Why did my little Alfred die? (ACF)

[Verdure]

60 litres is about 13 gallons. I started out with that and was going to upgrade anyway as she got bigger. I read everywhere that the bare minimum is 10 gallons (45 litres). How big should the aquarium be? I have a long aquarium, rather than tall.

Yes, I always used dechlorinator to treat the water and let it stand for 24 hours. The reason I changed the water so frequently is because everywhere I read it said that ACFs are very messy and need frequent water changes (one site even said 95% water changes twice a week). On average it seemed to be roughly 40% twice a week.

Thanks for the info about the food. I had just ordered some Reptomin yesterday as I heard it is good for ACFs, but now it's too late

The substrate I had was large and small gravel and aquarium sand... Is it better to leave it bare?

Thanks for taking the time to help.

[mpmistr]

I would switch substrate to bare bottom or smooth sand (avoid the sharp stuff) or large pebbles (though I find these hard to clean).

Reptomin would of been a lot better for your frog than the freeze dried stuff, honestly I would just toss that stuff out because it's really not a good staple food for ACF (or anything else for that matter).

10 gallons is the bare minimum on most care sheets and yeah 13 gallons would be okay but me -personally- I think ACF need larger tanks to be happy, though I doubt this led to any premature death.

Did you have a filter of any sort? Biofiltration is really kind of a must for these frogs, large water changes are good now and then but I would rather have a filter and do a 50% weekly water change.

[Verdure]

Thanks for all the info. I thought I was giving her a good diet... I should have come here first. I will also upgrade any future froggies to a larger tank.

I didn't have a filter because I thought that it would be too intrusive, but I was considering purchasing the Whisper filter when I got a new tank (plus less frequent water changes would have been welcome), are those good for ACFs?

Once again, thanks for all your help. I should have come here sooner.

[mpmistr]

Thanks for all the info. I thought I was giving her a good diet... I should have come here first. I will also upgrade any future froggies to a larger tank.

I didn't have a filter because I thought that it would be too intrusive, but I was considering purchasing the Whisper filter when I got a new tank (plus less frequent water changes would have been welcome), are those good for ACFs?

Once again, thanks for all your help. I should have come here sooner.

@Verdure -- Filtration is definitively a must especially in that small of a tank. They do no harm to frogs what so ever, don't believe what you may have read on some care sheets. A Tetra Whisper filter would work fine, get a beefy one I would suggest the Whisper 40i model. I use a rather beefy Eheim (2217) on my 40(US) gallon tank and my frogs show no ill effects, in fact they hang out near the spray bar often.

ACF produce solid feces and are messy animals as you probably know, you can never have enough filtration.

@reptileszz -- Wet/frozen foods are found usually in the freezer section or your local fish store. They usually come in blister packs.. examples would be frozen blood worm, mysis shrimp, brine, krill, silversides all make a good occasional *treat* though I wouldn't recommend any of that food as a staple. There is also beef heart in those fridges, I recommend against it.. I don't think frogs should be eating much if any mammal flesh (the fat of mammals tends to block arteries in amphibians over time).. when would an ACF ever eat a COW?

Your reptomin/HBH pellets are a good staple, I feed my frogs reptomin and they seem to be doing very well. Only one of my frogs will bother with HBH pellets, my frogs are a big large now for them and for some reason 2 out of 3 couldn't care less about them and just ignore them. It takes a while but your frogs will look to the surface for reptomin eventually, my advice would be to hand feed your frogs near the surface and stop feeding sinking pellets.. eventually they WILL learn to look to the surface for food. When I go near my tank my frogs go NUTS near the top of the water because they know that's where the food will be. I've seen my frogs actually jump a few inches biting at the air! They can and will learn, especially when it comes to their meals!

In my opinion once ACF get large they do really well on candian nightcrawlers, the ones you can buy at bait stores or even walmart. I feed earthworms to my frogs probably more than anything else. One large nightcrawler every other day keeps them fat and healthy. Since they swallow them whole there is little mess or clean up too, besides their rather enormous poops afterwards lol.. I also feed my frogs crickets now and then, since in the wild they would probably consume a lot of arthopods (I would love to get some dubai roaches some day for my ACF).

[reptileszz]

@reptileszz -- Wet/frozen foods are found usually in the freezer section or your local fish store. They usually come in blister packs.. examples would be frozen blood worm, mysis shrimp, brine, krill, silversides all make a good occasional *treat* though I wouldn't recommend any of that food as a staple. There is also beef heart in those fridges, I recommend against it.. I don't think frogs should be eating much if any mammal flesh (the fat of mammals tends to block arteries in amphibians over time).. when would an ACF ever eat a COW?

