Feeding & Care of African Dwarf Frogs

Hello, Using the search feature, I did find an article from about a year ago, that was an example of what I've been running into on my own - contradictions.

I currently have 6 ADF's (of 7) in a 20 gal long tank, sand bottom, double filtered, heated with hides, real and some fake plants, 1 male Betta, Blue with mystery & pond snails. OH! and a few BV shrimp.

I have been searching for information on their care since before I ever bought my first 2 back in August 20. I have been watching & reading anything I can get my hands on. Theoretically, from experts of their care. The problem is every other article says the opposite of the one before it.

One person insists that Blood Worms - frozen or otherwise - are the bane of the ADF, leading to bloat and eventually death from the intestinal problems they cause (I did lose one of my 7 little ones and it was bloated too, but I am still feeding them Frozen Blood Worms - Thawed using their tank water. At room temp, I use a baster to give the ones I find a few worms, then I put a batch in a small dish I am trying to get them to eat from.) Others say FBW (and yesterday I heard about live Black Worms) are the only food to feed them regularly. Even my LPS said feed them FBW. I purchased a batch of 5 about 2 months ago and yesterday, I moved all 6 from their 29 g & 55 g community tanks, into this 20 g tank.

I am more comfortable with them being in their own tank and feel it's a better situation for me and them. What do you feed yours? I see that one of those with a badge for ADFs says FBW, with another person adding some type of pellets - what brand-name are they and what is the amount?

Do you all feed them individually or do you put out the food and let them do as they will? I have been thawing out 4 small/regular cubes of FBWs and splitting it into a blast for the two with the better portion going to the other 4.

Today there were 2 frogs in the front of the tank, I gave each a few worms by baster, then I put rest in the dish. I see that the dish is empty. But I am still uneasy that they are not getting enough to eat. I also don't want to over feed. I added some pellets that I softened to the dish as well.

All they are competing with for food now are the snails and Blue, the Betta. Usually I give him flake food first and then do the ADF worms later. Of course he gets a portion too. I do add blanched fruits & veggies to my tanks at some point in the day as well and I do water changes 1 x week.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'll try anything that's good for the little critters. I love my fish, but those little frogs are the cutest little bumbling things too! I appreciate this site wayyyyyy much.

 

Hi welcome to FishLore!
I suppose we all have our feeding preferences, hence the differing opinions.

I fed mine frozen brine shrimp. When I first started it was strictly bloodworms and pellets but a breeder advised me differently
I used HBH frog and tadpole pellets which were recommended by experienced ADF keepers.

My 2nd batch of frogs refused pellets. That's when I switched

Have you seen this:
Care Sheet For African Dwarf Frogs | Amphibian Forum | 36417

The breeder added in depth food recommendations

 

Thank you Lucy! Great article and it answered my 2nd biggest question too - how often to feed them. I do believe every day is best. The most common habit seems to be at least 1x/day, but I hear some folks feed theirs 2x/day (large feeding in the AM with a lighter feeding PM). My instinct and what I read wants to go with feeding at least 1x/day. skipping a day here and there...I don't know if that's so wise, given their delicacy and size, maybe just a lighter feeding every other day or something. At any rate, again, thank you. When I figure out which one is a female, I will name her Lucy.

 

Your best bet for pellets is whatever the pet store you got them from fed them.

 

Hello, Using the search feature, I did find an article from about a year ago, that was an example of what I've been running into on my own - contradictions.

I currently have 6 ADF's (of 7) in a 20 gal long tank, sand bottom, double filtered, heated with hides, real and some fake plants, 1 male Betta, Blue with mystery & pond snails. OH! and a few BV shrimp.

I have been searching for information on their care since before I ever bought my first 2 back in August 20. I have been watching & reading anything I can get my hands on. Theoretically, from experts of their care. The problem is every other article says the opposite of the one before it.

