African clawed frog questions??s

[sprinkleddonuts]

Hi all,

As in the title, my question is about ACF. I might be getting two of them for the old 20 gallon. Will this be enough space?
Also, I'd like to feed them a diet of reptomin, crickets, bloodworms, and maybe nightcrawlers. My last question is that are ACF's illegal in BC??
Thanks for being patient through all my questions, for I am new to the forum .


Thanks all

[mpmistr]

Not illegal in any province of Canada I am aware of. The diet and tank seem good to me. I would go with reptomin or a better quality pellet and earthworms are a good diet and crickets and bloodworms make a good occasional treat.

[tgampper]

20 gallons will be fine for a pair of clawed frogs. There are a few Frog Forum members from Canada that keep ACFs. Welcome to the forum!

[sprinkleddonuts]

Thanks everyone! What kind of filter should I use?? i.e. sponge filter

[rodsboys]

I use sponge filters in my frog setup. If you don't mind looking at them, they are great filters, especially for the price. Welcome to the board, and yes they are legal in all Canadian Provinces.

[sprinkleddonuts]

I've heard internal filters bother the frogs because they make the tank vibrate itself. Is it ok to use one??

[rodsboys]

It does not affect them as much as it does dwarf frogs, as long as your not pinning the frogs to the wall with current. Spong filters are pretty gentle. Your talking flow rare of an air stone.

[mpmistr]

I've heard internal filters bother the frogs because they make the tank vibrate itself. Is it ok to use one??

I use a canister filter with a spray bar with my ACF, it has decent flow but not over powering. I haven't had any issues what so ever.

African Dwarf Frogs like Tony mentioned, are really poor swimmers and are prone to drowning when the water has too much current or water levels are too high.

ACF however, are incredibly strong swimmers, they -prefer- stagnant water but having at lease some flow is healthy for your tank. When I put my spray bar against the glass to reduce flow I started to get blue green algae aka cyanobacteria which is not something you want... :/

[sprinkleddonuts]

Also do they dislike harsh light?? My aquarium lights are pretty bright for my plants. Where do you guys buy young ACF's?? Thanks in advance!!

[mpmistr]

They are not a fan of bright lights, when they bask it could damage their eyes.

I have a planted tank and I use LEDs (Finnex Ray2) and it's very strong so what I came up with is I use a glass lid and I bought some plastic to go underneath them, like the kind people put under fluorescent lighting and cut it out so it rests on top of my glass lid and it diffuses the light and makes it so where it's not blinding. My plants still grow just fine, too.

All my ACF were purchased at LFS in my area, I've never seen them at a PetCo or PetSmart.

EDIT:

Speaking of lighting, just some ideas for you.

What type of plants are you growing? In my experience, floating plants or low light plants work best. You don't need a TON of light for floating plants since they will are in close proximity.

A light I picked up and I REALLY like is the Current Satellite LED+ fixture. What is cool about it is that it has a remote control you can control the RGB (red green blue) of the lights and create custom colors, weather effects, and control brightness as well. I would consider it a low light fixture though so you can't really have a 'serious' planted tank with it.

On my 40B I use a Finnex Ray2 to light the rear of my tank (highest density of plants) and the Satellite Current LED+ on the front of the tank to add supplemental light and since the Ray2 only runs a few hours a day for plant growth, I use the Current LED for evening viewing. From 6pm to 10pm I turn it to a cool brown/green swampy color scheme and it looks really awesome and the frogs become quite active in the subdued lighting as well.

I could probably get away with just using the Current LED but I like having the Ray2 run a few hours a day to make sure my plants get all the light they need, my tank is pretty dense with plants though.. on a 20G you could probably do just fine with the Current LED. With a Ray2 unless you diffuse or can anchor it above your tank to add height between it and the substrate, you will almost certainly have algae issues.

[rodsboys]

Try looking on kijiji and I know Big Al's carries them, though kind of pricey IMO. A lot of mom and pop stores will sometimes have them too.

[sprinkleddonuts]

I have amazon swords, anubias nanas, and I hope to add hornwort and java moss