African dwarf frogs

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Just make sure that they're really ADFs and not African Clawed Frogs, as they can grow well over 5" and will eat all your other fish.
ADFs are pretty lazy but still fun to have in a ten gallon. My ACF ate anything I fed it, so I can assume ADFs will be the same. Flakes, pellets, my fish, anything it wanted. I've heard they also make specific foods just for ADFs, which would probably be preferable.
 
I read up on these guys before I got them, I have two now and they have a tank all to themselves, african clawed frogs aren't supposed to have all webbed feet, I think it's the front feet that aren't webbed but dwarf frog's feet are all webbed.. I feed mine catfish pellets , they love to hide in plant pots, I filled one of mine with java moss and they're hardly ever out of it unless they are coming out for a nosey or some food. They grow to an inch and a half, sorry for any typos by the way, using my phone.
 
Cleggat said:
I read up on these guys before I got them, I have two now and they have a tank all to themselves, african clawed frogs aren't supposed to have all webbed feet, I think it's the front feet that aren't webbed but dwarf frog's feet are all webbed..
Click to expand...

Yep, this is true. Just check the front feet of your frog.
Webbed= ADF
"Clawed: (non webbed)= ACF AKA, fish eating monster if you aren't prepared for it.

I do love ACFs, and I've had several, but many of them are mistakenly sold as ADFs from chain stores/etc.
 
Alisha in my opinion the ADF could be a little work for your son, I added one to my son's tank (10 years old), the problem was that the frog did not move a lot, I heard that they prefer the darkness, during light on times was always hiding, so when the feed time came, most of the fish eat first, and the frog is slow, so I never saw eating. I assume that she ate from the few leftovers in the bottom during night time.

Now the frog is in a small tank by herself, but I'm planing to find a home for her because being alone I don't know if she like it, besides the lack of filter in the little tank (2.5G) so I change water 3 times per week in the little tank.
 
So it begins. ;)

I think it's great that you're considering getting your 6 y/o an ADF! My 2.5 y/o loves my Betta and 2 ADF's! He's still a bit young to understand anything about them, but he does watch them. In fact, I placed the tank on a nightstand in my office so he could sit there and observe.

Are you planning on making this an ADF-only tank or will there be fish too? If you will have fish, I find that feeding my Betta, (either flakes or bloodworms), first... then dropping in a few shrimp pellets in for the frogs work best. I've only had my ADF's for a short while, but they have already figured out the feeding routine and are in the front of the tank waiting for their food.

They also seem to bond quite a bit. When I first introduced the newest ADF, the other one immediately went over to his new tankmate and they have been inseparable ever since! :D It's funny watching them when they float up in the airstone current too! lol They don't do it very often, but every once in awhile they crawl their way over there so they can "fly". ;)

So far so good w/ having them in the same tank w/ my male Betta. He tends to stay at the top of the tank and I've only witnessed him "closely observe" the ADF's a few times. I have yet to see any aggessive behavior from any of them, (with the exception of my Betta flaring at the HOB filter before I applied the background lol).

That's another thing you could consider too... putting a custom single-sided background on the tank and setting up a background light. If the tank is in your son's room, it would make the perfect night light for him! :D I find myself walking into my office several times after 'lights out' just to look at the "glowing" tank. lol
 
I find my two adfs quite easy to look after, they live nearly all of their lives underwater, although they need to rise to the surface to breathe air as they have lungs instead of gills. Most say that they only live to approximately 5 years. When feeding they can choke easily on food so make sure the food is small enough to swallow, they are best kept at 75-80 F or 24-27 C. Sexing is quite easy, the males have glands behind the front legs that looks like a white pimple (picture below) and females tend to be slightly bigger but if you do get a female you'll miss out on these little critters singing as the males hum a mating call even if theirs no female in the tank. They also shed, one of mine done it once in nearly all one go and it looked as if I had a little ghost frog in the tank! I have to agree that they don't move much, they're nice and chill but you need a good lid although they're chill (most of the time) they are mini escape artists!


ADF1.jpg
 
Morgie said:
Yep, this is true. Just check the front feet of your frog.
Webbed= ADF
"Clawed: (non webbed)= ACF AKA, fish eating monster if you aren't prepared for it.

I do love ACFs, and I've had several, but many of them are mistakenly sold as ADFs from chain stores/etc.
Click to expand...


Will check for the webbed feet, thanks!
 
ejaramillo01 said:
Alisha in my opinion the ADF could be a little work for your son, I added one to my son's tank (10 years old), the problem was that the frog did not move a lot, I heard that they prefer the darkness, during light on times was always hiding, so when the feed time came, most of the fish eat first, and the frog is slow, so I never saw eating. I assume that she ate from the few leftovers in the bottom during night time.

Now the frog is in a small tank by herself, but I'm planing to find a home for her because being alone I don't know if she like it, besides the lack of filter in the little tank (2.5G) so I change water 3 times per week in the little tank.
Click to expand...

So just feed at night time?
 
