African Dwarf Frogs without filter for a few days?

Hello!

I am planning on going out of town for the weekend, so leaving Friday evening and coming home on Monday mid-day. My 5 gallon fish tank will be find because it is cycled and I have my brother who is willing to put prime in there while i'm gone, as well as feed them.

However, my other tank with my African Dwarf Frogs has been all over the place with the spikes lately. So, since I won't be home to change the water, I was thinking I could get one of those larger pet keepers from petco that hold up to 3 gallons of water and bring my frogs with me so I can keep an eye on the water parameters. The only issue is that they won't have a filter for this period of time. I usually do a 50% water change every day for them lately to make sure that the nitrites stay low since the tank is re-cycling. Would that be okay for them or will I have to figure out a different set up for the frogs?

Thank you!

 

If you're gone just for the weekend and the 5 gal tank is fully cycled, I wouldn't bother adding Prime or feeding them.

What size tank are the ADFs in now? Is there a filter on it now? I think bringing them with you might be more stressful. Can your brother add Prime to this tank every day?

 

As of right now they are in a temporary tank of 1.5 gallons with a filter and a heater. They were in my 5 gallon but I decided I wanted to move them to a species only tank because I bought an air stone. So that's why their water has been very unstable. So, in reality, this pet keeper would end up giving them more space than they really have at the moment until I buy their new 5 gallon next week.

My brother can definitely add prime to the tank, but I'm afraid that there will be a crazy spike that I won't be able to take care of immediately. Right now the tank is at the point where there is near 0 Ammonia, but higher nitrites (sometimes around 5 but rarely higher than that) and about 5-10 ppm of Nitrates. I know that's part of the cycle and soon the nitrites will calm down, but in case there is one of those spikes I would want to immediately change out some of the water and I don't trust my brother enough to test the water and do a water change correctly.

The other issue is feeding them. I've had my ADFs for a month or two now, but when I bought them they were really young (I only had to pay like 2 bucks for them compared to the 4 for a fully grown one). I opted to get younger ones because the adults didn't look so healthy and I wanted to minimize the possibility of buying a sick frog. So, I did a lot of research and it said to make sure that you feed the younger and smaller frogs more often than the adults. So I want to make sure they get fed, and they get fed correctly. Sometimes they can be difficult and I have to feed them by hand, and sometimes they don't eat everything and I try to take out any leftovers to minimize an ammonia spike that can occur from leftover food. I can have him drop in a few tadpole and amphibian flakes but I wouldn't know for sure that they are getting eaten and then that might ruin the water even more.

I would otherwise be fine leaving them at home but I'm afraid that they wouldn't get the treatment they need at my house without me. Of course there is always the option of packing up the 1.5 gallon tank they are in separately and setting that up where I will be for the weekend so they have a filter, but I'm really just trying to do what is best for them to ensure they are getting the proper care. The absolute last thing I want is for them to get sick or stressed, so I'm trying to pick the lesser of the evils.

 

Is that 5ppm Nitrites?
Yikes. That would concern me.

An option might be to move them into the larger kritter keeper along with the heater and filter.
Get the nitrites down with a few water changes
Feed Friday. Do a water change before you leave. They'll be fine skipping meals Sat and Sun.
Do a water change on Monday and feed them.

 

That's why I don't want to leave them over the weekend! I've had a consistent amount of prime in the water so that the water levels don't hurt them, and the levels haven't gotten above .50 for Nitrite or .25 for ammonia in about a week now, I think, so I don't think I should be too worried about anything getting really high. But, these are my babies so of course I'm worried about them!