Male Died After Mating

[Joy Zimmerman]

I have two African Dwarf Frogs (one male, one female) that I had in a 1.77 gallon tank with a male betta. On Tuesday, I separated the fish from the frogs because the female frog and the fish were attacking each other. On Wednesday, I woke up to the frogs mating and laying eggs (I saw about 5 or 6 at the surface of the tank). I left everything how I found it and when I went back to check on them in the afternoon, all the eggs were gone. I assumed the frogs ate them. On Thursday, I woke up to more eggs in the tank. I took them out and put them in another tank and left the male and female in their tank. That afternoon, I noticed that the female was jumping and biting at the male. The male started floating at the top of the tank and I noticed that he was bleeding from his mouth. I called the pet store and was advised to isolate the male in case he had some sort of disease.

I put the male frog in the container that I usually put them in when I clean their tank with every intention of possibly putting him back in with the female in the morning. On Friday morning, the male was obviously dead. I even prodded him a little and tried picking him up with the fish net but I got no response.

All that to ask, do the females usually attack the males after mating? Or do I just have an aggressive female?

[amphib]

From my experience it sounds like your female is just quite aggressive. But i'm more of a African clawed frog guy so maybe some one else will know more.

[Rachel1]

I never have any aggression in my group of dwarfs. Sometimes the male forgets to eat when he gets caught up in amplexus, but the worst I've seen is a bit of chasing when he gets too frisky while the girls are eating. Sorry for your loss. They're usually pretty social little frogs, but I would be hesitant to put another in with her.

[Geoff]

All that to ask, do the females usually attack the males after mating? Or do I just have an aggressive female?

The simple answer to your question is no, the females do not usually attack the males after mating. In fact, they normally seek seclusion in order to recover from the physical exertion of egg laying.

The usual circumstance under which a Hymenochirus frog is perceived to be attacking another is when it is hungry and the movement of another frog in close proximity stimulates it to lunge at it in expectation of it being a food item. This is most common in dealers' tanks when very young, frail, newly metamorphosed frogs are kept in a tank of fish where they are under-fed. They lunge at each other and it sometimes results in the loss of frogs' fore limbs. It's not common for adult frogs to inflict serious injuries on each other though.

Although the pet store's advice was well-intended I doubt very much that your frog was suffering from a disease simply because sick animals are not inclined to breed. He was most probably just traumatised from the injury and I would have left him in situ. I don't know, but I suspect that moving him to a container may have exacerbated his trauma and compromised his immune system to the extent that he gave up, more so if the water chemistry and temperature was different to that in the tank - but this is, and can only be, speculation.

Anyway, good luck with the eggs. There's a lot of good, detailed information about rearing the tadpoles at: ADF Tadpole Development - 96366

[Joy Zimmerman]

He was most probably just traumatised from the injury and I would have left him in situ. I don't know, but I suspect that moving him to a container may have exacerbated his trauma and compromised his immune system to the extent that he gave up, more so if the water chemistry and temperature was different to that in the tank - but this is, and can only be, speculation.

Thank you all. The lady who sold me the frogs told me they were pretty docile but I know that there are exceptions to that (and it seems that she is sitting in my tank, lol). I scooped him out with the container so the water was the same as the water he was in. He did jump out of the container before I could put the lid on so that was probably stressful for him and probably made things worse.

I'm not too optimistic about the tadpoles because I've never done this before but I'm going to do my best! I appreciate the link- this is exactly what I have been scouring the internet for.

[Joy Zimmerman]

They're usually pretty social little frogs, but I would be hesitant to put another in with her.

Yeah, I want to get another one but between the fight with the betta and the male, I'm thinking I should leave her by herself.

[amphib]

Ya the fact she took on a betta and isnt dead and that she killed another frog it would be best to leave her alone.