Newly raised frog from a tadpole question

[lisaf]

Hi everyone!
We were given a tadpole back in 10/12 and it finally metamorphosed into a frog a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what type of frog that our little guy is. Anyways, he seems to prefer hanging out hiding under water. We have him in a 10 gallon aquarium tank that is about 1/3 full of water. It has larger sized pebbles on the bottom and large rocks on it that he can climb and hide under. He will sit on the rocks, but that is typically at night. In reading about frogs, it seems that most people have them in tanks that are mostly land based with some water. I'm not sure if our tank is set up correctly, but I hate to blow his mind and take out more water since he seems to prefer hiding under water at this point. Any suggestions? I would really appreciate input as I have never had a frog before and know nothing about them.
Thanks!!
Lisa

[Mentat]

Hi Lisa and welcome to FF. Do you have any pics of your frog? I guess from habits you describe a 1/4 land 3/4 water set-up would be appropriate. Will wait until you post pics (even from cel phone camera) but do dechlorinate tank water if from tap or anything other than bottled spring .

[lisaf]

Hi Lisa and welcome to FF. Do you have any pics of your frog? I guess from habits you describe a 1/4 land 3/4 water set-up would be appropriate. Will wait until you post pics (even from cel phone camera) but do dechlorinate tank water if from tap or anything other than bottled spring .

Thank you so much for your response! These pictures were taken in late May. It has gotten really hard to take pictures of him now because he is really skittish and hides immediately when I approach his tank. I'm not sure how to get him to relax more around us.

[Gnag the nameless]

I think you've got yourself an American Bullfrog (Rana Catesbeiana) right there

Bullfrogs are typically skittish, but if they become used to you they may not mind you at all. My own bullfrog, Gnag, doesn't even mind me watching her hunt these days.

For a bullfrog, I'd recommend a 1/2, 3/4 or even almost fully water setup. Make sure your little guy has somewhere he can climb up onto and be out of the water. Giving a kind of "Edge of a pond" look to his setup would be great. Personally, I recommend using small pond stones as substrate. Just make sure they are too big to be eaten. As for tank size, as a froglet he'll need a 20 gallon, but my rule of the thumb is: every inch the frog is, 10-15 gallons. So, a 3 inch bullfrog would go into a 30 gallon tank (exception being a 4+ inch bullfrog should go into a 55 Gallon at the very smallest.) Despite this, the bigger tank the better.

As for feeding, you can feed him crickets smaller than the space between his eyes daily. I would say let him eat about 5-10. Also, I STRONGLY recommend you pick up some Calcium + Vitamin D3 Reptile powder, and Multi-vitamin Reptile powder. Dust his crickets every other feeding with the Calcium mix, and once a week with the Multi-vitamin (never on the same day, though.) To dust, simply place a pinch of the powder in a bag, drop the crickets in, seal the bag, shake it about for 10 or so seconds, and the crickets should be covered in the dust. Then, go ahead and feed. As he gets bigger, you can feed him earthworms (make sure the worms are from a fertilizer/additive/pesticide free source). I recommend any kind of Nightcrawler. For every inch the frog is, he can have 3 inches of earthworm, although for little ones I'd go smaller before bigger. My 3.5 inch bullfrog can gobble down a 10 inch worm, so I don't think it'll be a problem for your guy to eat a 3 inch worm.

Could we have a few photos of your setup?

Good job keep us posted

[lisaf]

Thanks to everyone so far for you help! Here is a picture of where he lives.... I've been feeding him wingless fruit flies. He doesn't seem to be eating the frog/tadpole bites that he ate as a tadpole anymore. Thanks for the tip about dusting the bugs with the supplements. Has anyone been breeding their own flies? I'm thinking about doing that, but wasn't sure about how many flies that my frog will eat and if it will make it worth it to breed the flies myself. I'm noticing that the crickets that the crickets that Caspian is giving his/her frogs seem to be pretty big. ugh!

[Bombina Bob]

The setup is great!, Im suprised he's feeding as well! You can get
a friut fly culture at some pet stores and online and will breed like
crazy within a week or two.

[Gnag the nameless]

I like the tank as a froglet, he'll do well in it. Just make sure he has a day/night schedule and I also recommend an aquarium wallpaper for the back. You can tape it on, or simply use water. It'll reduce stress, make him feel more at home. Having a bit more greenery here and there would make him feel more comfortable, too.

Well, there's different sizes of crickets. There's pinhead (0-1 week) which can sometimes be the size of large fruit flies. As your frog gets bigger, you can feed him bigger sizes. I used to feed my bullfrog 2 week crickets, but now she can eat 5-6 week (adult) crickets.

Wingless fruitflies will do for now, but as he gets bigger they will not suffice. My big bullfrog doesn't even pay attention to any smaller crickets I place in her tank now.

