dking271

OK, so I get home from a long week of travel to find my son has adopted 3 Dwarf African frogs, from his 4th grade school science class project. Unfortunately, they came home in a tank way too small. What size tank will I need for these guys? I have read about the fungus that these guys can come with, so placing them in any of my other tanks is out of the question. Anything in particular I should do with the new tank set up? What temperature do these guys thrive in? I have plenty of extra media in other tanks to get this cycled.

steveangela1

They like 10g tanks or at least the ones that I have had do, the fungus can be treated. One thing you have to do is make sure when you do your water changes do not pour your water out in your yard or into a septic tank, let it go into a bucket and pour bleach into it and let it set for a few hours to kill the fungus first (it will prevent spreading the fungus to the local amphibians).

Here is Lucy's sticky that should have the treatment: Chytrid Fungus in ADF's and ACF's

once you treat the frogs you should be able to put them in the other tanks.

My little guys thrived at 76-78 degrees with no problem. I remember they liked hiding spots I had some fake caves in w/ them.

Sam Livingston

Can get by with 10 gallon, they don't get any bigger than 2" hardly. Make sure they are the dwarf frogs and not the clawed (check there feet, if they have 3 black claws your in trouble as they get atleast 6-8" and sometimes 10" or more). They look exactly alike except for the claws so they get confused and mixed in with dwarves all the time. Also dwarf frogs have webbing on legs and arms, where as clawed have them on only their legs (hands are like a human hand).These frogs need to be fully submerged in water, they are not land capable like most frogs. The biggest thing to know and prevent about these is that they are expert escape artists. And expert is undermining there ability to get out, they are freaks! Leave not a single hole in the tank, every millimeter needs to be covered including area by filter, and pray that they don't crawl into the filter and get stuck behind the cartridges like mine used to do. Only other thing to watch out for is sometimes the males like to sing at night... loudly! Other than that sit back and enjoy, despite the problems with them escaping they are about the funnest things to watch eat. They shove food into their mouths with their hands like humans and they stand up in water a lot like humans. Oh one last thing they like low current, so if have filter with switch to make current minimal that would be great.

Lucy

Sam's right, they're little escape artisits. I was shocked to see one of my hopping on the living room rug!
There was a tiny opening by the filter, so he must have slipped out.

I've never heard mine sing, I wish they would! I think mine are girls.

dking271

OK, I got our new little guys situated in a 5 gallon for now. It is completely sealed up, and I do not believe they will be able to escape. They are currently sharing their space with three Pygmy Cories. The tank has plenty of hiding places for the frogs, and is heavily planted with silk plants. Everyone seems happy at the moment.

Two questions:

Do these guys require anything special in their diet? I have many different foods on hand including, frozen blood worms, freeze dried blood worms, krill, brine shrimp pellets, sinking catfish wafers, algea wafers, Omega One Super Color flakes, Tetra Color pellets, Tetra-Min flakes, and Hikari micro pellets. I usually use the Omega One flakes and Tetra Color pellets with frozen bloodworms at least once a week for most of my tanks. I will mix in some other foods as well.

Can these guys co-exist with Red Cherry Shrimp?

Thanks in advance.
DK

Lucy

Mine eat tadpole pellets and frozen blood worms.

Not sure about keeping shrimp with them.

Your fish can't catch the fungus, it's limited to amphibians.
They can live in water between 75F and 80F. I'm keeping my temp at about 76F.

Make sure the cories don't eat all the food. ADF's hunt by smell and can be pretty slow to find it.

They're a lot of fun, your son's going to love them
Good Luck.

Sam Livingston

They would eat the shrimp. Any type of blood worms, brine shrimp, and shrimp pellets work perfect. Do not feed them flakes, for some reason there not suppose to eat them, no clue why I just remember reading that at a few sites when I bought some last year.

sammy boy

ok i have two "african dwarf frogs" i bought them three days ago but its wierd. they have three black claws on there hind legs and its webeed but the front hands are webed as well. is it a cross breed or something. what kind of frogs are they?

Lucy

They sound like African Dwarf Frogs. The ADF has what I call black toe nails. Their front and back feet are webbed.

The ACF has claws with no webbing in front. It's back feet are webbed.

sammy boy

so whats the difference between the "claw" and the "toe nail"

Lucy

The ADF's black toe nails are on the back webbed feet.
The ACF's claws are in the front with no webbing on them.

Here's a link to a pic of the ACF's front feet.
http://clawedfrogs.tripod.com/

If you follow the link in my signature, you'll find pics of my ADFs

sammy boy

oh ok i see well thank you

Lucy

Your welcome, I edited my post when you posted, if you want you can take a look at the pics. to see the difference.

sammy boy

ok i ADF's for sure thanks guys for the help.