How do we keep our frogs?

[celticstarb]

Anyone else willing to share their techniques?

[mpmistr]

Can't really say I have much technique for keeping clawed frogs since they're very easy to keep, but here goes..

I keep 3 females and 1 male in a 40 gallon breeder. I use an Eheim 2217 canister for filtration. I have a lot of drift wood pieces in the tank on the bottom, the frogs like to chill out in it. I attached java fern to the drift wood so it makes it look nicer. Substrate is just simple aquarium sand. I did try adding oak leaves for 'leaf litter' on the bottom, but it turns out oak leaves degrade pretty quickly, so I don't bother anymore.

I have an abundance of duckweed and water sprite growing up top and I have added some pothos growing down the side of my tank with the roots in the water. There's some vals growing in the sand but I removed most of those plants because the frogs uproot them anyways. I try to keep the temps at 70F if possible but my tank is 75F right now because it's still summer. The lights on my tank are a Current Satellite LED+, which is kind of cool because it has a remote and is competely adjustable and even has presets for weather effects (like clouds, storms, night time, ect). I usually don't keep the lights on very high, I am pretty sure clawed frogs dislike bright light in general, the floating plants cut down on light quite a bit, I feel this makes the frogs more active in general.

For food, one or two nightcrawlers a week and reptomin. I used to keep feeder mollies and ghost shrimp in the tank but I got tired of breeding mollies and ghost shrimp aren't for sale around here anymore, either way the frogs ate them all anyways. I do kind of miss having the shrimp, they added some variety to the tank and do live a surprisingly long time with clawed frogs since the frogs don't notice them that much (but do find them eventually..).

Once a week I change out 15-20 gallons of water and replace it with treated tap. I've never had any issues with the health of my frogs, I've kept them this way for about three years now.

[celticstarb]

Thanks. This is a great way to show how people can use different techniques and still keep healthy happy frogs.

I have never tried leaf litter since hard water gives better breeding results, and my tap water is very hard. But I have heard others use it and have similar results with their breeding. I am using leaf litter for my Pipa pipa, but just to give them a since of security (plus it's fun to play "Where's Waldo" with them since they blend in so well, and look like a leaf.)

[mpmistr]

I've never had any luck with breeding, my male sings now and then but nothing seems to come of it.

[celticstarb]

If you feel like trying to breed them, there are a few things that can help induce breeding behaviors. Try dropping their water level by 1/3 for a few weeks, then fill their water back to it's original level with 78 degree water. Keep the water at that temp for a week and increase feeding. This is reverse of normal pipid breeding. But if you look at the African climate, their rainy season is actually during the warmer months. I have had luck with lowering the temp, but it isn't as successful as raising the temp.

[Geoff]

I've never had any luck with breeding, my male sings now and then but nothing seems to come of it.

I've posted this information before but it may be helpful to do so again.

I had two pairs of young frogs which, on reaching sexual maturity after approximately a year, produced eggs. For the next 7 years they remained healthy and went into amplexus but there were no more eggs. During those 7 years I kept them in a lavishly planted natural-looking tank which, although pleasing on the eye, did not provide any significant changes in environmental conditions in terms of lighting (10 hours a day - controlled by a time switch) or water temperature, which was roughly in the 68°F to 70°F range. Their tank was in a north-facing room and never received any direct sunlight.

Eventually, I decided to move things around and transferred the frogs to another tank, which was sparsely furnished with plastic plants, no substrate or artificial lighting, a few short pieces of upturned plastic guttering to provide shelter, a basic air-powered box filter and a sliding glass lid. This tank was situated in a south-facing room, which received direct sunlight (when it was sunny) for a large part of the day, although the tank itself did not. However, the room had a fluctuating temperature range. In winter, there was no heating on in the daytime when I was at work. In summer it got fairly hot (most homes in the UK don't have AC), which meant that the tank's water temperature gradually fell and rose accordingly from the low 60°sF to the upper 70°sF range.

The result was that the frogs started producing eggs again during the first summer of being in the new tank. They did it again the following spring and, even after the males had passed away, there was at least one female who expelled unfertilised eggs in April of one year. Unfortunately, I didn't keep detailed records.

The experience was unexpected and an unintended consequence of relocating the frogs. The main lesson I learnt from it is that what we may perceive as a "natural" tank can sometimes amount to little more than a pleasing visual effect to satisfy our own aesthetic requirements rather than a true replica the frogs' natural conditions.

[celticstarb]

That is great information. And, I agree with it 100%. When breeding, I put my frogs into a DIY rack system that is bare bottom with a piece of PVC cut in half to form a cave. These are the only frog tanks that have a heater. That is all they have for "decoration." My rack system is in the warmest room in the house, and the lights are on a timer and the rack receives more light than the display tanks. The display tanks I keep my frogs in when not breeding are in our living areas, and the lights are on when we require light, not based on the frogs requirements (I do keep a small led light on each tank that is on a timer jut to make transitioning to indirect lighting when we turn on lights.) I almost never have eggs in the DT.

What I find most interesting is that temperature variations, either up or down, can trigger spawning. Most aquatic amphibians require a temperature drop to breed, but clawed frogs will breed with a temp increase. In fact, I have had better luck with an increase.

[Geoff]

What I find most interesting is that temperature variations, either up or down, can trigger spawning. Most aquatic amphibians require a temperature drop to breed, but clawed frogs will breed with a temp increase. In fact, I have had better luck with an increase.

It's not so surprising really. You have to bear in mind that most species of Xenopus don't originate from tropical regions of Africa but from regions that have more of a Mediterranean zone climate, similar to parts of California, with a seasonal variation of dry, hot summers and mild but cool and wet winters.

The description I gave above of my own experience of breeding them strongly suggests that what stimulated them to breed was the seasonal fluctuation in ambient air temperature and hours of daylight, which were more or less natural and not controlled. Hence, the onset of spring, with warmer temperatures and increasing hours of daylight, created the right conditions to trigger egg laying.