[Bombina Bob]

The frog you might have may be a "Typical frog" that you see in ponds. i say
his setup is perfect but we dont know the species yet, dont worry about feeding
it takes a few days for a newly formed frog to need food. any pics?

[Heatheranne]

Caspian has given you good advice. Very pretty frog.

She is young yet, but I think you may have yourself a pretty little female. Time will tell.

He/she will grow quickly so be prepared for a longer tank. She will want to glide from one to the other in one stride . Beautifully smooth, strong swimmers. You can see the webbing of her feet. This is a good indication of a frog that needs a water area.

[lisaf]

Thank you to everyone that has given me advice. I really appreciate it! I swear I feel like a new parent with this frog...and there's no "what to expect when you're expecting" for froglets!..especially since we lost his/her sibling the first day we got them when my cat found them.

Anyways, I have a few more questions for everyone....

It seems that people change the water of their tanks daily. Is that true when the tanks are mostly water? I hate to change the tank on this little guy right now, as I think it will traumatize him. However, I'm noticing a growth of algae developing rapidly on the aquarium pebbles on the bottom of the tank. Is that a concern? thoughts?

Also, my family and I have to go out of town this weekend to attend a lacrosse tournament for my son. We will leave Friday late afternoon and return Sunday late. Do you think that it's ok if I load the tank up with flies and will that tide the frog over til we return? We don't have family in town. Or should I try to get a friend to help me out with feeding the frog. I swear, we have a dog and 2 cats and it's hard enough traveling with them...now we've added a frog that will live 9+ years!! agh!!!

Thanks for your input.
I've added a couple of pictures I got of the frog last night. He/she seems to be getting a bit more used to me.

[Gnag the nameless]

Sorry for not replying sooner, I've been studying hard for my final Exams in school.

I'm sorry to hear that your 'lil guy lost a friend one of my Chorus frogs, Levi, lost his old buddy Chrome, and he's never been truly the same since, although Thermidor's been a great little friend of his.

Well, as for the water changes, it depends if your filter has been cycled, meaning the beneficial bacteria has grown in the filter, and has established itself, thoroughly. If you don't know what this beneficial bacteria does, is it breaks down ammonia and nitrates/nitrite, which help breed the bad bacteria, and in large amounts, can be toxic to your frog. If your bio-filter is fully cycled, then I'd say 50% water changes every 5 days. If it's not, 25% daily, or 50% every 2 days. As for algae and gunk hiding below the gravel, what I typically do for that is I pour the water directly onto it, which should cause the gunk to flying up into the current, and be sucked up by the filter.

I'm not sure there. You could, but personally, I'd have a trusted neighbor/friend come over every day, and simply place the typical amount of fruit flies in the tank and cleaning the tank itself (if necessary). Train them 1-3 times in 1 hour sessions on how to maintain the tank before-hand.

As for the frog living 9+ years, I've heard that bullfrogs typically only live 4-5 years, sometimes a bit more. Honestly, I'd love for my bullfrog, Gnag, to live up to 20 years, or even longer if she could.

He's a cute and tiny little guy but just wait 'till he grows up, he could get as big as my Gnag, if not bigger! She's 3.5 inches, snout to vent, and growing fast!:



Here's a photo of my chubby eating machine, glaring at me whilst sitting on her filter. See, I'd interrupted her "staring contest" with a cricket

[lisaf]

Thanks Caspian for your last post. I really appreciate all your information. Your frog doesn't look that big in the picture! I think that some of the others are correct....I think our little frog is a girl. I'm not sure if she's still too young to tell...she's not quite a month old yet.
I haven't graduated to larger food yet....still doing the flightless fruit flies. I haven't seen her actually eat yet, but she's getting used to me being in the room.
Thanks again for everyone's information!!
Lisa

[Gnag the nameless]

Oh, I can assure you, Gnag is much larger than she appears in the photo! Especially in comparison to my little Chorus frogs, or even Bumpy! But, for a bullfrog, she's actually quite small. Most bullfrogs reach a length of 5-6 inches snout to vent at maturity. But, up here where it's a lot colder most of the year and there's less substantial prey, finding a bullfrog over 4 inches (snout to vent) is rare. I've only once seen a bullfrog over 5 inches at my nearby lake.

If her throat remains white, and her typanum (eardrum) stays about equal size to her eye, you've got a female. They typically grow larger and live slightly longer than male bullfrogs.

Yeah, with my salamanders and Bumpy, I typically have to place the earthworms/crickets in the tank, on a clear spot, and leave them be. As for the skittishness, hopefully she'll be like Gnag and eventually not even care if you're right there. Some frogs remain skittish in captivity, though. Bumpy's always been an extremely skittish animal. and I doubt she'll ever change her ways.

