African clawed frogs (albino)

**cap77442000** · #1 10-12-2005, 09:51 AM

I am looking for a good care sheet. I have two acf's unnamed as yet. They are in a 10 gallon with two apple snails and 1 Gouramis fish. The fish is named snowflake she is all white and the snails are named grim and evil. MY problem is that one of my acf's is really small and looks skinny compared to the other one. He is eating just not as much as the other one. Everyone seems to get along just fine, so I don't think that it has anything to do with the snails or fish. The frogs like to lay on top of the snails and kind of ride around on them. My question is should I put the small acf in it's own tank until he gets bigger or should I just leave everything alone? I do have a filter, hides and a air stone. He gets stressed very easy I guess because he is so little. The bigger one never seems stressed out and will come right up to my hand and bite at me. I feed twice a day some fish flakes, frog pellets and freeze dried planktons. Sometimes also live brine shrimp if I can get them. Also what should the water temp. be? It is 78 degrees now do you think that I will need a heater? I am well aware that I will need a bigger tank. I want to put them in a 20l when my corn snake gets her new tank. Is that a big enough size? I vaccum the tank out every sunday. Should I do it more often? I don't want to do it to much because the snails dig in the gravel and eat what is there. I use a battery powered fish tank vaccum. I have large rock gravel not the little pieces because I know that the acf's will eat the little pieces. I did research on them before buying them but am not sure what to do about the little guy. I am worried about the temps. because the pet store told me to get a heater for them but I remember having them As a child and I cleaned the tank and put warm water in and they died.

**furryscaly** · #2 10-12-2005, 12:03 PM

I'm currently in the process of making a caresheet for ACFs. In the mean time, you will need to make some changes to their housing. I'd house the two separately, at least for now. The small one may not be able to compete for food with the larger one. The smaller one may also be a male and the larger one female, which would explain some of the size difference.

You'll want to take the air stone out of the tank. These frogs are very sensative to vibrations and the air stone is only a constant source of noise and vibrations, which equals stress to the frogs. What type of filter do you have? The only type I recommend for amphibians is a Whisper filter. They are very quiet (hence the name) and produce a minimal amount of water disturbance. For a 10 gallon, get a filter built for a 20 gallon. Frogs produce a lot more waste than fish. I've read canister filters work well too.

The frogs would also be better off without the fish in there. Each frog already produces a lot more waste than fish, so having the fish only adds more undesired waste to the water. The fish will also be better off with an air stone and an under gravel filter, which are not good for the frogs. The fish's presence is not the most critical thing to change, but it would be preferred to house it separately if possible. In a larger enclosure, the presence of a lone fish isn't as big a deal.

I personally don't recommend the use of gravel with these frogs. They have very large mouths and are known to swallow gravel while searching for food scraps.

Krill and shrimp are good feeders, but also feed them gutloaded crickets and live fish, like mollies and guppies. Guppies work particularily well because they're brightly colored and not as fast. The frog pellets are also good, but the fish flakes lack the proper nutrition to sustain the frogs.

You won't need a heater. 70-75 degrees is best for these guys. Its also a good idea to keep hides in there, so keep those in. Just how much smaller is the one from than the other?

**Jade** · #3 10-12-2005, 12:54 PM

I think Matt has everything covered
You should also keep in mind that that fish might become food.
I keep my frogs a room temperature and feed them, reptimin,small rosy minnow/or guppys,crickets, and frozen blood worms as a treat.

**Merlin** · #4 10-12-2005, 05:27 PM

Quote:

You should also keep in mind that that fish might become food.

It could also work the other way as well. Some species of Gourami get BIG! If you have access to Reptiles Magazine Annual Edition there is a long article on the care and breeding of clawed frogs.

**cap77442000** · #5 10-12-2005, 06:14 PM

Thanks for responding. I do have a whisper filter in there. I do not leave the air stone on all the time, only for a couple of hours at night. The bigger acf seems to like it he goes right to it when I turn it on and he swims around in the bubbles. I should have said that I have on of those splitter things where you can control the flow. I only have the bubbles coming out real soft like because I didn't want to scare them of it. The fish is alittle bigger then the frogs and I watch when I feed to make sure that everyone eats and that nobody is fighting. I'm glad that I don't need the heater because the snails climb on everything and I didn't want them to get burnt on it. I also should have mentioned that I have plenty of plants and this wall thing that looks like rocks. That is where I have the air stone behind it. It's made for that and has a hole it it for the line to go through so that they don't drag the line around the tank. I am very careful with my animals and won't let anything happen to any of them. I would feed pin head crickets right? Do I just throw them it to the water? What if the drown will they still eat them? I have tons of them for my fire-bellied toad so it would be a cheap easy and always on hand meal. Should I dust them first? The big acf is 1/2 inch bigger then the small one and is the same size bigger in width. Could it just be a female? The pet store told me that the fish can live with the frogs for life but in a bigger tank. He said to set up the bigger tank in about six months. The gravel isn't really gravel it is huge rocks like the kind that are in water fountains. I seen full grown acf's before I brought the little ones and the rocks will always be bigger then them. I hope that I answered all of your questions. Thanks for the help and I look forward to your care sheet matt. One more question alittle of topic but can I dust pinkies with the same dusting powder that I use for the fire-bellied toad. The bottle says that it is also for snakes but to be on the safe side I wanted to ask. I will have to post the name of it tomorrow as I am not home right now but at work. I was just thinking that I brought the dusting powder at petco so I went to the website and here is what I have maybe you know of something better but it was all they had. http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.as...5%2526cp%253d2

**furryscaly** · #6 10-13-2005, 04:51 AM

You can feed them crickets that are about as long as the frogs' head is wide, or about the distance between the frogs' eyes. I feed my adult female crickets, krill, superworms, fish, and as a rare treat I'll give her a pinkie mouse. She's about 4 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. To sex yours, look at the vent. Females have what's called "cloacal lips" or folds, and males don't. Females are also larger.

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/claw_sex.jpg

closeup of a female:
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Frog,%20128.jpg

**Merlin** · #7 10-13-2005, 07:31 AM

Quote:

can I dust pinkies with the same dusting powder that I use for the fbt. The bottle says that it is also for snakes but to be on the safe side I wanted to ask.

It is not necessary to dust the pinkies. Snakes do not require supplements since they consume whole organisms and get all that they need. Dusting will also make the pinkie smell and taste differently and may actually cause the snake to refuse to feed.

**cap77442000** · #8 10-13-2005, 05:01 PM

Hi. Thanks for the info. I'm sorry to say that I won't have to worry about the sex of them as the little one died in the night. I have no plan on getting another one, I think the one I have will be fine with just the fish. They get along well always swimming together and picking on the snails. I'm not worried about them picking on the snails because the snails just go in to the shells and hide.

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