Need some African Clawed Frog Advice..

[mpmistr]

Hey there I recently added an African Clawed Frog to my 20 gallon aquarium, he's currently in there with 3 zebra danios, an apple snail, and two ghost shrimp. I've got a 55 gallon tank currently cycling and I'd like to make that his new home once the tank is properly cycled. I know he's going to grow up and gobbled up everything in my 20 gallon so I have a plan to move him..

My question is, my frog is currently small, about an inch or a little bigger than an inch. I am having a really hard time getting him to eat pellets, right now I am feeding him Hikari frozen blood worms mostly and he loves them! He will usually gobble up a small clump and then actively seek out any stragglers (though the fish do a good job at cleaning them up too). I am using a turkey baster to shoot them right in front of his face and he goes crazy for them, he's already gotten noticeably bigger than he was when I got him, which was a little over a week ago. He seems healthy.

I've added pond pebbles to my aquarium for substrate (and the pellets usually sink in and are never eaten) and when I feed him HBH Frog and Tadpole bites (and I've tried to make them even smaller) I have to either drop them right in front of him or he ignores them, he will sometimes make a lunge for them but usually spits them out. I just can't get him to eat them. He also ignores freeze dried tubifex worms (but I heard these aren't that good for them anyways so I stopped).

Anyways long story short. I just can't get this guy to eat pellets. He only seems to have an appetite for blood worms, and I read that while the Hikari blood worms are highly rated that these aren't the best food for them.

I've tried using a turkey baster and softening the pellets a bit but he either ignores it or spits it out every time. Any idea how I can get him to eat the pellets? I know it's good for him.. he just wants no part of it. Can he survive on blood worms for a bit? He's rather enthusiastic when those appear..

[Maddymoo]

I really recommend against feeding bloodworms, they can cause bloat which can then kill your frog, maybe brine shrimp would make a good subsitute? Also, if you ONLY feed the pellets (or maybe try reptomin sticks), surely your frog will get hungry enough to eat them? I don't think it would starve itself out of stubbornness? I could be wrong though, I'm by no means an expert and hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along and give a better answer. Hope I helped though

[mpmistr]

I really recommend against feeding bloodworms, they can cause bloat which can then kill your frog, maybe brine shrimp would make a good subsitute? Also, if you ONLY feed the pellets (or maybe try reptomin sticks), surely your frog will get hungry enough to eat them? I don't think it would starve itself out of stubbornness? I could be wrong though, I'm by no means an expert and hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along and give a better answer. Hope I helped though

Are even Hikari brand blood worms a bad idea? Ive heard a lot of positive things about them, such as they were very sanitary and did not have parasites or bacteria that lead to bloating disease. I would like to get him on the pellets. I was going to let him get a little hungry and try again. I am curious about the Hikari blood worms though, since he is obviously overly fond of them.

I have tried reptomin, if just floats up there, this is a little guy.. the water is a little under a foot deep he just doesn't know to go up there and look. I've also tried brine shrimp pellets, honestly they're not getting his attention either.

[Collegekid]

You can sink reptomin sticks. When my guys were smaller I'd break the sticks into smaller pieces with my thumb nail, drop them in, wait for them to soak up some water, then gently squish them against the glass with one finger and let go. The air is pushed out of them and they sink. Freeze dried blood worms are not a good complete diet. You can probably go without feeding pellets but you'll need to add earthworms, feeder fish, and other insects. Earthworms would need to be from where you'd buy fishing bait, not from the yard (for fear of pesticides and other contamination) and you'd want to make sure feeder fish are disease free, maybe breed your own guppies or something (NO minnows or goldfish). Freeze dried blood worms alone will not do it, and yes they are associated with health problems. I also feel like freeze dried foods can't be that nutritious, but maybe I'm wrong. I prefer frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms (after thawing of course), they just strike me as more nutritious.

[mpmistr]

Ive never fed mine freeze dried bloodworms only thawed out frozen hikari bloodworms. Im going to fast the little guy for a day or two and try pellets again i guess.

Breeding guppies has crossed my mind though.

