Help! Need a feeding technique for my African Dwarf Frog

[Becci517]

I have an African Dwarf Frog in a 5 gallon aquarium with a filter and heater. I bought the sinking pellets for him but I feel like most of them go too far in between the rocks for him to get and so I put is a bunch to makes sure he gets some. Then he started to have problems staying on the bottom of the tank (uncontrollable floating) and I did some research and it isn't dropsy, but rather gas from eating too much. I would like to regulate how much food he gets but haven't a clue how to control where the tiny sinking pellets land on the bottom. I have put a small dish on the bottom of the tank as a landing pad for food... I tried using tweezers but the pellets are too small. I also tried using an extra air tube (sucking pellets in, putting it on the dish releasing the pellets) but that doesn't really work either. So my question is how can I easily get the pellets on the dish so I can manage his food?

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Providing a proper substrate for ADF can be challenging due to it's eating habits. Those uneaten pellets decompose in the water fouling it and if your frog finds and eats them it could get sick. Myself would check your nitrates levels if tank is cycled and if newly set-up would also check ammonia and nitrites in case increased water changes are required.

Best option with ADF is a bare bottom; in your case, just need to carefully remove the pebbles with a net. Then you feed the food and frog finds it with no issues. Also, it's easier to keep tank clean.

Second option is to use a fine layer of aragonite sand (no more than 1 in. deep) as substrate. If frog accidentally eats it; it will go through digestive system with no impaction issues. Problem is that powerful filters can pull fine sand it into media pads and also disturb the bottom layer with outflow. Good luck !

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

I have a community tank of ADF's and fish and feeding the frogs was a problem
until I got a small ceramic food dish from the pet store and placed it in the gravel ( that is too large for the fogs to swallow)
and I feed the fish their food on the other side of the tank to draw their attention away from the frogs food.
and then put in the sinking pellets over the dish and most of them fall in the dish and the frogs have no problem getting the food.

There is another method another keeper developed is to train the fogs to get their food from a white fish net.
I know it doesn't tell how she trained the frog but I can guess that she put food in the net and put it in the tank and let the frog find it,
and does this several times an the frog will associate the net with food.

[Randy]

an alternate is also to feed them frozen bloodworms or hikari .it floats long enough for them eat it .also a determined frog can stir up even the stoutest gravel to eat when it is hungry.the wave their hands and stir the water up to release the food .I have 4 AFCs who do that and a dragon goby who will wave his tail to stir the pellets form the rocks .

[markross]

1 - another way is getting a clay saucer plate. Its what hold a flower pot. and put it in your substrate and even it out with it. and make sure none of the substrate is in there. If your using sand it doesn't matter, the frogs will eat sand and pass it through. So i have a clay saucer plate in my tank with sand.

2 - then i defrost my blood worms in a small plastic container with water for 15 min.

3 - i then take a baster and suck of the blood worms, and put them in the tank in the saucer.

4 - i then bring all the frogs to the saucer and show them where the food is (my frogs now no every 4th day they are eating at go to the saucer)

5 - time them no more than 15 minutes for eating or they "apparently over eat" but mine usually leave when they are full.

6 - then remove the food and you are done.

easier to clean cause the food is in one area, and some times the frogs argue over food its actually funny haha. but thats another way you can feed them.

[wcbpolish]

We had terrible luck with the frog pellets. Live blackworms from the local fish store worked best for us. Uneaten food hides rather than rotting, and the frogs get to spend their day hunting for worms in the substrate.