Cleaning the tank

[mateosbaby]

I've had my 2 African Clawed frogs for a couple years now, so I know what I'm doing with the tank, but the last couple months, so much nasty gunk has piled up on the bottom of the tank, it's disgusting. It stinks, and the gravel vac is just not doing much for it. I'm letting it sit overnight now to see what it does, but I can see the gunk just piling up again on top of the gravel. Any suggestions?

[Indyaquarist]

Hi mateosbaby- What color is it? Is it just detritus or a type of algae? What do you mean by the gravel vac is just not doing much for it? Is it not sucking it up or it just grows back too fast?

[mateosbaby]

Well, the gunk that's piling up is brown - could be leftover shrimp pellets and Reptomin??? But there is also black gunk all over the gravel, some of which is going through the vac and out with the water changes, but not the vast majority. A lot of the brown gunk is just floating and making the water brown, eventually settling on top of the gravel. My frogs refuse to eat the Reptomin - it just floats there, then sinks, and clogs the filter. :-/ They seem to love the shrimp pellets, since they're still alive. :P Maybe there's something else I should be trying to feed them?

[Indyaquarist]

Sorry it has taken a bit for me to get back to you. It does sound like detritus which is most simply put as left over gunk. You might be over feeding which is one of the worst things you can do in an aquatic environment. Removing excess food from the tank is very important as it breaks down and essentially rots. Imagine some of the nasty leftovers you have found in your fridge. They are living in that. Any animal may turn their nose up at some foods. Personally I have not had any experience with Reptomin. Is it vitamin enhanced food or just reptile food made by tetra like tetramin? If so, tetra is not a really good quality food (packed with a lot of fillers). I would experiment with some different, higher quality foods. You can always fall back on worms (black, trout or night-crawlers depending on the size of your frogs). Just remember who is training who. If an animal is turning up their nose at a better food (i.e. veggies with kids) in favor of fatty or treat like foods (i.e. dessert or chips) with hold the latter until they are hungry enough for anything. I'm not saying starve them but clawed frogs can go about 2 weeks with out eating with no problem. Especially if they have built a big fat reserve with junky foods. I will say the temp of the water does play a part here. The higher the temp the faster their metabolism.
As for the black stuff. I would imagine that it is either bacteria or algae feeding on the excess nutrients. If you post a pic or describe it better I may be able to identify it. The most important thing is water changes (min every other week as they are pretty dirty frogs), to cut back on the food to whatever they are going to eat in less than 5 mins and once a day maximum! They will beg like dogs but you can't listen to them. Remember: who is training who?

[mateosbaby]

Thanks for your help so far. Reptomin is by Tetrafauna (Tetra, I guess), and it says it's for Aquatic turtles, newts, and frogs. They are floating food sticks. When we fed them live goldfish one time (and when they ate a few giant danios once before we got them their own tank), they loved it. They would eat Reptomin pretty well for a long time, but lately they just refuse to even go near it. I know they prefer to catch their food, which is why the shrimp pellets are so nice. They drop down on them, and they catch it if they're hungry, or supposedly will scrounge for their food, but I rarely if ever see them do this (I am home all day to watch them). I normally feed them about 10-12 in the morning and evening. If I drop them 1 at a time, they eat nearly all of them. If I just sprinkle them, they only eat 1 or 2.

The water temp is just room temp, right now about 74*. It usually doesn't get much warmer or colder than that since the tank is in our finished basement next to my computer.

I'm not sure how to post pics in the forum (I'm technologically challenged), but I have always thought the black stuff on the rocks is algae. But now that you mention it, it could be bacteria. I've been adding live bacteria to the tank a couple times with water changes to try to get the gunk gone more, but maybe that is being counter-productive. I do want to get a new filter. It is one that is supposed to suction-cup to the inside of the tank, but it's so heavy that it sinks to the bottom. I have to put a bunch of gravel underneath it to hold it to a reasonable level. And the suction cups never stay in - I've stopped trying. Between them coming out on their own and the frogs going behind the filter to hide, it's not worth bothering about.

I think I'll send my bug-loving daughter out to find some worms for them. Usually we feed worms and bugs to the fish in our other tank, but I never thought about feeding them to frogs. I have way too many pets and gardens all wanting worms.... LOL