please help! ADF not sure if shes sick or not

[ybarros02]

Your photos show a typical, newly-acquired, very young, under-fed and emaciated frog. If it were mine I'd provide it with a constant supply of live food if possible such as bloodworms, Daphnia, Tubifex worms etc.. If it was not possible to obtain live food then I'd feed it frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp from a reliable source. I would not use frozen food that had thawed out and then been refrozen. Any redness you can see in your frog is probably just the haemoglobin from the bloodworms.

Although there's some controversy amongst fishkeepers about the wisdom of feeding bloodworms, they're only likely to pose a serious threat to small fish that cannot digest or excrete the chitin, which the bloodworms' exoskeleton is made up of. I kept Hymenochirus frogs for around 20 years and never experienced any problems feeding them bloodworms and neither did anyone else I knew personally who kept them.

Don't worry about your frog swallowing stones or sand. It will distinguish what's edible and will expel what's not.

Thank you for the advice im going to see if i can get some live food for her because those first frozen bloodworms i bought were definitely rotten and im not sure what a "reliable" source for frozen blood worms would be so i would prefer to get live worms and try my luck out there it also doesn't help that im at work most days from 6am to 8 pm so they dont eat for like 14 hours straight i also realized she doesnt eat the food until it softens up which by that point, according to fish enthusiasts, i have to remove that wasted food from the tank due to the harm it causes

[mpmistr]

Thank you for the advice im going to see if i can get some live food for her because those first frozen bloodworms i bought were definitely rotten and im not sure what a "reliable" source for frozen blood worms would be so i would prefer to get live worms and try my luck out there it also doesn't help that im at work most days from 6am to 8 pm so they dont eat for like 14 hours straight i also realized she doesnt eat the food until it softens up which by that point, according to fish enthusiasts, i have to remove that wasted food from the tank due to the harm it causes

What brand of 'bloodworm' did you get? There is a little bit of conflicting information when it comes to purchasing these actually.

Bloodworms aren't worms at all, they're midge larvae and are usually sold frozen.

Live 'bloodworms' sold in pet shops are usually black worms (closely related to a tubifex worm) and are a good food source however do be careful with them because they are known contain leeches in their cultures. I know that sounds kind of crazy but it's sadly true. Now the good news is these leeches are mostly detritus feeders and not blood suckers, but I was never able to confirm if they would feed on blood if they had to! A lot of conflicting information about different species of leeches unfortunately.

I know about leeches in black worm cultures first hand because I started to find leeches in my tank. I removed some by hand and I think my ACF devoured the rest.. I did a total break down and I know they're all gone now but for a long time I was freaked out.

I would recommend Hikari brand bloodworms if you can find them, I've fed them before without any issue. The lower end stuff would be San Francisco brand, some may disagree but I've found their wet/frozen foods to be of lower quality. Your frog would also enjoy Mysis shrimp (freshwater brine), go with PE brand for Mysis, it's good stuff.

[ybarros02]

What brand of 'bloodworm' did you get? There is a little bit of conflicting information when it comes to purchasing these actually.

Bloodworms aren't worms at all, they're midge larvae and are usually sold frozen.

Live 'bloodworms' sold in pet shops are usually black worms (closely related to a tubifex worm) and are a good food source however do be careful with them because they are known contain leeches in their cultures. I know that sounds kind of crazy but it's sadly true. Now the good news is these leeches are mostly detritus feeders and not blood suckers, but I was never able to confirm if they would feed on blood if they had to! A lot of conflicting information about different species of leeches unfortunately.

I know about leeches in black worm cultures first hand because I started to find leeches in my tank. I removed some by hand and I think my ACF devoured the rest.. I did a total break down and I know they're all gone now but for a long time I was freaked out.

I would recommend Hikari brand bloodworms if you can find them, I've fed them before without any issue. The lower end stuff would be San Francisco brand, some may disagree but I've found their wet/frozen foods to be of lower quality. Your frog would also enjoy Mysis shrimp (freshwater brine), go with PE brand for Mysis, it's good stuff.

To answer your question Michael when i bought the frozen bloodworms i bought the hikari brand in petsmart and my theory is that it thawed out too much by the time i got home and threw it in the freezer or when they were delivered they were re-frozen and sold to me but they didnt smell rotten they just smelled like blood. And I think im going to stay away from worms in general especially now that you told me leeches are involved and knowing my luck .. they will appear -__- i have to see what my options are and quickly before she becomes even more malnourished D:! but thank you for the information i have a lot to consider now

[Geoff]

Thank you for the advice im going to see if i can get some live food for her because those first frozen bloodworms i bought were definitely rotten and im not sure what a "reliable" source for frozen blood worms would be so i would prefer to get live worms and try my luck out there it also doesn't help that im at work most days from 6am to 8 pm so they dont eat for like 14 hours straight i also realized she doesnt eat the food until it softens up which by that point, according to fish enthusiasts, i have to remove that wasted food from the tank due to the harm it causes

The reason I emphasised a "reliable" source was because I assumed from your post that you'd been sold a bad batch. Just to clarify, when I refer to bloodworms, I'm refering to Chironomid larvae.

If you do have to use frozen cubes, get a sharp knife and slice off a small portion. Put it in the tank whilst it's still frozen and press on it with your finger against the front glass so that it sinks as a clump at the front of the tank where you can see it. The frog will eventually smell it and find it. To prevent the fish from eating it, feed the frog when the tank's in darkness. A turkey baster is a useful tool to suck up any food that's been left uneaten.

[ybarros02]

The reason I emphasised a "reliable" source was because I assumed from your post that you'd been sold a bad batch. Just to clarify, when I refer to bloodworms, I'm refering to Chironomid larvae.

If you do have to use frozen cubes, get a sharp knife and slice off a small portion. Put it in the tank whilst it's still frozen and press on it with your finger against the front glass so that it sinks as a clump at the front of the tank where you can see it. The frog will eventually smell it and find it. To prevent the fish from eating it, feed the frog when the tank's in darkness. A turkey baster is a useful tool to suck up any food that's been left uneaten.

I do use a turkey baster and i was told when i bought the worms to let them defrost in a small dish with the same water that was in the tank then to put it all in the tank together but my betta was interfering with my feeding so i was giving it to her directly with tweezers she didnt eat any more than 2 so i took the rest out and this is when the whole mess started