African Clawed frogs- strange behaviour or not- new owner...

[Aphrodite]

Hello, I bought these two cute little african dwarf frogs from the mall, they came with a self cleaning gravel, and a small tank, I added them into, a SLIGHTLY bigger tank a few weeks after getting them, they adjusted well, but my 2 yr old, somehow, climbed on top of the counter and tried feeding them sketties..... that was a few months ago( about 3 ) now and I have changed and cleaned it since. with just water, see the thing is i heard if you use tap water its okay after you let it sit for 48 hrs, so that's how i've been changing their water... now we've had them for a while actually now since jan, named pip and pop, I believe pip is the bigger female, and pop is the smaller male...i got these pellets for them to eat from the store, a " year supply" if tiny little things and only supposed tto feed them twice a week 4 bellets thats it...I'll admit I don't feed them everyday, but I do feed them a bit more ( like 4 days outta the week with snacks as in like 2 bit thingies throughout the week here and there) they have grown, but now the bigger one, Pip is attacking pop...I changed their water and bought natrual spring water with nothing in it , for them, and put them in the smaller tank, and clleaned the tank with hot water, and the rocks, atd filled it with bottled water that I got them( it is 0% everything, theres nothing in it ) and I notice it more when I feed them, but I've also witnessed her go at him out of nowere( their in the kitchen, and so I watch them while I do dishes or clean or whatnot( they have a covered tank and I make sure not to spray around them, I move to them to the table when I clean the counter, and then vise vera for the table I use organic cleaner as well..)
It has been a bit cooler in here lately as I usually have the two AC's on, so I moved them to a warmer place now too, what else should I do? their my little buddies, I bring them outside with me when I read a book and stuff they love it, they come right up when my face is there, they know who I am...
oh and the female, I caught her laying on her back, no male attacked, so like.. is that just a thing? I've never seen her dothat before.
Many thanks!!

also their AFRICAN DWARF frogs,,, but I didn't know were else to go and i'm new here..

[Aphrodite]

please help !

[Jenste]

ok...just have to ask a few questions to figure out where the problem may be

1) how big is the tank? (gallons/liters)
2) is it filtered?
3) how often do you change the water and do you treat it for chlorine?
4) what exactly are you feeding and how often?
5) what temperature is their water? how much does it fluctuate during the day?
6) any other changes in behavior? tattered shedding? redness? cottony look to the skin?

Can you post pictures? Sometimes a picture says a thousand words

With you saying the female was found lying on her back, I am inclined to think that she is suffering from poor water quality with higher than safe levels of ammonia and nitrite.

7) Do you test your water? Levels should always be a 0.00ppm. Anything higher is harmful and if high enough it can kill.


They have exceptionally poor eyesight. Her "lunges" at him are most definitely she mistakes the wiggling shadow of his arm for food. They are not aggressive by any means....more just nearly blind and "slow" (dim-witted)

[TextualDeath]

lol shes hungry and they compete for food .Far as laying on her back if they mated then she would be exhausted and that behavior would be normal as she was very tired. Are the large anough to feed them some bloodworms or even red worms ? If so feed her and him until thye are fat and full and see if they start to get along better. Let me know how it goes . they like a variation of meals although yes they will eat practically everything . i feed my African Clawed frogs ( different frog but same appetite ) small feeder fish night crawlers redworms shrimp and bloodworms . I have 5 in my tank . they get along beautifully but they do fight over food at times . they do not get hurt but once they are good and full the fighting stops and they hang out together peacefully .

[rodsboys]

Far as laying on her back if they mated then she would be exhausted and that behavior would be normal as she was very tired.

WTF? Are you serious? It is never normal behaviour for frogs to lay on their backs, ever. Please don't attempt to help if you are just going to spread wrong information. Maybe you can contribute in some other way?

[Jenste]

Textual death is no longer a member by their own request but I see our system replaced an inappropriate acronym with "Whites Tree Frog" - I noticed it in my email response for the thread. Please don't use the abbreviations you had originally used - let's try and keep the responses a bit cleaner.