Hey,
I have housed my African Clawed Frogs for about a month or so now. From an earlier thread I mentioned that one frog "Squish" was bigger than the other "squash". I thought it was because I had a male and female, and the larger frog tended to eat alot more. Yesterday I noticed the smaller one wasn't moving as much and kept at the top of the tank on the surface in the leaves. I cleaned the tank and the smaller frog "squash" still wasn't moving alot, only into the tank and settled. Later when feeding, the larger frog ate, however the smaller one hadn't and didn't acknowledge that the food was in the tank, i moved some towards the smaller frog but still didn't eat.
Unfortunatly this morning i found it had died My boyfriend who knows more than me about amphibians had a look, we both agreed it's from something internal. We think he might have had bloat from the pet shop because he didnt have such an appetite as the bigger one and he didnt grow like the other.
I know alot of people on here will know more than us, so I would like to check/ here your thoughts on how it might of died. I took some pictures for you to see.
Last edited by Kurt; May 27th, 2010 at 04:39 PM.
sorry, the images didn't show up. Sorry images didn't show up.
Sorry to hear about your frog. I don't think it was bloat that killed your frog. I noticed some reddish patches around the vent that seems to indicate there was a bacterial infection. The frog doesn't seem bloated at all. Some of the symptoms of a bacterial infection is reddish areas on the skin, lethargic, and refusing to eat. Once the symptoms appear, often death occurs suddenly within a few days. There is not very much you can do as far as treatment. Try adding some salt to the water (one teaspoon of "sea salt" per gallon), ACFs are quite salt tolerant and it may prevent bloating.
Terry Gampper
Nebraska Herpetological Society
“If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may understand why it is for us not merely noise but a song of poetry and emotion.”
--- Adrian Forsyth
Yeh that makes more sense tbh, it stayed on the top of the water for the majority of the time and very rarely dived to bottom.
Thankyou
I had the same impression Terry. I was leaning toward a parasitic problem, I was hoping you would see this as you have more experience with these guys. Anyway, I agree with Terry that it looks normal as far as bloating goes.
Recent Information Guys:
my boyfriend just rung the pet store he bought them from, he had told them all the information you kindly gave us regarding squish, and the man on the phone blamed it on our care. not only does my boyfriend keep c.orientalis he knows alot about the care of amphibians. i am disgusted/ that the store have stirred away from their responsibility at adressing a viral outbreak.
Remember that we are making educated guesses here. Without testing we can't make any difinitive statements. I don't know what killed the frog, I just know what might have.
I understand that without autopsy it can never be concluded , was annoys me is the arrogance of this one store. when my bf bought c.orientalis from Aquamanina they were carrying citrid fungus i believe, he informed them after paying for tests and they did nothing. a week later all the stores c.orientalis had caught it and were visually losing limbs. heartless [People] ... Other words could fit there much more appropriately.
Also if anyone can tell me , on the 3rd picture you see bubble type markings inside the belly above the leg. what is this?
That darkened area above the leg in the 3rd pix looks strange to me. It didn't appear in the other two pix (because of light and angle). It could be a parasite, like Paul said. To be honest, I didn't notice it until I saw it on a different monitor.
As far as the pet shop is concerned, well, I would thumb my nose at 'em next time I drove by
Chytridiomycosis does not cause the loss of limbs. It attacks the skin virtually suffocating the stricken animal. Symptoms include the flaking off of skin, lethargy, loss of appetite, and abnormal behaviors like failing to hide or climb.
Loss of limbs is most likely cause by an aggressive baterial infection.
An autopsy on an animal is a necropsy.
I just had this exact thing happen to me with my dwarf african clawed. I am sorry for your loss.
Edit:
I am also going to have to lean towards the bacterial aspect of this. Mine did the same thing with the floating and not diving thing but it also had the red patches, the lethargy, and the loss of appetite. Mine also died while floating rather than sinking.
I would go and have your other one checked out in fear that he has it as well. I lost one frog when I first got them (in december) and just thought he died naturally never once thought it could have been bacterial from when I got him. I didn't know enough. And a couple months later here I am with another dead dwarf african clawed. I don't know if it's directly related but there's always that possibility..so to be on the safe side i'd run the little fella to a vet.
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