One person insists that Blood Worms - frozen or otherwise - are the bane of the ADF, leading to bloat and eventually death from the intestinal problems they cause (I did lose one of my 7 little ones and it was bloated too, but I am still feeding them Frozen Blood Worms - Thawed using their tank water. At room temp, I use a baster to give the ones I find a few worms, then I put a batch in a small dish I am trying to get them to eat from.) Others say FBW (and yesterday I heard about live Black Worms) are the only food to feed them regularly. Even my LPS said feed them FBW. I purchased a batch of 5 about 2 months ago and yesterday, I moved all 6 from their 29 g & 55 g community tanks, into this 20 g tank.

I am more comfortable with them being in their own tank and feel it's a better situation for me and them. What do you feed yours? I see that one of those with a badge for ADFs says FBW, with another person adding some type of pellets - what brand-name are they and what is the amount?

Do you all feed them individually or do you put out the food and let them do as they will? I have been thawing out 4 small/regular cubes of FBWs and splitting it into a blast for the two with the better portion going to the other 4.

Today there were 2 frogs in the front of the tank, I gave each a few worms by baster, then I put rest in the dish. I see that the dish is empty. But I am still uneasy that they are not getting enough to eat. I also don't want to over feed. I added some pellets that I softened to the dish as well.

All they are competing with for food now are the snails and Blue, the Betta. Usually I give him flake food first and then do the ADF worms later. Of course he gets a portion too. I do add blanched fruits & veggies to my tanks at some point in the day as well and I do water changes 1 x week.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'll try anything that's good for the little critters. I love my fish, but those little frogs are the cutest little bumbling things too! I appreciate this site wayyyyyy much.

Can I ask what BV shrimp are?

When stocking my tank I forgot I wanted to get some ADF again but when doing my research again it says they shouldn't be kept with shrimps. But of course I forgot this when I saw some pretty blue cherry shrimp in my LFS. I thought they all died a week ago but turns out they were just hiding after a mass shed.

So just wondering what kind of shrimp your ADF have been able to co exist with as it got my hopes up!

 

Can I ask what BV shrimp are?

When stocking my tank I forgot I wanted to get some ADF again but when doing my research again it says they shouldn't be kept with shrimps. But of course I forgot this when I saw some pretty blue cherry shrimp in my LFS. I thought they all died a week ago but turns out they were just hiding after a mass shed.

So just wondering what kind of shrimp your ADF have been able to co exist with as it got my hopes up!

i have Blue Velvet shrimp. i too thought they were all extinct but i am seeing them in all the tanks i put them in suddenly! i dont know if adf's can catch them. i doubt it. i also purchased the larger A-named type of un-colored shrimp. those i am not seeing in my Goldfish tank. i hope im doing this correctly. i did get some excellent adf how-to from one guru on here. were you able to see that?

 

i have Blue Velvet shrimp. i too thought they were all extinct but i am seeing them in all the tanks i put them in suddenly! i dont know if adf's can catch them. i doubt it. i also purchased the larger A-named type of un-colored shrimp. those i am not seeing in my Goldfish tank. i hope im doing this correctly. i did get some excellent adf how-to from one guru on here. were you able to see that?

Aahhhah Blue velvet shrimp... thank you!
I think they are some of the shrimp I have too (I call them all my blue cherrys as I haven't quite figured out how to distinguish them). I just know some are very deep blue and others a light blue

I have been reading through that link posted above. I will be back on track to get some ADF after all thanks to you! I shall pick some up next time I see them. Very excited!

 

Thank you thank you for this post! My college roommate and I had a couple of ADFs back in the day, and recently decided to add a couple to our 30-gallon aquarium. My husband and daughter agree they are the most amusing little guys. We have ten or so little schooling fish, I forget what, that cohabit well, although feeding time gets hairy. For this reason, I'm planning on moving the frogs to their own 10 gallon here soon.

However, the biggest frustration has been in figuring out what, how often, and how much to feed. I started out on frog pellets and frozen bloodworms, as that's what my really great local pet supply store recommended. But I kept reading conflicting info, and one group put the fear of God in me for feeding FBW, insisting that they are the #1 cause of bloat. I switched to frozen mysis shrimp and beef heart, although I did worry that it was hard to tease out small enough pieces of beef heart; I hand feed with long tweezers because of the greedy fish.

Last night, one of my girls was floating at the top and wouldn't eat. This morning, she is definitely bloating. Sigh...