Lonely ACF?

[Gemma]

A few days ago I removed my female african clawed frog from the tank that she was in with a male because he couldn't keep himself away from her and she was laying eggs every day for a few days. I posted another thread about this.
Anyway, since my male ACF has been on his own he's not been as active as usual and he's not eating as well. Other than sometimes when he's croaking, he just sits in the corner and doesn't really swim around very much (usually he's quite lively). He's been croaking for a mate a lot, even in the day time when the tank lights are on and there's lots of noise in the room around him. Usually if I tap the cabinet that the tank's on he'll swim to the top of the tank ready for me to give him a worm, but he just ignores me now. A couple of days ago it took me 5 minutes to get him to eat an earthworm that I was touching his mouth with (usually he's snatching it from my hand in seconds). Today I dropped some food right in front of his face. He ignored it and instead started croaking. He's been croaking ever since. 3 hours later and he still hasn't touched it so now I'm going to have to remove it from the tank. Why is he so 'in the mood' all the time all of a sudden? When's it going to stop? I've not heard of anyone else's ACF being as bad as this. He's been wanting to amplex non stop for 2 weeks now. When he was with the female he was eating normally and was as active as usual, but as soon as I removed her it's like he started sulking!

I can't put a female back in with him because it's not safe for her to lay so many eggs and I don't want him to stress her out, but I feel sorry for the poor guy and I'm worried about him not eating properly. Is there anything I can do? I was thinking of getting him a male tank mate before he started acting strangely, but now I'm wondering whether it's a good idea because he might try breeding with the other male and stress him out too. At least the other male couldn't lay any eggs though. Any advice?

Also, while I'm here, what's the minimum tank size requirement for 2 full-grown male ACFs? I'm asking so I know if I'll need to upgrade tanks in the future if I do decide to get another male now.

[Bombina Bob]

Hi there
It looks like your male ACF is still in heat, he seems to want to mate with the
female, i would keep the tanks seperate and if they are next to eachother, i would
place black paper on the sides, or lwer the temps slightly, otherwise keep regular
water changes.

Good luck with your frog!

[SwimminSteve]

I would recommend against adding another male to the tank. If he is so amorous that he wouldn't leave your female alone, he will not discriminate against amplexing with another male. He will bother a new frog just as much as your female. Trust me... I have a male just like yours. He will grab onto anyone regardless of gender. My females are so much larger that he actually prefers to get on my smaller male. The females have so far not laid any eggs (which is almost a shame since the male is a very handsome albino reticulated). Just as well though, there aren't enough home for all the babies he would make. Unless you can provide a tank large enough for a group of 4-6 frogs, I would keep your male alone. The only reason that I still keep my crazy male with others is because he has 5 other frogs to pester instead of focusing on just one.

[Gemma]

Thanks for the replies.

Hi there
It looks like your male ACF is still in heat, he seems to want to mate with the
female, i would keep the tanks seperate and if they are next to eachother, i would
place black paper on the sides, or lwer the temps slightly, otherwise keep regular
water changes.

Water changes and lowering the temperature seem to make him worse! I'm hoping he'll calm down soon though. I'm not sure if he's like this because he's become fully sexually mature, or if it's just a phase he's going through. I have a feeling he might stay like this now because he's croaked all night every night for months but only recently discovered how to amplex properly, and now that he knows how to do it he doesn't want to do anything but that! I hope I'm wrong and he does snap out of it. Today he did his excited little swim when he knew I was about to feed him, so that's a good sign because he'd lost interest in food.

I would recommend against adding another male to the tank. If he is so amorous that he wouldn't leave your female alone, he will not discriminate against amplexing with another male. He will bother a new frog just as much as your female. Trust me... I have a male just like yours. He will grab onto anyone regardless of gender. My females are so much larger that he actually prefers to get on my smaller male. The females have so far not laid any eggs (which is almost a shame since the male is a very handsome albino reticulated). Just as well though, there aren't enough home for all the babies he would make. Unless you can provide a tank large enough for a group of 4-6 frogs, I would keep your male alone. The only reason that I still keep my crazy male with others is because he has 5 other frogs to pester instead of focusing on just one.

You're probably right to advise against adding another male. I think it would be unfair to add any other frog if it were just the two of them. I just feel sorry for the poor little thing. It would be good if you could get blow up dolls for frogs! ;) I've just got a 180 litre tank that I'm preparing for my 3 female ACFs, but I'm not sure whether to let him live in there with them. I think I'll leave him on his own for now and see if he starts acting normally again.

Thanks again.

[tgampper]

You might remove the female or male's tank to another room. In this species, the females also call. As long as the female calls, the male will respond. The female has two distinct calls - rapping and ticking. If the female raps, the male will respond. If the female ticks, the male will stop calling. The tick sounds like a ticking clock. Separating them in different rooms, so they can't hear each other may calm the male down.