African Dwarf Frog Questions

I've never had an aquarium before, and I'm thinking about getting some African dwarf frogs. I'm doing plenty of research, but just had a couple questions about dwarf frogs in particular.

First, I'd rather not have them breeding, so I'd like to get a same-sex group. Is it easy to tell what sex they are and/or could I reasonably expect an aquarium store employee to tell?

Second, how much do they actually eat? I keep reading about what they eat, but I'm not sure how much per frog. Like, how many of those frozen blood worms packets does each frog need?

Third, would a Fluval Flex 15 gallon tank be good? I'm still not certain about how different types of filters work, so I want to make sure the one built in to this tank is good for frogs.

 

Welcome to FishLore!

Your first step before getting your frogs is getting the tank cycled. Contrary to what pet store employees will say, you cannot cycle a tank in 24 hours. Cycling takes several weeks and requires daily monitoring of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

You can click on any bold blue text no the forums to be linked to affiliates and healpful articles. I suggest reading up on how the nitrogen cycle works.

The way to tell the difference between the frogs is relatively easy. Females are larger and more plump, and males have a conspicuous white spot in their "armpits".

Dwarf frogs are little piggies when it comes to food. I feed mine 4-5 bloodworms every other day or every two days. They love bloodworms, brine shrimp, bits of raw fish, and chopped shrimp. Their eyesight is poor and they tend to snap at anything that moves, but their sense of smell is keen. They are also easily trained to eat from tweezers and can also be trained to associate a specific area of their tank with food. So, set up a bowl or terracotta dish in the tank, and using a cue (gently tapping on the glass for example) you can train them when it is time to eat and where the food is.

You kind of have to eyeball how much they eat as they have no mechanism to tell them to stop and will eat themselves to death. A full-sized frozen bloodworm cube could easily feed 9-10 frogs. So, if you only wanted a few, I would either cut cubes into portions or buy smaller cubes.

15 gallons would be plenty of room and 5-6 frogs would be happy in a tank that size. Fluval Flex's have built in filtration so you don't have to shop around. Your frogs will need a heater as they need water between 76 and 80 degrees.

Since these frogs are messy little things, I recommend you get some kind of like plants in the tank (there are lots of easy, beginner friendly plants that don't require special substrates and fertilizers) and that you do large weekly water changes of 50% or more. Also I advise not to feed them every day. This will greatly cut down on the amount of waste they produce and also prevent excess organics from causing issues like algae and high nitrates.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I'm going to make sure the environment is appropriate before I introduce anything into the tank. This is the first animal I'm getting that requires stuff like heating and water filtration, so I want to make sure I can keep everything stable first. I've just had room-temperature mammals before.

 

Oh, also, are they able to be left alone for a weekend? If I'm going to get an animal that's difficult to move, I'd like it to be able to get one that I can leave for a couple days. Do those time food-dropping things work well?

 

Oh, also, are they able to be left alone for a weekend? If I'm going to get an animal that's difficult to move, I'd like it to be able to get one that I can leave for a couple days. Do those time food-dropping things work well?

They'll be fine without eating for 2-3 days.

Do not use vacation/weekend feeders, they will foul your tank water.

 

I can't seem to find a consistent opinion on what substrate to use. Some say sand because it's softer than gravel, some say gravel because they can get impacted on sand. Would sand be fine if I put their food in a smooth bowl so they don't swallow sand?

 

I can't seem to find a consistent opinion on what substrate to use. Some say sand because it's softer than gravel, some say gravel because they can get impacted on sand. Would sand be fine if I put their food in a smooth bowl so they don't swallow sand?

A dish is recommended as not only does it keep the tank cleaner, but prevents them from swallowing substrate. They will also learn to associate that as their designated feeding area.

If you only get a few frogs you can feed them individually with tweezers like I do.

 

Goodluck Lucca! ADF's are so fun! We have 1 in one tank and will get 3 for another hopefully soon.