Red, raw genatilia - I'm incredibly worried! HELP!

[mpmistr]

Hi guys. I usually come here to lurk but have finally been brought to join after noticing my frog has a red, raw anus and it really worries me. He's an ACF kept in a 20 gallon (high) tank with snails and feeder guppies and nearing two years old. I do water changes at least bi-weekly and just did a big one about a week ago. Chems earlier were fine though I still need to check ammonia. I'm using a tetra whisper filter specifically for up to 20 gallons. Water temperature is 78F. I haven't noticed any other trauma. He's muscular and generally healthy looking and is swimming fine with no problems reaching the surface.




I'm not sure if its the beginning of red leg or a fecal impaction/anal prolapse. He's fed repto min frog sticks and he eats guppies. I'm also wondering if the filter sand could be a problem.

I won't be able to rest well until I know he's ok so any help you could provide would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Welcome to the FrogForum. Sorry your little guy is going through a situation here.

Typically these types of infections are due to improper environment and since ACF are tough little guys, he will recover once the environment comes back into balance.

Top priority, I would remove snails and guppies from his tank and get that water temperature to where ACF are comfortable which is 68F-72F.

A single ACF is already a heavy bioload, (ramshorn/pond)snails tend to multiply and die rapidly which can spike ammonia. Larger (apple/mystery) snails actually carry a high bioload. The guppies also add to bioload and provide I would imagine a pretty inadequate yet steady food supply. The reasons being feeder fish are just bad news due to the risk of disease and parasites. So right there we have perhaps a bioload too high for a 20G with a ACF, quite simply the tank is too small and the filter is too weak to 'keep up' with all the critters you have in there.

78F is too high for ACF. The guppies like water this warm but this is going to be stressing your ACF which needs temperate water to thrive. You need lower your heater to the lowest setting or remove it, ACF do great in room temperature, personally I do NOT keep a heater in my ACF tank, keep the water around 70F. The problem here of course is once you do that your guppies will begin to suffer because they are a tropical species (so they will begin to become ill), so right these these two do not belong together due to vastly different environmental needs.

What are you using to treat your tap water?

Hope this helps,

Mike