Hi guys
I had a painted reed frog (Hyperolius marmoratus) for a while in a smaller rubbermaid style container with a smaller leaf folding frog. I was given a tinker reed frog (Hyperolius tuberilinguis) by a guy who found them in a pack of bananas. I kept them separate for a while and then housed them together in one of those tall Exo-Terra style critter keepers. They both occur in the exact same region and both can be found living in reeds together in the wild so that is why I put them together. But I noticed that when I moved him out of the smaller tub with his small leaf folding frog companion the leaf folding frog stopped eating after a while and died over a very short period, and also the painted reed frog (Hyperolius marmoratus) has stopped eating now and starting to lose weight. Do you think this is a result that they are not comfortable with each other? The tinker reed frog (Hyperolius tuberilinguis) is eating like a demon though.
I am going to separate them tonight, but it is a shame cause the cage I have for them is really nicely set up.
What can I do to get his energy up so that he can hunt again? I was going to let him soak in a shallow bath of a glucose/water mixture (we have a rehydrate brand for babies that I often use on reptiles). I have been worried that there is some kind of virus/fungus spreading and my vet is not comfortable with treating amphibians with liquid baytril.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated guys.
i'm not very familiar with these types of frogs but im my opinion, even though they live together in the wild does not mean they are compatible in captive care. The reason i think the one stopped eating was maybe because of competition? one can be a more agressive eater and starved the other one. i am by nomeans an expert, just my 2cents...
as far as rehab care. i cant help you there. good luck
Hi Darryn:
There are a couple of reasons:
in the previous post, it was mentioned that there could be a compatibility problem, one frog may be out competing the other for food; or
an interesting behavior trait of H. marmoratus is that during the "dry season" it will reduce its metabolism by 50% of normal. The body color will lighten up to almost white and go off feed. You can read more about it here:
Channing, A. 2001. Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates - Cornell University Press.
Schmuck, R., K. Linsenmair. 1997. Regulation of body water balance in reedfrogs (superspecies Hyperolius viridiflavus and Hyperolius marmoratus: Amphibia, anura, hypeoliidae) living in unpredictably varying savannah environments. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 118A (4): 1335-1352.
I hope it's not a compatibility issue, they would look great together!
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
Alas, it is a competitive issue. I separated the 2 of them and the 'bullied' one is eating perfectly again and doing great... so that means separate vivs. But on a good note then at least I can pimp out another viv:-) Whoop whoop!
Thanks for all the help guys :-)
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