[mpmistr]

Before heading off to work and after not feeding my frog yesterday I decided to give pellets another try. I softened some reptomin pellets in a plastic cup with some of my tanks water in it and then used a skewer to dangle it in front of my frogs mouth. He eventually took a bite of it and ate about half a pellet but he seemed to lose interest after that.. I guess I will try again after work and see if I can try to get him to eat again...

[SailAwayAK]

These frogs are meat eaters. The people I got my first frogs from kept 2 of them in a 10 gallon tank and fed them anything that was around including Reptomin sticks. Just like humans they will eat anything if they are hungry enough. They are massive garbage hogs and live on all kinds of nasty in the wild. That being said, these frogs can eat a pretty varied diet.

I keep worm compost bin. I have my own worms there that I can feed to my frogs. However you will need to "poop" or de poop the worms or the dirt sullies the tank. Gross I know but it can make a difference and add nitrates and such you don't want in your tank. The fun thing is you can train them to come up and take it right from your hands. My first graders love that!

I never do freeze dried unless it has soaked for awhile. Same goes for the dried food pellets. I do use frozen blood worms most often. I found beef heart and brine shrimp make a mess of the tank and filters. And I HATE that.

I don't do feeder fish right from the stores because I never know what bugs they have. I did quarantine a bunch of guppies and let those breed one year but it's a hassle. So back to frozen blood worms I went.

Personally I think the whole thing behind the HBH frog and tadpole stuff is nutty. Just my opinion. When the tads are little it might make some sense to crush them and use them but over all, these critters do just fine on what they like best. Meat.

[mpmistr]

I've had a lot of luck feeding my frogs since I posted this. I came up with a pretty decent method of feeding them. Right now I'm mostly feeding reptomin with the occasional treat of frozen mysis shrimp, which they go pretty crazy for.

Since my frogs are little and it never occurs to them to look 'up' for food (and the water is about a foot deep in my aquarium, it's a 20g tall unfortunately) I soak the reptomin a little bit and then stick them to a wooden skewer and then dip it into the water, (keeps me from having to get my hands in the tank a lot) they go into froggy-attack mode and bite it right off the skewer.. I like this method cause it doesn't make much waste and I can control exactly how much they eat (I feed them about 3 small pellets a day since they're froglets). I do the mysis as a treat but like you said, that stuff clouds the water bad and it's messy.

I stopped with the blood worms, too many horror stories I guess. I was just gonna feed them to my fish instead.. which is too bad cause they sure do go crazy for them!

I actually do have several guppies in my 55 gallon (for breeding eventually), I had not had a chance to really scoop up fry and feed them to the frogs yet, but I would like to do that at some point for treats. Worms sound like a good idea too though! I would assume that earthworms from a bait shop would be good eatin's for these guys? I'd have to cut them up obviously, but I wouldn't mind doing it, since they'd probably gobble them up.

These frogs are meat eaters. The people I got my first frogs from kept 2 of them in a 10 gallon tank and fed them anything that was around including Reptomin sticks. Just like humans they will eat anything if they are hungry enough. They are massive garbage hogs and live on all kinds of nasty in the wild. That being said, these frogs can eat a pretty varied diet.

I keep worm compost bin. I have my own worms there that I can feed to my frogs. However you will need to "poop" or de poop the worms or the dirt sullies the tank. Gross I know but it can make a difference and add nitrates and such you don't want in your tank. The fun thing is you can train them to come up and take it right from your hands. My first graders love that!

I never do freeze dried unless it has soaked for awhile. Same goes for the dried food pellets. I do use frozen blood worms most often. I found beef heart and brine shrimp make a mess of the tank and filters. And I HATE that.

I don't do feeder fish right from the stores because I never know what bugs they have. I did quarantine a bunch of guppies and let those breed one year but it's a hassle. So back to frozen blood worms I went.

Personally I think the whole thing behind the HBH frog and tadpole stuff is nutty. Just my opinion. When the tads are little it might make some sense to crush them and use them but over all, these critters do just fine on what they like best. Meat.

[SailAwayAK]

Once full grown you can use night crawlers. I have trained the frogs to come right up to the top of the tank to get them. Like other animals simple things can teach them to come up top. I tap the top of the tank before each feeding. Over time the frogs will get the idea to come up.

