a slightly white color as it peels off.

ADFs are companion animals, but with other ADF. Any new frogs would need to be quarantined away from your current frog for a minimum of 30 days to ensure you have a healthy new frog who won't introduce disease to your current frog.

Your best bet is to separate betta and current ADF. Get the current ADF calm for a few weeks in a stressfree tank, then start looking for tank mates you can quarantine for him.

How large is your tank? a 2-2.5 gallon tank can house 1 ADF. a 5 gallon tank can house 2 ADF. a 10 gallon tank can house 5-6 ADF.

Be careful about what you bring him in to eat from outside, if you use any sort of ferilizer, weed killer, pesticide etc etc then run the risk of long term poisoning your frog by having him eat bugs who could have been exposed to fertilizer.
Store bought or bait store bought is your best option. Or buy from organic garden centers.

[dessny]

Thanks for the advice. Since I've found that the betta doesn't like slugs, that leaves the frog with lots of food. The betta doesn't typically pick on him too much, it seems like he gets jealous, but generally ignores him. But then last night, the frog was pestering the fish, swimming around the fish wherever he would go.
Its good to know that his tattered skin is a sign of stress, the unknown on what was causing the strange shedding was making me stressed. And will seriously consider separating them. I had them apart one day though, and the frog just seemed lonely. When he DOES seem stressed is when the filter is running, so I try to only run it a couple of hours a day. Otherwise, I am going thru the tank with a baster sucking stuff up from the bottom about once a week. The PH and ammonia levels have always been good. He has lots of hiding places. Maybe I make too many changes to the tank, in effort to make them happier, I added rocks and the filter last week.

The tank I have them in is about 3 gal.

I don't use anything that is potentially hazardous outside my house. And my neighbors usually don't either. If I did, I wouldn't have so many slugs. If I wouldn't want to expose animals to it, I certainly would not want to expose myself to it either. I just have to share this... I was making a stone path in the garden, tearing out some plants, pulled one out, turned around, and there was a big blonde colored toad, the size of my fist looking at me. I left her alone for a min, she was in no hurry to get outa there. I eventually just had to make her move. We have lots of toads typically, this one in particular would sit on my stairs most evenings last year and maybe even before that. So I gotta say, I'm not worried about the quality of the bugs.
All opinions are appreciated

[dessny]

Update, I got another frog today. I was trying to find a girl. So I was looking for one with a more round body. Now, I worry I picked one with bloat. I didn't notice in the store, but the rounder body, also makes her look like she has a beer belly. But, thankfully, she is in a 1 gal. pre-prepared quarantine tank. I know, its small, but thats all I have.
The purpose of getting this new frog is to provide companionship to my other frog. Almost as soon as I got her in the separate tank, that I had set next to the existing one, both frogs go over to the glass and hang out across from each other. Cute. I just hope the newbie is healthy.
I also got 2 ghost shrimp and put one in each tank to hopefully cut down on the amount of filter time and bottom cleaning. And maybe any of this could cut down on froggy stresses.

[frog fan 13]

i hope she doesnt have bloat and that it does help with the stress too

[Jenste]

I recommend keeping the filter on at all times. When you turn your filter off, you stop the flow of oxygen from feeding the filter bacteria (what you want to grow) and this bacteria is what actually filters your tank. It dies off quickly when deprived of oxygen and if there is no filter bacteria then there is no filtration of the water, just water being moved around.

Post a picture of your new little female. Hopefully she doesn't have bloat

[dessny]

I moved the filter closer to the top. I will try letting it run more and see if its less disturbing to them.
I am kinda thinking the new frog just really needed to poop. She has much less of a belly today, and there is a big poop in the tank. But she still has a bit of a belly that I am not used to. It could be just her body shape, or she could be chubby. As super shy as she is, she was shamelessly going crazy for a piece of food last night.

[dessny]

Any idea what this pink spot is on her side? Its only the one side, didn't see it until I got home. It kind of looks like thinner skin to me, like maybe recovering from an injury.... but I would love opinions.

[Jenste]

Unfortunately I cannot zoom in on the picture but her form looks healthy to me. Females have a vastly different body shape from males and are more pear shaped where as males are thinner.

Keep an eye on her and see how she is getting on in a few weeks before you make their introductions.