ACF acting weird.. any suggestions?

[mpmistr]

One of my ACF seems to be acting like something is stuck in his mouth. He waves his arms around and opens his mouth over and over like something is stuck in there. He kind of acts like he is trying to get something out of his mouth but I see nothing stuck in it.

It happened the other day he did it for a while then stopped. I fed my frogs that day and he ate just fine and I thought it was just a fluke so I ignored it.

I thought it was over and a whole day passed and I noticed him doing it again this morning. My tank has nothing but very very fine sand and rocks/wood and plants. There's really nothing he could ingest to get 'stuck' in his mouth. This past week he's only eaten two nightcrawlers and some reptomin pellets and seems otherwise healthy.. his appetite is good.

Some times my frogs do bite at the plants in my tank and I've seen them 'eat' duckweed but they immediately spit it out without any problem. Pretty much the same thing here except there's NOTHING there that I can see.

Any ideas? I had to leave for work but I am going to check him when I get home this evening but I am starting to worry. I can't seem to find anything on the internet to explain it. I can't imagine him getting a hold of something dangerous so I'm really confused as to what is going on with him.

[MatthewM1]

Maybe some shed skin stuck in or around its mouth?

Is it stationary while doing it or swimming around? maybe it's just scavenging around for food if it's swimming?

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[mpmistr]

He's stationary. I know it's hard to describe, it's not the normal scavenging behavior. He's up against the glass on his hind legs or laying on his belly waving his arms and putting his arms in his mouth like he has something stuck in his mouth. It looks exactly like when they bite at duckweed and then realize it's not food and try to spit it out, except whatever it is, he can't get it out.

The odd part is he was doing this yesterday for 15 minutes or so then stopped. I fed him some reptomin, he acts perfectly fine and then this morning I checked him before leaving for work and he's doing it again. I was hoping he would stop before I left for work but I had to leave..

I'm totally confused as to what is up.

My best guesses are..
-A small piece of driftwood came off the decor and he ate it.
or
-A bug got into the aquarium and he ate it and it was toxic (I did find a black/red flying bug in my OTHER tank), but this tank has a glass lid (other tank doesnt) and very little way of anything foreign gaining entry..

[MatthewM1]

I too am stumped sounds strange. The dift wood scenario sounds plausible, have you checked it for loose little pieces? Could it be from accidental ingestion of sand?
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[mpmistr]

Not sure, I use caribsea moonlight white sand in my frog tank, it's 0.01mm to 0.03mm grain size, in other words its extremely fine soft sand. I've never worried about it with my frogs and I really doubt it's the cause. Been using that substrate almost a year without a problem.

Driftwood, maybe. I took out the most offending piece of wood from my tank last week since it was getting blue-green algae (I THINK, it was blue-green and it did look like algae so I removed it..) on it and appeared to be rotting IMO.. but again I've had that piece in there for almost a year without any problems and I only removed it because of the blue-green algae it was growing. It tended to 'flake' off little pieces of wood a lot which I had to remove now and then.

I recently did a 50% water change because I took that huge driftwood piece out that was rotting, and I ran a net and sift through the sand for any mulm, excess organics (dead plant matter/poop), and small bits of wood. I do this weekly (though I usually do 25% PWC not 50%) and I always net excess 'stuff' from the sand, since it rests on top of the substrate, it's easy to clean.

My frogs aren't bottom feeders and are fed reptomin (floating) and earthworms by hand.

So again I am really not sure. This frog is the most passive one I own, the other two are bigger and more boisterous and they seem fine.

[Jenste]

Can you possibly take some close up pictures of the frog? Some while doing this motion and some when just stationary? Any redness or tattered shedding going on?

[mpmistr]

He hasn't done it again that I've noticed, took some pics though, he has no redness or tattered shedding.

The stuff on him is just sand, they tend to kick it up a lot.

[SwimminSteve]

I've seen my frogs do this from time to time. I never found out what was causing it, but it never turned into an issue. It could be that whatever he ingested scratched the inside of the mouth and it's irritated. He may feel like there's something in there even if it's only a scratch.

[mpmistr]

You're probably right Steve. I checked him out last night he didn't do it and all my frogs ate a nightcrawler each and they seemed as hungry and active as ever. I guess it was just one of those things.

[Jenste]

For what it's worth, you have some lovely and healthy looking frogs!

[mpmistr]

For what it's worth, you have some lovely and healthy looking frogs!

Thanks! They're ravenous fat little monsters and completely spoiled.

When I get home I will check him out again I'm hoping whatever was causing him to do what he was doing has passed.

I am moving 30 miles south this week so I want my frogs especially healthy for the hopefully minor move!