McLumpy said:
So it begins. ;)

I think it's great that you're considering getting your 6 y/o an ADF! My 2.5 y/o loves my Betta and 2 ADF's! He's still a bit young to understand anything about them, but he does watch them. In fact, I placed the tank on a nightstand in my office so he could sit there and observe.

Are you planning on making this an ADF-only tank or will there be fish too? If you will have fish, I find that feeding my Betta, (either flakes or bloodworms), first... then dropping in a few shrimp pellets in for the frogs work best. I've only had my ADF's for a short while, but they have already figured out the feeding routine and are in the front of the tank waiting for their food.

They also seem to bond quite a bit. When I first introduced the newest ADF, the other one immediately went over to his new tankmate and they have been inseparable ever since! :D It's funny watching them when they float up in the airstone current too! lol They don't do it very often, but every once in awhile they crawl their way over there so they can "fly". ;)

So far so good w/ having them in the same tank w/ my male Betta. He tends to stay at the top of the tank and I've only witnessed him "closely observe" the ADF's a few times. I have yet to see any aggessive behavior from any of them, (with the exception of my Betta flaring at the HOB filter before I applied the background lol).

That's another thing you could consider too... putting a custom single-sided background on the tank and setting up a background light. If the tank is in your son's room, it would make the perfect night light for him! :D I find myself walking into my office several times after 'lights out' just to look at the "glowing" tank. lol
Click to expand...

My 6 yr old and 8 yr old share a room. My 8 yr old has a 20 gallon with a light/bubble wand that we leave on at night. They love it! Might have to think about getting some sort of light for this tank as well.

My 8 yr old started out with two female fancy guppies and one male green cobra guppy in his tank and in the three months that he's had the tank, they've had four sets of babies. Many of them have been eaten by other fish in the tank, but I told him it was time to pick either males or females. He decided on keeping the males, so the two "moms" are going to go in his brother's 10 gallon with the ADF. No real plans beyond that at the moment to add more fish.

So you think it's better to have more then one ADF? Was trying to decide whether to just let him get one or to shoot for two. What do you typically feed yours? I've read a little bit online and it sounds like some are difficult to feed.
 
Cleggat said:
I find my two adfs quite easy to look after, they live nearly all of their lives underwater, although they need to rise to the surface to breathe air as they have lungs instead of gills. Most say that they only live to approximately 5 years. When feeding they can choke easily on food so make sure the food is small enough to swallow, they are best kept at 75-80 F or 24-27 C. Sexing is quite easy, the males have glands behind the front legs that looks like a white pimple (picture below) and females tend to be slightly bigger but if you do get a female you'll miss out on these little critters singing as the males hum a mating call even if theirs no female in the tank. They also shed, one of mine done it once in nearly all one go and it looked as if I had a little ghost frog in the tank! I have to agree that they don't move much, they're nice and chill but you need a good lid although they're chill (most of the time) they are mini escape artists!
Click to expand...

Any feeding tips for me?
 
Some people I know feed them live fry (guppy etc) although I wouldn't do that. You can feed them live/frozen/dried bloodworms too.
You can actually feed them chopped up earthworms - I haven't tried that yet though. Mine at the moment have a catfish pellet diet, which I am due to change to frog pellets :) They pretty much eat the same as the clawed variety although in smaller quantities.
 
I have an adf in a ten gallon tank with platties and swords, if I didn't feed my adf by hand he would never eat. I feed him live black worms. Or frog pellets by hand.

Sent from my iPhone
 
Coleallensmom said:
My 6 yr old and 8 yr old share a room. My 8 yr old has a 20 gallon with a light/bubble wand that we leave on at night. They love it! Might have to think about getting some sort of light for this tank as well.

My 8 yr old started out with two female fancy guppies and one male green cobra guppy in his tank and in the three months that he's had the tank, they've had four sets of babies. Many of them have been eaten by other fish in the tank, but I told him it was time to pick either males or females. He decided on keeping the males, so the two "moms" are going to go in his brother's 10 gallon with the ADF. No real plans beyond that at the moment to add more fish.

So you think it's better to have more then one ADF? Was trying to decide whether to just let him get one or to shoot for two. What do you typically feed yours? I've read a little bit online and it sounds like some are difficult to feed.
Click to expand...

Cool! :D I don't know how the ADF's will do w/ Guppies, but I wouldn't think that there would be a problem.

Honestly, having 1 in a tank would be fine, but I read that they are very social, which led me to get 2. IME, I can attest to them being social, but it could also depend on the frogs you get. They have their own little personalities and some may be loners whereas some may enjoy interacting.

resize


I feed my ADF's Wardley Shrimp Pellets twice a day. I only drop a few pellets in the tank, and try to hit the same area every time so they can find them. In the morning, they know as soon as the light comes on to go to the "food" area. I feed them again when I get home from work and somehow they know that it's dinner time and are waiting in the front of the tank like they do in the morning.

