Fire Belly Toad Died, But How?

[chrissycfbt]

About this time last month, I had brought home a fire belly toad (Bogart) and he has been very healthy and active, eats well, hunts enthusiastically. About a week ago, I started to think that maybe he was lonely, and reading that they are a community frog, I decided to go to the pet store and find him a friend. The frog I chose was pretty mellow in demeanor, dark in skin color, smaller in size, he perhaps could have been sick at the time I got him, but I decided to bring him home. I named him Hercules to encourage strength in him since he seemed a little slight. When I put Hercules in the tank with Bogart, Bogart was immediately territorial it seemed, charging at Hercules and chirping. Bogart hogged all of the food during feeding that same night, but even when purposely trying to get a cricket to Hercules, he just was not interested. So I kind of figured maybe he had already eaten enough that day from his feeding at the pet store and left him til the morning. I was not awake to monitor the interactions between Bogart and Hercules that night, so I am not sure how their time went together, but in the morning they were at opposite ends of the tank, one hiding in a hollow rock and the other in the water, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Feeding Hercules again was unsuccessful, and as the day went on I noticed Bogart somewhat bullying him some more- chirping at him and charging towards him- and I felt bad for Hercules who really just looked like he wanted to be left alone. I have a small transporter tank that I use when I'm cleaning out the big tank, so I decided to separate Hercules and put him in the small tank to see if I could get him to come around and try to get him to eat. Basically, days passed without any interest in food, I'd put in one very small cricket in the tank with him, they would crawl around right in front of him and he wouldn't even flinch, they would even crawl on top of him and he'd just push them off with his front hands and crawl to the other end of the tank. I started noticing that his abdomen was looking very swollen, even though he was still not eating. I got online, researching for days without a whole lot of successful outcome for finding a direct answer of what to do. I gave him a bath in a clean, untreated container with a lid from the pet store, with purified luke warm water, swished him around in it a little and some very slimy black film came off of him. Cleaned out the small tank, rinsed everything in it, took him out of the container, and put him back in the small tank. A couple more days went by and he still would not eat, seemed very lethargic. I found a website explaining how to force feed, and so I decided to try it, I held him in one hand in a wet paper towel, pried his mouth open gently from the side with a rounded guitar pick, surpressed the tongue, and gently put a mushed up cricket in the back of his mouth with a rounded toothpick. I put him back in the tank and watched him swallow it, reluctantly. The next day I had noticed in the water that he had thrown up the mushed cricket, and a once live cricket that had been in the tank previously was floating dead in the water with it. He looked even more bloated/swollen than before, still very lethargic, hiding inside the hollow rock I had in the tank. Research had been a dead end, I wasn't sure what to do or what to treat him for as there were fewer and fewer answers, I find it frustrating that there is not a lot of information online about properly taking care of reptiles, fish, rodents, ect. The closest exotic vet specializing in frogs and reptiles from where I am is two hours away, I found this out last night, and I was willing to take Hercules there on Monday, since its the weekend, to see if they could help him at all. Unfortunately this morning I noticed he was struggling with breathing and kept sticking out his tongue, then just a few hours later I found him in the corner with his mouth open with his tongue and what looked like his insides hanging out, lifeless I felt terrible, I really wanted to get him healthy and well so he could go back into the big tank with Bogart and have a happy life. It's a bit graphic, but I have attached a photo here of Hercules the way that I found him.
The main reason I am posting here is because I really would just like to know what happened so that I can better understand and know for the future. Bogart is still very healthy and active, and I even made a point to clean out his tank after I had taken Hercules out and noticed he didn't seem well, I didn't want anything to affect Bogart. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

The tank I have Bogart in is 5 gallons with a screen top, I have aquarium natural stone gravel at the bottom angled at a gradual slope for a dry side and a wet side, two inches of water, some bigger stones for sitting, a hollow half-log on the dry side, a hollow rock, a red decorative aquarium starfish from the pet store, and a little green frog prince figure/statue. The water is room temp. approx. 76 degrees F.
The tank that Hercules was quarantined in is very small, maybe a half gallon, same sort of setup with the gravel at an angle for a dry side and a wet side, about an inch of water, a stone for sitting, and a small hollow rock to hide in.
I had read a bit about this, and my biggest question and concern is about the gravel, the stones are small, and I have worried about the frogs picking them up during feeding time if they missed the crickets, and I am wondering if this is what may have happened to Hercules. He was only in the tank with Bogart for one day and one full night, but even after I separated him to the smaller tank, the same kind of stones were in there with him. Should this be something to worry about and should I change the kind of stones or gravel I have in Bogart's tank?

Thank you,
Chrissy