ADF question...

[krazymom]

I bought 4 ADFs last Tuesday and put them in a QT tank. One died the next day, I exchanged him for a new one. Another one died the next day again and I didn't replace him. Now I have 3. They lived in the QT till today and looked and acted healthy. Today I put them in the community tank and two seem fine but one looks like he has white film or something coming off him. I can't really see the other two, they are hiding in some rocks. I'm going to stick the one frog back in QT, any idea what that stuff might be? Thanks

Forgot to mention, the water is where it should be on the testing charts.

 

[Zagz]

Is the white film sort of floating around him? ADF's shed their skin every so often. When it happened to me the first time, I thought the little guy had gotten something wrapped around him and pulled it off. Then I read that they eat their shedded skin. It is possible it may be his skin shedding.

 

[mr86mister]

i heard that ADF's sort of shed their skin when they grow, my g/f's ADF's do it all the time, it slowly peels off and you can see fresh umm..."skin", well at least i hope thats what it is and not a fungus :?

 

[krazymom]

Oh that makes me feel better, I thought he might have contaminated my tank with something nasty. It does look a bit like he's shedding. It is just white and silky looking and hanging off him here and there. Sound right?

 

[Zagz]

That sounds about right to me. I freaked the first time too.

 

[krazymom]

He died last night. I do think it was only skin though cause I looked at it and you could see a bit of texture. Maybe he died from moving him back and forth? I put him back in my community after finding out it was only skin. I'll take him in today for a trade and see what the lfs girl says about the white stuff. Poor froggy.

 

[Joey17]

I agree, they do shed they're skin often.

 

[FawnN]

Shedding skin is a good sign that they are growing. It sounds like the store has a bad batch of ADF's.

I would go to another store. You keep on going back and they keep on dying. ADF's are very hardy and acclimate to changing water conditions fairly well.

 

[mr86mister]

eeesh, sorry to hear he died...yeah try a different lfs if you can, because they should be fine...and make sure that they are getting food because they are partially blind and have trouble finding food and usually everyone else gets to it first

 

[krazymom]

I also have saved them from the filter intake several times by unplugging it so they can swim away. Is this common? Will they learn to stay away from it or is there something I can do to prevent it? His leg was stuck in there and it took him a minute to get free.

 

[FawnN]

I also have saved them from the filter intake several times by unplugging it so they can swim away. Is this common?

Any fish or ADF that gets caught in the intake was probably already sick and weak. Healthly live stock do not get stuck in the inlet tube.

You really need to try another fish store.

 

[greenmaji]

unless of course your filter is too big for the tank..

 

[krazymom]

I don't know what size filter it is, it came with the tank and has it's lid missing. It looks to me to be an aquaclear with a sponge in it type filter. My tank is 55 gal. I can turn the flow down, maybe that will help. They have been on the slits on the tube and it looks to me like they are stuck there so I unplug it and they swim away.

 

[Zagz]

Sorry to hear about your loss. ADF's are quite hardy little guys. I have a 29 gal that is 24" high and although that is taller than is recommended for them, they have never gotten stuck in the filter. Also make sure that you have your tank completely covered. Little guys are fast and can jump out quite easily. I would definitely recommend a new lfs for the frogs. Still take the ADF back and get store credit for something else in the store.

 

[krazymom]

Thanks guys. I got another frog but if anymore die I will have to find a better fish store. The rest of the fish have been healthy from there. It was funny cause my kids and I were looking in all the tanks and I couldn't see any little frogs and I asked the girl if they had them and she said yes lots of them! Then she moved a huge rock and there was like a hundred of them fluttering around! I also bought them frog pellets, not the dried bloodworms the first girl told me to get. Maybe they will thrive better now. Thanks for all the advice!

 

[RoK]

I also have saved them from the filter intake several times by unplugging it so they can swim away. Is this common? Will they learn to stay away from it or is there something I can do to prevent it? His leg was stuck in there and it took him a minute to get free.

That is actually quite common for them to get stuck in the filter intake, (especially aquaclear's) and no they usually won't learn to stay away, at least mine didn't. I lost a small one because he got sucked up and couldn't get out. You'll have to cover the intake with a sponge or something.

 

[Zagz]

My ADF's love frozen bloodworms, I have to feed them with a turkey baster as they can't see food. That way they end up with the food directly in front of them. They get very animated after eating bloodworms. Fortunately I've never had any get caught in the filter at all and I've had my little guys for 4 months. (Knocks wood)

 

[krazymom]

Well, I still have the three of them and (knock on wood) they haven't been stuck since I first wrote about it! I bought freeze dried bloodworms but none of the fish seem to really like them. I'll have to try the frozen ones. I'll try the turkey baster thing too. The little frog pellets are so tiny that when they drift around the tank and settle in the rocks I don't know if they frogs can even find them. I try to pour them over the frogs so they land around them but then they are lost in the rocks. I wonder if I can train the frogs to go to the top of a big rock to feed?

 

[mr86mister]

your fish dont like the bloodworms...holy cow my fish start yelling at me if i dont give it to them in a couple of days...lol...i put in half a cube and they chug it down

 

[krazymom]

I'm going to try the frozen cubes, the dried ones they don't seem to like.