Depth of water for African Clawed Frog & tips needed for preventing an escape!

[gemzjames]

that looks like a great tank. I have been working for Natural England catching xenopus from the wild for years now and ive been trapping and catching them in very deep waters - they are fantastic swimmers and love deep water and places to hide in! when they are relaxed they will just hang and float at the top of the tank and will start singing at night .... so look forward to that. with regards to your plants on order, i assume you are getting real plants - just be aware that these frogs can be quite destructive as they like burrowing and have strong legs and due to their natural poisonous secretions the plants might not survive - i have had to switch to plastic plants which is a pain during a clean out but are working well. your frogs are lucky to have so much space :-) enjoy them!

[rodsboys]

that looks like a great tank. I have been working for Natural England catching xenopus from the wild for years now and ive been trapping and catching them in very deep waters - they are fantastic swimmers and love deep water and places to hide in! when they are relaxed they will just hang and float at the top of the tank and will start singing at night .... so look forward to that. with regards to your plants on order, i assume you are getting real plants - just be aware that these frogs can be quite destructive as they like burrowing and have strong legs and due to their natural poisonous secretions the plants might not survive - i have had to switch to plastic plants which is a pain during a clean out but are working well. your frogs are lucky to have so much space :-) enjoy them!

I was unaware that there are "natural poisonous secretions" with Xenopus sp.. What's that all about?

[mpmistr]

that looks like a great tank. I have been working for Natural England catching xenopus from the wild for years now and ive been trapping and catching them in very deep waters - they are fantastic swimmers and love deep water and places to hide in! when they are relaxed they will just hang and float at the top of the tank and will start singing at night .... so look forward to that. with regards to your plants on order, i assume you are getting real plants - just be aware that these frogs can be quite destructive as they like burrowing and have strong legs and due to their natural poisonous secretions the plants might not survive - i have had to switch to plastic plants which is a pain during a clean out but are working well. your frogs are lucky to have so much space :-) enjoy them!

They aren't as destructive as people say when it comes to plants. The main drawbacks to plants + ACF is the fact fertilizers can contain heavy metals which are toxic to ACF and the fact ACF really do not appreciate being blasted with high amounts of light..

If you use rhizome based plants like anubias and java fern you should be fine, crypts are fine too since they root heavily.. stuff like dwarf hair grass will get kicked up though in my experience. ACF don't really 'burrow' but they do kick stuff around. Obviously floating plants wouldn't be affected by the ACFs tendency to kick stuff around.

The slime coat of an ACF does not poison plants, not sure where this information is coming from but I've kept plants with ACF without any issue, they are not poisonous..

[gemzjames]

ive worked with these animals for a long time and my professor was the guy who discovered many of the rare sub species of xenopus. All Xenopus secrete a secretion which is can be irritant to the skin if they are handled for prologed amounts of time, their secretion is poisonous but obviously not strongly poisonous but it can be harmful to humans and obviously should never be ingested. I didnt mean they poison plants sorry my wording wasnt too great.

I have probably been using the wrong types of plants so thanks for the heads up :-)

[mpmistr]

I thought Xenopus excreted a slime coat that just didn't taste pleasant to a predator, never knew it was poisonous. I do not handle my frogs much but on the occasions I've had to I've not noticed any irritation luckily! I always thought they were used as a protein source in Africa, then again they're probably cooked.. :X

[rodsboys]

ive worked with these animals for a long time and my professor was the guy who discovered many of the rare sub species of xenopus. All Xenopus secrete a secretion which is can be irritant to the skin if they are handled for prologed amounts of time, their secretion is poisonous but obviously not strongly poisonous but it can be harmful to humans and obviously should never be ingested. I didnt mean they poison plants sorry my wording wasnt too great.

I have probably been using the wrong types of plants so thanks for the heads up :-)

I am completely confident that there is no toxins that are harmful to humans. In fact if we could stand the taste, these frogs would be eatable to humans. The only harmful thing that they have is the fact that they can carry some nasty diseases, not toxins.

Mike: I have witnessed the burrowing behavior. My frogs preferred to dig under the decor rather than hide in it. It has stopped since adding the floating elodia though. They absolutely hate light. With the floating plants my army is always out and about now.

[mpmistr]

Interesting, I use fine sand in my aquarium yet I've never observed any burrowing, maybe they don't feel the need to because I've arranged my driftwood into caves? They certainly do kick up small stem plants, so I can't recommend those, but my moneywort has been staying in place surprisingly.

I am still having light issues personally. I have a rather high output LED fixture, I've elevated it above the tank more so they're less annoyed by it, but when I turn it in, they tend to go crazy, not really sure how to get around this. Any sudden change of light seems to really set them off, even turning a lamp on in my living room can get them running for cover. I've ordered some amazon frogbit so I am hoping it comes soon to cut down the light further..

[rodsboys]

I have a 36" tank, the light fixture is 36"(N.O. florescent), but the bulb is only 24". It is kind of weak really. I was worried the elodea would not thrive, but since it is floating and I leave the light on from 6:45 A.M. When I let the dog out to 11:00 PM when I head for bed all is well. My frogs do not usually run for cover anymore with the elodea in there.

[mpmistr]

I have a 36" tank too. (40B), I'm using a Finnex Ray2.. it's considered "high light" and quite powerful.. actually it's an algae making machine on my non-high-tech tank. I think if I could of done it over again I would have gotten a less powerful light.. I've elevated it a bit and am going to add more floating plants so I hope that helps! I know my frogs weren't fond of it before I elevated it, I only run it 6-8 hours a day then switch to a Marineland Single Bright, which is about the weakest LED strip out there, the frogs tend to become more active then..