Your reptomin/HBH pellets are a good staple, I feed my frogs reptomin and they seem to be doing very well. Only one of my frogs will bother with HBH pellets, my frogs are a big large now for them and for some reason 2 out of 3 couldn't care less about them and just ignore them. It takes a while but your frogs will look to the surface for reptomin eventually, my advice would be to hand feed your frogs near the surface and stop feeding sinking pellets.. eventually they WILL learn to look to the surface for food. When I go near my tank my frogs go NUTS near the top of the water because they know that's where the food will be. I've seen my frogs actually jump a few inches biting at the air! They can and will learn, especially when it comes to their meals!

In my opinion once ACF get large they do really well on candian nightcrawlers, the ones you can buy at bait stores or even walmart. I feed earthworms to my frogs probably more than anything else. One large nightcrawler every other day keeps them fat and healthy. Since they swallow them whole there is little mess or clean up too, besides their rather enormous poops afterwards lol.. I also feed my frogs crickets now and then, since in the wild they would probably consume a lot of arthopods (I would love to get some dubai roaches some day for my ACF).

I seem to be able to drop one sinking pellet at a time in front of the frogs and they will eat them. They are very shy and are never near the top. I can't imagine being able to coax them up there. Maybe when they get bigger? Also, I just bought a pound of the xenopus.com sinkers. I want to use them hehe.

Where are you? I raise dubia roaches for my dragons. I can certainly spare a few.

Thanks for the response!
Carole

[mpmistr]

Are they juveniles? They seem to get bolder as they age and they become more tame as well.

I am sure the xenopus.com stuff is quality stuff so I would want to use it too.

I'm in southern Illinois if you're looking to sell dubai just let me know! I can't seem to find any around here.

[reptileszz]

Are they juveniles? They seem to get bolder as they age and they become more tame as well.

I am sure the xenopus.com stuff is quality stuff so I would want to use it too.

I'm in southern Illinois if you're looking to sell dubai just let me know! I can't seem to find any around here.

They are juveniles, pretty small at about 1.5 inches. I think they are bigger than when I got them 2 weeks ago but not sure.

Are you near Chicago? There is an excellent reptile show coming up in Tinley Park next weekend. I heartily recommend it as it is a super clean, nice show. There would definitely be some dubia roaches for sale there. I'm way over in CT. Link would help. http://www.narbc.com/

Thanks!
Carole

[Verdure]

@Carole, thank you for your condolences.

@Michael, thanks again! Can you recommend any good literature on caring for ACFs? Seems that care sheets are all over the place. Are these any good -
http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator...46624&mode=prd
http://content.www.rspca.org.uk/cmsp...&ssbinary=true

RSPCA, as you may know, is an animal welfare charity in the UK.

Also, is it worth purchasing lymnozyme to use during water changes to prevent red leg? Is it true that blood worms may carry infections that can harm frogs?

[mpmistr]

@Carole, thank you for your condolences.

@Michael, thanks again! Can you recommend any good literature on caring for ACFs? Seems that care sheets are all over the place. Are these any good -
http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator...46624&mode=prd
http://content.www.rspca.org.uk/cmsp...&ssbinary=true

Those care sheets seem fine, though they seem to be focused more on the husbandry of X. Laevis as a lab animals, as pet owners we expect our frogs to live quite a bit longer.

One of the best caresheets can be found on Wet Web Media FrogsArtNeale if you read enough you'll start to realize that ACF/ADF should be kept more like fish than like a typical frog.

RSPCA, as you may know, is an animal welfare charity in the UK.

In the US we have the ASPCA, a very similar organization.

Also, is it worth purchasing lymnozyme to use during water changes to prevent red leg? Is it true that blood worms may carry infections that can harm frogs?

Medication should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, proper husbandry is the best prevention of red leg. Do weekly water changes and add a dechlorinator (like Prime) to tap water that has sat out for 24 hours and do not over stock your aquarium and red leg should never become an issue. Would it hurt to OWN some Lymozyme? Probably not but I would strive to never need to use it.

@reptileszz

Your frogs are still quite young, they will get much larger, bolder and tame. When I first started keeping ACF I was a bit discouraged on how small/timid they were but now that my frogs are 4 inches or more now, they're swimming all over the place now.

I was in Chicago back in December, sadly it's about 4 hours away, I live much closer to St. Louis.