My frogs prefer the worms live. They didn't respond as well or would reject the full worms if they were cut in half. I still find that strange. I kept the bait night crawlers in the fridge and each full grown frog got one every three days or so. If I did it more frequently they didn't seem hungry and wouldn't come to a feeding. With those rear claws, if the worms were to large they would shred the worms to their manageable size. The frogs seemed to stay fat and happy so I was happy. It was always interesting to me to see those worms wiggle around in the bellies of the frogs.

Compost worms are different than other worms. A bit smaller. They do a double duty for me when I feed those in composting all my kitchen scraps and then using to feed the frogs. I would say do some reading on worm keeping if you are interested in that. It can be done pretty easily in a small space with just a few plastic containers. I use two rubbermaid totes right now.

When I had guppies in the tank I floated water sprite in the top of the tank. The baby guppies had a place to hide and, once larger, were a food source. The water sprite was a nice addition and place for the frogs to hide on the surface but it also blocked some of the light shielding the frogs.

I have a 29 tall tank. Previously I had a 17 tall. I have never had an issue for the frogs swimming to the top to get air. I'm not sure what that whole debate is about. I can find no evidence anywhere that says a tall tank is an issue. Mt frogs still get a great amount of water to swim in and seem happy. It does make it a pain to decorate. lol.

oooh this year I did do some pinkies. Some tiny baby mice. Yup. That was interesting! I got some pretty small ones and teased the frogs to the top of the tank. They sucked those down pretty quick. I only did it once. It was a little to traumatic to hear those babies squeaking and then one came up and started swimming around the top of the tank to get away calling out. Nope never again will I do that one. Interesting but gives me shivers.

In my experience the only time I have dealt with bloat is when it comes to over feeding. That can happen with any food source not just blood worms. Remembering we are care takers to confined creatures is the key to all of this. We make the situation a good as can be and that includes feeding a varied diet. I rescued my frogs from teachers who can't be bothered anymore to keep their frogs. I have a huge soap box about that. I had to do my homework and previously had some great sites and forums help me out in some tough beginnings. Now I am happy to share what I have learned.

[mpmistr]

Once full grown you can use night crawlers. I have trained the frogs to come right up to the top of the tank to get them. Like other animals simple things can teach them to come up top. I tap the top of the tank before each feeding. Over time the frogs will get the idea to come up.

That's awesome I am gonna try do that as well. I'd like to get my guys going up for that reptomin eventually!

My frogs prefer the worms live. They didn't respond as well or would reject the full worms if they were cut in half. I still find that strange. I kept the bait night crawlers in the fridge and each full grown frog got one every three days or so. If I did it more frequently they didn't seem hungry and wouldn't come to a feeding. With those rear claws, if the worms were to large they would shred the worms to their manageable size. The frogs seemed to stay fat and happy so I was happy. It was always interesting to me to see those worms wiggle around in the bellies of the frogs.

Compost worms are different than other worms. A bit smaller. They do a double duty for me when I feed those in composting all my kitchen scraps and then using to feed the frogs. I would say do some reading on worm keeping if you are interested in that. It can be done pretty easily in a small space with just a few plastic containers. I use two rubbermaid totes right now.

I was thinking about picking up some red wrigglers (red worms?) from the bait store around here, I imagine they'd be small enough for froglets? Could just cut them in half.

When I had guppies in the tank I floated water sprite in the top of the tank. The baby guppies had a place to hide and, once larger, were a food source. The water sprite was a nice addition and place for the frogs to hide on the surface but it also blocked some of the light shielding the frogs.

Breeding my own guppies for food sounds interesting, I'm really going to give it a shot and see if it becomes a hassle or not..

I have a 29 tall tank. Previously I had a 17 tall. I have never had an issue for the frogs swimming to the top to get air. I'm not sure what that whole debate is about. I can find no evidence anywhere that says a tall tank is an issue. Mt frogs still get a great amount of water to swim in and seem happy. It does make it a pain to decorate. lol.

I have my water about 13 inches deep and honestly they can go from the bottom to the surface in half a second (sometimes mine gently will swim up and take their times, other times if you blink you miss it). I have no idea why people say that either, ACF are seemingly very powerful swimmers. I think that people confuse ADF with ACF as far as water depth is concerned, ADF I can see being likely to drown in deeper water..

oooh this year I did do some pinkies. Some tiny baby mice. Yup. That was interesting! I got some pretty small ones and teased the frogs to the top of the tank. They sucked those down pretty quick. I only did it once. It was a little to traumatic to hear those babies squeaking and then one came up and started swimming around the top of the tank to get away calling out. Nope never again will I do that one. Interesting but gives me shivers.

