Aquatic Frog Problems

Need some help.. I keep fish.. not frogs. I just found out my cousins son was given a 10 gallon tank with a frog with whole set up 10 months ago. Boy just turned 10. Neither has looked up the care for this poor guy. He is a kid and momma has her hands full with some major medical issues. Anyway.. he said his water has evaporated out and he needs to add more water.. he knew he can't add the city water out of the tap but that's all he knows. He has seen me treating water and cycling my tanks when he was smaller at my house before we moved away. I'm in florida now. He is in missouri. So I'm helping him over the phone. I had him send me a pic of the tank so I could get a idea of what we are looking at here. Its bad. Really bad.. almost all the water has evaporated out. He has never done a water change, or added water in all this time. About a inch of murky water in it. That's all. I could barely make out the frog in the water. Its a african albino clawed frog.. conditions are horrendous. How do u go about fixing this tank? I don't want to shock and kill it.. I'm surprised the poor thing is alive. I blame his momma She should have let me know.. He called me worried so.. what do I do here? I was thinking of having him add a few cups of fresh treated water daily for a week and let him slowly get use to the better water. Then vacuum it a little and just keep doing this for a few weeks. Or should I just have him dump it. Scrub it and hope for the best? I just got done buying water conditioner and quick cyle and vacuum and net and some other stuff and its on its way to his house now. I paid extra so it will be there tommorow. Besides the frog, food and tank set up, He has nothing for him. Also, how deep should his 10 gallon tank be for him? How far from the tank top should the water line be? I don't know how to add a photo here. I tried for a hour. So u guys could see what I'm dealing with here. I'm looking up this frog now so I can help him take better care of his frog.. I just can't find anything on the best way to fix this tank without killing the poor guy.. now that I know, I can start reminding him to do tank maintence every week.. he is a good boy. He called because he knew his tank shouldnt look like it does. Once I help him and teach him what to do, he will be great about it. He just needs a adult to help remind him.. if he wasn't I would see to it the frog was re-homed. And yes, I got onto his momma...

 

Jeez, poor kid (and froggy).

If he has no water conditioner he can fill a bucket and let it sit out for 24 hours. This will gas off the chlorine and chloramine in the tap.

Does the tank have a heater or filter at all? If it does have a filter chances are the cycle is long gone if it ever had one. If it had a heater and has been exposed to air long term it may not be functional anymore.

Amphibians are sensitive and breathe through their skin. Since the tank is not cycled and only has an inch or so of dirty water, he'd probably be better off dumping the tank and rinsing everything under the tap (no soap or detergents!) and filling the tank back up with a double dose of water conditioner before placing the frog back in. The frog will need clean water as soon as possible, trying to keep it around the same temp as the current water. I'd keep the water level at least an inch from the rI'm of the tank. Worst case scenario is the frog dies of shock from the extreme difference in water parameters, but it's a better option than letting it languish in it's own toxic waste water...

I would have him do daily water changes and feed the frog only every other day pr every 2 days to limit waste production. They are very messy animals with large bioloads.

 

I kind of agree with the above statement but I have little to no doubt that the frog would definitely go in to shock if he were to just start doing immediate water changes. There’s a shop by my house who had 15 goldfish in a 40 gallon tank, never changed the water until it turned disgustingly brown... the day they did - all the fish huddled in a corner and died off.

I would have him take a couple cups of the nasty water out and add in a couple cups of clean water. I would do this every day until the murky water starts to clear up. Once the small amount of water in the tank starts to look a little decent, I would add in more clean water; wait a day, and do a 50% water change. I suspect the ammonia in the tank is extremely high because ammonia doesn’t necessarily evaporate with our tank water, so I would think it’s best to slowly decrease the ammonia levels instead of just doing one big immediate water change. But that’s my opinion.

 

I kind of agree with the above statement but I have little to no doubt that the frog would definitely go in to shock if he were to just start doing immediate water changes. There’s a shop by my house who had 15 goldfish in a 40 gallon tank, never changed the water until it turned disgustingly brown... the day they did - all the fish huddled in a corner and died off.

I would have him take a couple cups of the nasty water out and add in a couple cups of clean water. I would do this every day until the murky water starts to clear up. Once the small amount of water in the tank starts to look a little decent, I would add in more clean water; wait a day, and do a 50% water change. I suspect the ammonia in the tank is extremely high because ammonia doesn’t necessarily evaporate with our tank water, so I would think it’s best to slowly decrease the ammonia levels instead of just doing one big immediate water change. But that’s my opinion.

I agree with this statement. How about adding enough water to make it 2 inches deep, effectively cutting the water parameters in half. The next day, raise it to 4", the day after, 8", etc, each time cutting the parameters in half. Once the tank is filled, start doing daily 50% water changes, and that should be gradual enough to prevent shock, I would think.

 

Thanks so much for the help and advise. We started adding fresh treated water. We are gonna slowly acclimate him to the fresh water.. adding a half gallon twice a day of treated fresh water. Started Friday. So far so good. He said his frog is active again and swimming. So frog is feeling good already. He has used a cheese cloth to get some debris out of tank instead of vacuuming. I don't want to loose the little water we have now or add to much water back at this point. So far so good. Fingers crossed. Its up 5 inches since yesterday. I'm gonna have him vacuum quickly monday. Might bump up how much we put in after monday. His water will be mostly fresh by then.. he only had a inch of water when he showed me. He has about 6 inches now. I think if he can make it till monday we can add the rest. Because majority of water is fresh. He would have already had to acclimate to the new water by then. Atleast I hope so.. ill let yall know if he survives or dies... wish us luck. My little cousin elI is doing really well and taking this very seriously. I'm very pleased. Just needed to know how. Ive sent him to Google to learn about his frog. He is already telling me all the things he has been doing wrong.. I'm very proud of him. He just got the live plants and cave I sent earlier. So he is putting those in now. My dads gonna run and get him some frozen blood worms.. and other stuff I can't mail. He knows now once we sort this out, he has to vacuume it and add fresh water atleast every two days. Ive explained bio load to him, cycling and water changes, testing the water etc. and had him look up on it. And read all about it . He had no idea all this was involved. He is feeling pretty crummy for doing this to claus. Thanks u guys for the advice. Wish us luck!

 

So far claus the frog is doing well. I also read how hardy these frogs are. And known as pest frogs from the areas they are naturally from. Probably what helped him survive these people. He is a African albino clawed frog. Went ahead and filled his tank up last night after spending several days acclamating him to fresh water and they vacummed today. His water looks really good right now. Claus is in a good mood and really swimming around and eating well. So claus and his 10 year old caregiver are on their way of having a better relationship with clean tank. Thanks for the advice! Worked great!