Feeding (and plants)

[rodsboys]

Tough love is the way to go. I find young males to be a PITA when it comes to eating at first. It's like they're super models!
But seriously less frequent feedings, less variety, less food per feeding helps a ton. Be glad there is not a greedy female in with him, she could be working to eat him.

[mpmistr]

I have a method for feeding these frogs reptomin effectively. I will admit it's strange.

Anywho this is how I feed my frogs reptomin. I mix it with PE Mysis Shrimp (PE is the brand, feel free to substitute but PE is considered the best quality). Mysis shrimp are small crustaceans, pretty much freshwater brine shrimp.

I take a tiny bowl that I do not use soap on and put the frozen cube of mysis shrimp in it, add some tank water and let it thaw. I drain most of the water out, then add some reptomin and let it get a little soggy. I then just squeeze it into a clump and hand feed it to my frogs. They go pretty crazy for it. The mysis gives the reptomin a really appealing smell to them and all things considered mysis shrimp is pretty good food for a growing small frog.

I still use the same method today even though my frogs are quite large, I just make bigger reptomin clumps. My frogs are terrible at eating reptomin by itself, they have a lot of trouble finding it I never just drop pellets in. It just creates too much of a mess.

Any mysis left over I just feed to my fish, who also love the stuff.

P.S. Your plants probably need more light, 68F is fine for the frog and the vast majority of plants. You may want to try Java Fern and Anubias if your light is inadequate to grow other plants. It's that or upgrade the lights.

[reptileszz]

P.S. Your plants probably need more light, 68F is fine for the frog and the vast majority of plants. You may want to try Java Fern and Anubias if your light is inadequate to grow other plants. It's that or upgrade the lights.

Hmmm, I did put the light on a timer and it wasnt on as much as when I am home. I bet that did it.

Thanks,
Carole

[reptileszz]

Where do I get mysis shrimp? Is it in the freezer at Petsmart by any chance?

Carole

[rodsboys]

Where do I get mysis shrimp? Is it in the freezer at Petsmart by any chance?

Carole

yes they carry it at Petsmart.

[mpmistr]

Petsmart does carry them, though I've only seen them carry San Francisco brand mysis. It's not as high quality as PE Mysis (smaller shrimp, less shrimp density per cube) but it will do. I actually have to drive 45 minutes to find PE Mysis around here so I'm using the San Fran stuff right now myself.

If you have a LFS they may carry it though. I wish the LFS around here did. You could order it over the internet from Dr Fosters & Smiths ($$$ pricey) site or ask your LFS to carry it if you have one near you.

BTW, when your frogs are small feeding them mysis shrimp directly isn't bad either. It's a really good food to add variation, in nature african clawed frogs do eat a lot of small arthropods such as these though as they get larger they tend to outgrow them as adults (hence why I mix with reptomin).

[reptileszz]

OK, so it is now Thursday. I dont think this frog has eaten since Monday. I have been putting in a couple of reptomin pellets every day and when I come home at night they are either stuck to the filter or sitting on the bottom bloated and untouched. When I offer one on long tweezers the frog gets excited and goes thru the motions of shoving nothing in his mouth. What is wrong with this frog? Does he want to starve to death? I just dont get it. Everyone says what pigs they are... I finally get one that stays in the tank and its the most difficult one to get to eat. Ugh.

I got the shrimp but I really dont want to have to give this thing special food every day. The tank maintenance is time consuming enough. I dont want to have to prep food every single day. How long do I wait him out?

Carole

[mpmistr]

4 days seems a long time for a juvenile frog not to eat, growing frogs should be fed daily. He has to be hungry, if he does not eat reptomin today I would feed him cut up earthworm or try my mysis+reptomin trick.