New Juvenile Silurana

[Jack]

Hi guys,

Just taken delivery of 4 new juvenile silurana trops to go into my xenopus tank.
They're Roughly 1 - 1.5 inches at the moment and in a small temporary tank.

Looking for some thoughts on when they should go into the larger tank with adult xen's, which are about 3 - 3.5 inch.

Do you think the silurana will be ok to go in now? Or best to grow them out a bit before transferring?
Would rather they went in straight away if possible.

Cheers

[rodsboys]

I would not keep the 2 species together. Their "requirements" are roughly the same, but they are still too different.

[Jack]

I would not keep the 2 species together. Their "requirements" are roughly the same, but they are still too different.

Hi tony

Why wouldn't you keep together? I would of thought they'd be fine once the silurana are a bit bigger.

[Geoff]

I agree with Tony. To the best of my knowledge, the two species do not co-exist naturally but the most significant differences are in their size and behaviour. X. laevis is bigger and very boisterous and can intimidate other species of Xenopus when they share the same tank. There could be problems with the Silurana competing for food. Also, male Xenopus in breeding condition will often clasp any other frog in close proximity. It's possible that if one clasped a Silurana there would be a risk of it drowning through being too weak to overcome such amorous attention from a significantly larger frog.

You might be able to get away with it but, personally, I wouldn't keep them together.

[mpmistr]

Silurana are tropical.. so right there the water temperatures don't mesh well with X. Laevis. X. Laevis is larger like Geoff and Tony have already stated. They could probably co-exist but don't expect a long happy life for some of your frogs, so why bother?

Keep'em separate, different species, different needs.

Cardinal Rule #1 with keeping amphibians is you don't mix amphibian species in the same enclosure.

[rodsboys]

Hi tony

Why wouldn't you keep together? I would of thought they'd be fine once the silurana are a bit bigger.

Sorry I didn't get back to you right away. As stated already there are size and temp requirement differences as well as some personality differences. Both species also have different resistances to different diseases also. Your ACF could already be carrying something that is harmless to them, but deadly to the Silurana.
The "Do not mix amphibian species" rule will never fail you.

[tgampper]

There are differences between Xenopus laevis and Silurana (Xenopus) tropicalis that makes them incompatible. Mostly, there are size and temperature differences, as well as generation times. In the genetics world, S. tropicalis will eventually replace X. laevis as a model organism because tropicalis has a simpler DNA structure and a much faster generation time.

X. laevis 10 cm 16-22 (C) 1-2 years
S. tropicalis 4-5 cm 25-30 (C) < 5 months

It is interesting to note that Silurana tropicalis is more closely related to the dwarf clawed frogs (genera Hymenochirus and Pseudohymenochirus) and the Surinam toads (genus Pipa) than to the African clawed frog (genus Xenopus). The Pipidae frogs are very primitive and proves that they were around when Africa and South America were connected.

Photo, left to right
S. tropicalis, X. laevis (M), X.laevis (F)