Newly raised frog from a tadpole question

[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!

[lisaf]

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?