Aw crud, maybe I was just misinformed when I bought this. The description I saw said 10-30gph (I was aiming for under powered) and a review said they used it with frogs. I had it aimed to the back corner but I guess it is just too strong overall.

He has been swimming around like crazy since I turned it off and is now calling, so it definitely was the filter. I will look into the other kinds. I might just do water changes for now so as to not stress him out for a while though.

Thanks for double checking the filter specs for me.