Can't do it. I'll stick with worms lol..

In my experience the only time I have dealt with bloat is when it comes to over feeding. That can happen with any food source not just blood worms. Remembering we are care takers to confined creatures is the key to all of this. We make the situation a good as can be and that includes feeding a varied diet. I rescued my frogs from teachers who can't be bothered anymore to keep their frogs. I have a huge soap box about that. I had to do my homework and previously had some great sites and forums help me out in some tough beginnings. Now I am happy to share what I have learned.

I have small reptomin pellets, I am feeding my froglets 3 pellets a day.. would you say that is excessive? When I feed mysis shrimp, I feel each half a cube (not that they find ALL of it and mysis is rather 'mushy'). It's hard to judge I guess since these guys will eat all day. When I see a little bulge in the stomach I usually figure that's enough food (I can actually see the reptomin in my albino, ew).

[SailAwayAK]

I had to chuckle when you said you could see the reptomin in your albino.

I think that how much you feed them is different for each frog and their development. I only have adults and it is all I have ever had. At full size they eat 3 or so red wigglers each. Or one or even two floating blood worm tablets. Usually one.

I would start with giving a smaller worm to your frogs and see how they do. Like I said, they will tear it down smaller if they can't handle it. Judge it by seeing how far they get with the bulge you would usually give them. Now the frogs come right to the top to find more if they aren't full. Of course they might do that anyhow the porkers!

[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

[mpmistr]

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

I was going to replace the pebbles with pool filter sand this weekend. I would go bare bottom but I have a lot of plants in my aquarium and the frogs seem to enjoy them, I think sand is the next best thing to no substrate. I have used pool filter sand in my 55g and it looks pretty nice and the general consensus is it's ACF safe (very fine and smooth silica).

I use the same method for feeding my frogs with frozen food. Whatever they miss I scoop up with a turkey baster and try to make sure it doesn't get wasted. They are definitely more 'aware' of frozen blood worms and shrimp, they go pretty crazy.. poor little guy though just doesn't go as 'crazy' as he used to for food so I'm a little worried still. I'm breeding guppies right now as well for live food.. I've been placing some fry in the tank with my frogs.. so far they've ignored them.. seen the albino lunge at them a few times but his aim is off.. the fry so far are all alive lol..

I have a kind of unusual method with feeding my frogs reptomin, I have some wooden skewers, I soak the reptomin a bit and just stick the reptomin on t he end of the skewer and put the reptomin in front my frogs, my albino (which has endless hunger) seems to enjoy this method since he has now taken to just attacking the skewer the second he sees it whether it has food or not on it.. the little guy with the nose issue, at first he was pretty voracious himself but he just doesn't seem as hungry any more, he will gobble up two pellets and then any thing further he just runs away from it or ignore it, kind of weird. Maybe hitting his nose messed up his sense of locating food? Then again my albino went through a phase of not eating either and he's a beast now when it come to food and he's grow insanely fast (i think he might be a she)..

How long does it take to heal on average? I hope he returns to normal soon. He seems to hide more than my other frog, he's seems fond of jamming himself behind the filter intake on my tank a lot.. ugh.. I'm hoping he gets a bit more outgoing.

[SwimminSteve]

It will probably heal up in a week or so if it doesn't get infected. It will start to look better when the skin sheds off.
I'd worry that the point on the skewer could stab the frog when he lunges for the food. You know how excited they can get. This could have caused the injury as well, they don't always have the best aim. I would try either getting some dull plastic forceps or just doing it with your hand. Yeah your hand will get wet, but it's easier this way. It may take them a feeding or two to stop freaking out when you put your hand in there, but they'll figure out that hand=food pretty fast. Just make sure that you don't have any lotions or soap residue on your hands when you feed them.

He will definitely be more outgoing when he's bigger. Most froglets are just afraid of the world. Can't blame them either lol. Hand-feeding him will get him friendlier too.