I'd recommend you move on to pinhead crickets and small and small earthworms. If you can't get smaller earthworms, you can simply follow steps in this article to make the earthworm small enough for your little girl to eat: Caudata Culture Articles - How to Feed a Large Worm to a Small Newt

Great work so far keep us posted!

[Heatheranne]

Hey question about tank size....what size should I get? I have her in a 10 gallon, but I know that we will need to get a bigger one. I don't want to get a bunch of tanks in increasingly larger sizes. So what size do you think that we should ultimately get?

If she is a Northern green she will need a tank of at least 40 gallons, but 55 gallon preferred. If she is a American bullfrog she will need a 75 or 100 gallon tank at full adult size. They grow fast. Northern greens develop a slightly raised line along their sides. Bullfrogs do not. In about 1-3 months you'll know for sure which species you have. Your frog can stay in the 10 gallon until she reaches about 3" in size but then definitely should be mired or she will stress. Before that time she should develop her characteristic traits of either species so you will know what you need.

My male American bullfrog is about 6" snout to vent (nose to anis). He is approx a year old. I purchased him as an older juvenile, last fall. He is currently housed in a 75 gallon and is doing well .

[lisaf]

oh my gosh"!! i didn't realize that we would need such a huge tank! this frog is turning into a money pit! we haven't named the frog yet because we aren't sure if we have a male or female. but i'm thinking good names might be...zsa zsa, jlo(alothough i hate jlo) hmm..i'll have to give it more thought.

[Gnag the nameless]

oh my gosh"!! i didn't realize that we would need such a huge tank! this frog is turning into a money pit! we haven't named the frog yet because we aren't sure if we have a male or female. but i'm thinking good names might be...zsa zsa, jlo(alothough i hate jlo) hmm..i'll have to give it more thought.

Trust me, once everything is set up the results are so worth it! Hearing my Gnag and Bumpy croak every evening, watching them hunt crickets and swim gracefully through the nice, deep water areas of their tanks is one of my favorite (if not my favorite!) pastime.

Love the names! As you might be able to tell from my signature, I've always loved strange, quirky, and unique names

[lisaf]

ok, so I finally got the vitamin powder for the wingless fruit flies that I've been feeding our frog....still nameless at this point. anyways, I put the coated flies on the rocks that are above water. However, most of them seem to end up in the water floating around and causing the powder the wash off. Is this bad? I'm not sure how to avoid that happening, since our frog hides when I open the aquarium and takes a while before she will come out to investigate. thoughts?
Also, it doesn't sound like females make much noise. This frog hasn't made a sound. Any idea about when we might expect to hear something, if we are going to hear something? (she's about 1 month post metamorphose)
Thanks!
oh, and how did you come up with Gnag, Caspian?

[Gnag the nameless]

Great! It's essential to your frogs growth, actually.

As for the dust washing off, that's a tough one. I have the same problem with my bullfrogs crickets. Since the fruitflies are so small, that's going to be tough. Do you have a large land area to place them on? If you were using pinhead crickets it probably would be easier and less likely for the dust to wash off. You can also buy fake Waterlilies and place the fruit flies on those. I place my crickets on those and fake water reeds. Only problem is when Gnag flips the Waterlilies onto the other side (she's easily strong enough to do that now .)

From my experience, all bullfrogs make noise, the females just less than the males. The best time to actually tell the gender is during the breeding season. If the typanum/eardrum is larger than the eye and the throat is yellow, it's a male. I'm actually attempting to discern whether Gnag is a male or female, it's difficult because Gnag's got the features of a male in terms of size, but sometimes his/her throat is white, whilst at night it is yellow-green.

I don't expect your little one will make any noise until she's a yearling, though. For now, she'll probably only make a loud "PEEP!" when frightened, and sometimes bark.

Oh, how I came with Gnag? I didn't actually come up with it, Gnag the Nameless is the name of the main antagonist from one of my favorite book series when I was younger, The Wingfeather Saga. But, in the books Gnag is pronounced "Nagg" whilst I pronounce my Gnag's name as "Guh-Nagg". As for my other amphibians, Thermidor is the Month of Summer Heat in the French Revolutionary Calendar. Gargan and Urtham I came up with on my own. Bumpy Digtoad is also from the Wingfeather Saga. My friend named Levi, because he's his frog. I'm taking care of him because he can't keep Levi at his house due to the loud croaking he produces. If I ever get another amphibian, I may name it Scidolius ("Sidd-o-lee-us") or Tyrizen (T-I-reh-zen), both names I came up with on my own.

[Heatheranne]

You have to remember though that once the big purchases are bought its only maintenance and food that you'll need to buy. It's the initial cost that's tough.

That'd be a cute name, lol!

[GrifTheGreat]

Welcome!