Need some African Clawed Frog Advice..

[tgampper]

I don't recommend feeding your frogs "freeze-dried anything", especially bloodworms, frozen is OK. Freeze-dried foods often cause bloating. Generally sinking food are preferred by ADFs while ACFs are surface of mid-level feeders. Stay away from bait shop food, often the fish have parasites or diseases that can infect your frog. I feed my ACFs Repto-Min exclusively and they been healthy for over 12 years.

[mpmistr]

I don't recommend feeding your frogs "freeze-dried anything", especially bloodworms, frozen is OK. Freeze-dried foods often cause bloating. Generally sinking food are preferred by ADFs while ACFs are surface of mid-level feeders. Stay away from bait shop food, often the fish have parasites or diseases that can infect your frog. I feed my ACFs Repto-Min exclusively and they been healthy for over 12 years.

I will take your advice and avoid bait shop stuff, not too sure where to get live worms otherwise though, suppose I could see if the pet shops carry any. I feed my frogs probably 90% reptomin I am pretty sold on the fact that should be the bread and butter of their diets, seems like people with long lived ACF feed reptomin. I've never fed my frogs freeze dried, I feed my fish freeze dried foods sometimes but they do not share the same tank as my ACFs.

The only 'treats' I've ever given my frogs are Hikari frozen bloodworms and frozen PE Mysis.

[SailAwayAK]

You can worm bin anything you get from a shop and quarantine them. It is usually the best. I found that compost worms, though small, can do double duty in the home or classroom. We made a bin in class and the kids were able to see the full circle of how life goes. Quite interesting. Compost worms usually can be purchased through a reputable garden center or even from a friend to start your own system. Once healthy and growing 1lb of worms will breed like crazy, compost your food scraps, and make some great compost for the garden.

[mpmistr]

Maybe I am being paranoid but I am noticing something amiss with one of my ACF.. he is a darker skinned ACF but around his nostrils there appears to be a slight discoloration, it's a little more 'grey' around there.. also I notice his appetite is not as hearty as my other (albeit a bit larger) ACF.

I am feeding my ACF reptomin still and my Albino ACF will eat forever pretty much but my other ACF will eat 2 mini-pellets and will refuse anything past that.. which I think is unusual since they are generally not fussy eaters..

The last and most disturbing thing I've noticed is that his stool was white.. it looked normal but my other ACF seems to poop black feces.. white stool is making me think he may have a parasite? I've only fed my ACF reptomin and occasionally (as in once a week..) frozen Mysis and at one time frozen Blood Worms (but I stopped with frozen blood worms since everyone says they're bad news).

I did make the mistake, in my opinion of feeding live black worms once from a pet shop but I did not want to risk parasites so I threw them away, and that was before I got the darker ACF so he shouldn't be effected by that..



Other than that he seems very normal and fairly active. I included a picture, and yes they're froglets and not doing the nasty lol..

Oh also I had my water tested and I had 0 Ammonia .. but he didn't have a way to test Nitrites, and I had some Nitrates but he didn't specify how many. He said the water was good and would give me a money back guarantee on any fish I picked up if I chose to so I am assuming the water is OK.. and again my other ACF is very active and healthy so I dunno.. :/

[SwimminSteve]

It's difficult to tell from the pic, but the gray area could be the frog's pinneal organ. It's a "third eye" sort of, they are able to sense light and shadows with it. I only have one frog that this is noticeable on, my x. muelleri. Could you get us a better pick? It could also be shedding skin or an infection from bumping his face on something abrasive. I don't really know about white poop, that is strange. I would invest in a water test kit. I was reluctant to buy one at first, but now I love the thing. API makes a real nice one at a great price. It's about 50% cheaper online: Amazon.com: API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT: Pet Supplies .
Does your frog seem thin?

[mpmistr]

It's difficult to tell from the pic, but the gray area could be the frog's pinneal organ. It's a "third eye" sort of, they are able to sense light and shadows with it. I only have one frog that this is noticeable on, my x. muelleri. Could you get us a better pick? It could also be shedding skin or an infection from bumping his face on something abrasive. I don't really know about white poop, that is strange. I would invest in a water test kit. I was reluctant to buy one at first, but now I love the thing. API makes a real nice one at a great price. It's about 50% cheaper online: Amazon.com: API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT: Pet Supplies .
Does your frog seem thin?

I'll pick up a water test kit ASAP. I know my ammonia was zero my nitrates were good but my LFS didn't have the liquid for nitrites but he assumed they were zero since my nitrates were pretty decent. I do weekly 25% water changes and I run two filters on my 20g aquarium a 30g filter and a 20g filter, it's also way under stocked as the frogs are very small. I would be very surprised if it were the water, I have six ghost shrimp in that tank along with a snail, considering how fragile ghost shrimp are I'd be surprised if it were water.

Now that I think of it I did have some rather coarse rocks in my aquarium, which I've since removed because I saw now 'crash prone' the frogs are..

He is seriously the most camera shy frog I've ever seen. I tried to get a better pic.. did my best but I didn't want to completely stress him further. His nose area skin just looks a little grey and like it's going to peel, he otherwise looks healthy and he's not lethargic at all though he does hide a lot, but I noticed when my other ACF was smaller he was fond of hiding too and has gotten bolder as he's gotten bigger so I don't know.

The fact he will not eat anything past 2 reptomin mini pellets and had white stool has me worried. My other ACF is 100% active, hungry, and healthy. I keep my tank at 70F so I don't think it's a temperature thing. When I present him frozen Mysis he seems to perk up a bit as far as hunger goes, maybe he is bored of reptomin? LOL

[SwimminSteve]

I'd bet that he scraped his nose on something. It's happened to one of my frogs in the past. She healed up fine without treatment. I can still see a bit of a scar where the injury was, but she's fine. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't start to look fuzzy or red/irritated. As far as appetite, I wouldn't worry too too much. Some frogs are voracious, some less so. You're right, he probably isn't a huge fan of reptomin. They can get bored of a boring diet. I feed a lot of frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. I know there are very mixed opinions, but my frogs have been very healthy and happy for years. Hand-feeding the bloodworms/brine shrimp is so much fun too. They go nuts!
Your frog is probably having trouble getting his food with those rocks. Everything will fall through the cracks. I recommend sand or bare bottom. I have a tank of each and they're easy to maintain with a turkey baster and gravel vac.
Frozen foods now and then aren't going to harm your frog. Buy good quality (hikari) and don't overfeed (any food for that matter) and you should be fine. Remember that you can cut the cubes for smaller portions. I just hold the frozen cube in the water long enough for the worms on the outside to start to thaw and float free. Then I hold it up to my frogs face and hold on while they attack and rip at the cube. They have become so "friendly" from this and will even go after my hand while I clean the tank. I'm able to regulate everyone's portions this way and make sure that minimal food is wasted to prevent a big mess. I think it counts for playtime enrichment too. I can't emphasize enough how much they love it. lol