New addition plus near heart attack

[reptileszz]

OMG why do my frogs want to leave the tank so bad?

I went out to buy some more plants and possibly a battery operated sludge sucker thingy. I went to the store the battery operated thingy was supposed to be sold at, its a nice fish/pet store that is't the closest one to my house so I dont frequent it very often. No sludge sucker but the owner suggested cory cats to stir up the detritis so it would go in the filter. OK, I tell him I will look around and I googled "cats with clawed frogs or some such" and saw that they were acceptable. I didnt come here tho so I hope they are. I got 3 of them. ATM they are definitely too big to eat.

So while I was looking around I see a tank of "large clawed frogs" which are not that large but are all larger than Alvin. Well, I was comparing what looked like alvin in another tank and decided that Alvin would definitely not fit in the smallest normal one (with spots) mouth. So I bought him. He is definitely larger than Alvin but not a ton. He doesnt seem interested in the catfish at all as they are too big to eat presently.

So anyway, I bring all this home along with a new plant and two new moss balls and while I am arranging everything apparently Alvin got out. What the heck. I mean really. I moved one plant and Alvin took off. The top was totally open. I thought I heard something behind the tank but thought it was just me moving stuff around. Then I got nervous and started looking for Alvin. I couldnt find him anywhere. I went to find a flashlight to look underneath. When I came back up Alvin was right there on the floor in front of the tank with dust bunnies stuck all over him (mental note, time to vacuum under there). I nearly passed out. He looked terrible and had only been out for like 5 min. I carefully held him in the tank and got the dust off of him and he was breathing heavy. I balanced him on top of the wisteria for now. I think he is ok? I had a cat looking around like something was going on but he followed me downstairs to get the flashlight so I dont think anything happened to him except a 2 foot fall and then a 3.5 foot fall. I hope he is ok. This is just ridiculous how they get out!

And now I am nervous that the cats were a bad idea. Thoughts on that everyone?

Thanks for this great forum,
Carole