African Dwarf Frog Food ?

[L2]

Hi, I just setup a planted 6 gallon aquarium with 3 african dwarf frogs and a betta and one small barb...

The betta eats all the blood worms though and now I'm worried the frogs aren't getting the food they need. Every other day I throw in some red cyclopze food... (tiny frozen shrimp)... But I'm worried the frogs aren't getting what they need because the fish get it first. Should I take the betta out and stick with small fish? Or should I switch to some sort of sinking food? Is there some sort of a feeder I can setup at the bottom? Or am I overreacting?

Thanks!

 

[Cinder]

What type of Barb is it?
I have an ADF and have found the best way to feed him is to use a turkey baster (new - never used for anything else) and literally put it in his face and slowly release a few frozen shrimp or bloodworms making sure they hit him in the face. (I thaw them out in a little bit of tank water first) ADF's don't see well so they tend to lunge at anything right next to them that moves and think it's food. (Sometimes that means they look like they are nipping at a fellow tank mate when usually they are just testing out that fin to see if it's food.) I feed my other fish and then while they are all busy at the top I feed my frog with the baster. Some frogs will learn to eat food off the bottom (like sinking pellets) but many will never figure that out.
Another ingenious feeder plan I heard from someone on another site was to use a bottle that just the frog could get into and place it in the exact same place in a corner on the bottom of the tank. That frog learned to go into the bottle for it's food!
I have heard (no personal experience) that keeping several ADF's in a small tank can cause aggression toward each other. You may want to watch for that.

 

[hc8719]

for my african clawed frog (very similar species) and my former ADFs was to actually break off a chunk of blood worms, and hold it up to their face, which they will greedily accept.

if you have too many to feed at once, scatter some at the bottom, i dont think beta's pick at the bottom like cichlids/goldfish

let me know if that works out

 

[Musket]

I feed my frog by hand because I was getting worried the same way. She was in with goldfish. Well she got to the point where she would sit on "her" bloodworms and bite at the goldfish if they tried to take them from her. The goldfish are now in another tank *they got too big not aggressive* and I still feed my frog by hand.. I think she likes it. She still gives me "the look" and "the - hey look how skinny I am - profile".

Other people use a turkey baster to drop the worms in front of the frog while feeding the fish elsewhere.

 

[Musket]

oops double post... Corrected did not know how to delete.

 

[lovemybarbs]

mine likes freeze-dried krill crumbled up in tiny pieces and freeze-dried brine shrimp.

They'll eat frozen brine shrimp too, as well as the worms.

 

[Guest]

My ADF's have always eaten anything (scavengers). including flake food that hits the bottom and even wafer for my pleco. I also would feed live worms and brine shrimp or the frozen worms.

 

[Puriti]

Mine'll eat pretty much anything. They do sell frog and tadpole bites at the store but if they are hungry they'll eat whatever and my frogs would come up and float at the top to get freeze dried bloodworms but lately I've been feeding some frozen food so they can get it at the bottom. (Yes Bettas do pick off the bottom of the tank!)

 

[MarkP]

I feed my fish a variety of food- Flakes, Freeze Dried Shrimp, Shrimp Pellets, Freeze Dried Bloodworms, Frozen Bloodworms, algae wafers, and occasionally freeze dried tubifex worms. (The Tubifex don't appear to be anyones favorite). I also rarely add some frog pellets (They appear to be mostly fish meal)

I've only rarely ever seen my ADF's eat at all- Once I saw one nibble on a shrimp pellet, one I saw one eat a pond snail, and I'm pretty sure I've seen them nip at flakes and floating, freeze dried bloodworms.

I've placed frozen bloodworms in front of the ADFs or in their cave. I've dropped shrimp pellets in front of them. I've dropped frog bites in front of them or literally on their heads if they are up top.

I don't have a clue what they are eating, but they are still alive, so they must be eating something when I'm not looking.

 

[lovemybarbs]

when they take a bite, it allmost looks like a little jump.

Use a baster and shoot the thawed blood worms right at him. Mine will take bites and have worms hanging out of his little mouth. It's pretty funny.

 

[Puriti]

Funny thing about ADFs is that if you do watch them eat, they have horrible, horrible aim. When I first got mine (I had 3) they ended up missing the food and biting each other and sometimes they'll strike at something and it'll just move further away. They're not exactly known for the best eating tactics but if they do get something they're very fast at eating it so by the time you see one strike and swallow you got maybe 10 seconds to see it

 

[lovemybarbs]

It is like they are cross-eyed or something. They can't see the food, but they can see their competition. Mine is three now and she can take care of herself. She has a temper.

 

[Guest]

I use a baster with a 16'' peice of air line tube on it I can get the food right in front of them. This way I don't have to get my hands in the tanks. I hate putting my hands in the tank. Not because I scared,I just don't like the oil from my skin getting into the water.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I do too. I have to do my water change when I first get up before I clean anything else or put lotion onor anything.

Right now mine is floating on the top skimming the watter. He wants some krill the little bugger.

 

[MarkP]

Hours after posting this, I finally found something my frogs love to eat.

Earthworms.

Dropped a largish piece of one into the tank to see if anyone was interested- Everyone was! The frogs actually went after the worm! However, it was too large for them- it was very funny watching one stuff half the worm into himself and end up coughing it back out.

So I pulled the bit out, chopped it up to bit-sized peices, and have two very fat frogs right now, as well as several fish who certainly enjoyed the change in diet.

 

[lovemybarbs]

watch for overfeeding. I read that one of the main cause of deaths in ADFs is that they overeat. They don't know when to stop.