Why did my little Alfred die? (ACF)

[Verdure]

I haven't thought of invertebrates but I'm glad you mentioned them! It sounds a lot easier since these animals can actually be kept with ACFs afterwards. I've always wanted shrimp, but I'm afraid their population may get out of control? I heard they breed really fast.

Also I wanted to ask, how do you change your water in your huge tank? You prepare 5 buckets of water a day before changing it? Or do you have a larger container for it? And when/if you go on holiday, do you just ask a friend to come in and do it?

[mpmistr]

Ghost Shrimp eggs produce larvae which are usually sucked into filters and die. Other shrimp may be more prolific, such as Red Cherry Shrimp. These populations can always be culled if necessary, I've never kept any of the fast breeding shrimp but I doubt they're too hard to control. It's fast breeding snails that annoy me, especially ramshorn and pond snails.. I'm still removing oodles of them from one of my tanks and they've popped up in my frog tank so I just remove them when I see one.

I do water changes pretty old school. I have three 5.5 gallon buckets (~21 litres) and I fill two and let them sit for at least 24 hours. I clean out dead plant matter, feces, or whatever else accumulates on the bottom of my tank (I use sand so it cleans up easy) with a simple gravel vac, I prefer the ones that have a squeeze 'pump' because it's easier to get those going.

Anyways I fill the bucket, toss it out, fill another, toss it out. If some of the 'stuff' decaying on the bottom of the tank was not vacuumed out I will just net it out by hand. I then add conditioner (I prefer Prime) to my buckets of replacement water, I stir in the water conditioner let it sit for a few minutes and just slowly pour the water back into the tank without scaring the **** out of the frogs too badly.

I usually do this once a week, some times twice a week. I try not to do 50% at the same time but I don't have enough buckets to allow enough tap water to sit 24hrs. My nitrates usually are 5ppm to 10ppm.

I don't know what I would do if went on an actual vacation, I suppose I'd ask a friend to feed them. Most of my trips are three days max, I don't worry about my frogs if I am only gone for a few days. My lights are on automatic timers and I just feed them and do a 25% water change before I leave, these frogs can go several days without food and it will not do them any harm.

[Miss Blue]

@Miss Blue, thanks so much for your kind words! Your little ADFs are so cute! May I ask you the same question I asked Michael, what are you going to do with the tadpoles, I see your froggies amplexing in every other photo

Yes, I was very upset (very very upset). I know some people say they are "only" frogs, but what do they know
I do want to get another ACF (maybe a group) and do it better this time. I thought I did all the research possible and made the best decisions based on that... I wish I found this forum earlier.[/QUOTE]

My frogs have already had a couple rounds of tadpoles because as you can see, they are a very loving group (I have 4 of them). I currently have 2 that just sprouted arms and will be going through the morph stage and if they survive all that i will be keeping the one and giving the other one to my mother. I lost a whole wack of them in the last round which i attribute to lack of water changes and proper food (no excuses but i chalk it up to working too much that one week, water changes and proper food are so important!) they are at it again so i am just waiting, so much love in that tank! they are not just frogs, they are a beautiful part of nature that deserve as much love and respect as anybody else! good luck with your future frogs and if i can help you out with any other info just let me know!

[Verdure]

@Michael, thanks for all the info!

Sorry for the late reply, got caught up a bit.

We did go on vacation a few months ago and my sister-in-law came in to care for Alfred. I heard about pet sitters, that's also a good option I think (though one does hear horror stories).

Can amphibians get the flu from humans? I just remembered that about 2 week before froggy died, my husband and I were very ill and didn't fully recover for a long while. I actually still have some after effects of that flu. I know that birds can get the flu off of humans, but can amphibians?

they are a beautiful part of nature that deserve as much love and respect as anybody else! good luck with your future frogs and if i can help you out with any other info just let me know!

Thank you so much! They are truly wonderful

[mpmistr]

@Michael, thanks for all the info!

Sorry for the late reply, got caught up a bit.

We did go on vacation a few months ago and my sister-in-law came in to care for Alfred. I heard about pet sitters, that's also a good option I think (though one does hear horror stories).

Can amphibians get the flu from humans? I just remembered that about 2 week before froggy died, my husband and I were very ill and didn't fully recover for a long while. I actually still have some after effects of that flu. I know that birds can get the flu off of humans, but can amphibians?

Thank you so much! They are truly wonderful

They cannot catch the flu from humans to my knowledge, google results in Xenopus Flu didn't bring up much really.. these are lab animals for the most part I think if they could catch a human flu there would be information on that.

[Verdure]

Yeah, I didn't find anything either. Thanks for the info.

What a cute new avatar, btw!