The pellets are great because they sink immediately and start to spread when they get moist enough. My frogs wait for this to happen and lunge at the food and gobble it up. They also catch the occasional flake or bloodworm that floats by too, but they really prefer the pellets. The only problem is if you drop in too many, and they don't get eaten by the ADF's, they will litter your gravel, (but a quick vac every once in awhile will take care of that).
 
ADF's should never be fed any freeze dried food or pellets of any kind that are not labeled as frog and tadpole bites. They are very prone to digestion problems and dried and pellet foods often get impacted causing them to bloat and die. I've owned many frogs over the years and have seen this happen. I rotate every other day feeding a frozen food such as blood worms or brine shrimp and frog/tadpole bites the other day. These frogs are very blind and have a hard time competing with fish for food. I've kept them with guppies and I found my guppies ate way too much by the time I was able to get the frogs to locate food. I now keep them in a species only tank. Even then, I reach into their tank every day and place their food in their cave. They now know this is where they are fed and I have to spend alot less time sucking out uneaten food they never found that will pollute the water. They need a smooth substrate and smooth edges on all decor because their skin is very sensitive and can be damaged easily which invites infection. All decor needs to be well secured in the substrate because they slam around alot and I have read many accounts of frogs drowning from getting pinned by a rock or decor and not being able to get to the surface to breathe. Their behavoir is very cute. More often than not they are in their zen pose they are famous for or in a live plant, they don't much care for fakes. Some are more likely to swim about the tank all day than others. They seem to be most active at a temp of 78F. They do hide more if they are with fish.
 
siva said:
ADF's should never be fed any freeze dried food or pellets of any kind that are not labeled as frog and tadpole bites. They are very prone to digestion problems and dried and pellet foods often get impacted causing them to bloat and die. I've owned many frogs over the years and have seen this happen. I rotate every other day feeding a frozen food such as blood worms or brine shrimp and frog/tadpole bites the other day. These frogs are very blind and have a hard time competing with fish for food. I've kept them with guppies and I found my guppies ate way too much by the time I was able to get the frogs to locate food. I now keep them in a species only tank. Even then, I reach into their tank every day and place their food in their cave. They now know this is where they are fed and I have to spend alot less time sucking out uneaten food they never found that will pollute the water. They need a smooth substrate and smooth edges on all decor because their skin is very sensitive and can be damaged easily which invites infection. All decor needs to be well secured in the substrate because they slam around alot and I have read many accounts of frogs drowning from getting pinned by a rock or decor and not being able to get to the surface to breathe. Their behavoir is very cute. More often than not they are in their zen pose they are famous for or in a live plant, they don't much care for fakes. Some are more likely to swim about the tank all day than others. They seem to be most active at a temp of 78F. They do hide more if they are with fish.
Click to expand...

That is true about the pellets, (that ADF's can get bloated from eating them and they could die). However, when I feed mine, I drop the pellets in the general vacinity of the frogs and not directly in front of them. This allows the pellets to take on water and expand before the frogs get to them. They also break apart in small enough bites for the frogs. Another option that I read about is to keep a small container nearby, dip the container in the tank water, drop the pellets in there, let them expand, then pour the water back in the tank.

While I'm fairly new at keeping ADF's, I have researched them thoroughly and other people have successfully fed fish pellets/freeze-dried foods to their ADF's. You just need to be extra careful. Btw, I should have mentioned this in my original post about how to feed the pellets, and I apologize, but I didn't think about it at the time. I do appreciate you posting about it, Siva! (y)

However, I am interested to learn why you feel so strongly that nothing but food designated for frogs and frozen foods should be used? I understand the nutritional value of the frozen foods, (and while I haven't tried them yet, I had planned on it in the near future). However, I read that fish food pellets are fine. If this isn't the case, then the info under the ADF "directions" tab, shown here should be changed, (along w/ many other sources that I found that stated fish pellets were ok).

I am in no way making an argument, I'm just trying to understand why a large number of sources state that it's ok to feed fish pellets if it's not. :confused:

Oh and +1 on the decor safety info you posted, Siva! I thought I had every nook and cranny sealed up when I first got my ADF's. But within 24 hrs of getting them, one of my ADF's found an extremely tiny slit at the base of one of my ornaments, couldn't find his way out, and drowned. :( Even though I inspected every thing prior to introducing them to the tank, I obviously made a poor decision on an ornament. Lesson learned. The ornament was removed immediately following his death and replaced w/ something safer.
 
McLumpy I am so sorry about your little froggy..that would really ruin my day! I must say in all the reading I have done on ADF's I have never heard of this method of feeding but it seems it would eliminate the bowel impaction risk, you learn something every day! However, I can't help but wonder why bother with the extra steps or concern when you can just toss in some frog bites that are formulated for their nutritional needs and to not cause impaction. Also those shrimp pellets contain copper sulfate and I'm not sure how safe that is for inverts..since I keep a pretty nerite snail and MTS with my frogs I try to be careful with copper. My frogs might be a little snobbish because they won't even eat a frog bite once it becomes waterlogged...I have to suck it out with a turkey baster...so I don't think this feeding method would work for my frogs. They do SO love blood worms :)
 
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