African Dwarf Frogs

Oh wait I'm remember wrong, it wasn't tetras I had with my ADFs-- it was zebra danios.

OMG! I'm such a sucker! So when to the petstore to order my new aquarium earlier in the week,i happened to notice the most adorable little red telescope goldfish in a tank all by himself and looking lonely. I thought about him all day yesterday and was wondering if he was still there. When i got off work yesterday i called the petstore to see if he was still there. Sure enough, he was- so i told them to hold him for me until i got there

I drove all the way across town to get him I am soo happy with the little guy too! I had my other tank running and ready to go- so i put him in my 5 gal and fixed it up really nice for him. When he gets a little bigger- he's getting upgraded into a bigger aqurium! He is just darling too! I'll have to get a picture!

(i love how i went to the pet store this week specifically looking into other fish and wound up taking home a little goldfish He sure is worth it though!)

I named him Winston

I'm still thinking about doing the community tank with the ADF's though- i might just wait a little longer now and get the other tank goign for a few weeks.

Goldfish need 10-20 gallons minimum or they will stunt and die a slow and painful death. The good news is 10-20 gallon kits are very cheap.

I can't help with African frogs, but take a peek at red eyed tree frogs, they're the most beautiful little things I've ever seen!!

Originally Posted by joyzerelly

I can't help with African frogs, but take a peek at red eyed tree frogs, they're the most beautiful little things I've ever seen!!

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Very tricky care for those guys. But thankfully they are a popular herp so there are lots of forums for or with sections dedicated to them (and dart frogs).


About aquariums - Look in the local paper, sometimes people are selling them. Check craigslist and freecycle! Thrift stores and garage sales too - it's about that time of year again that people should be having garage sales. Just remember to sterilize everything very well. Working at a shelter/as a vet tech you should probably be able to have access to nolvasan (chlorhexidine), this as you probably already know, is great for cleaning out aquariums - with a thorough rinse after of course.

How many aquariums will you have now? Have you ever thought of anything a bit more exotic (but still freshwater) then the commonly kept fish? And for those little containers you may have sitting around still, you can use those to start aquatic plants in.

Originally Posted by Lindsey88

Goldfish need 10-20 gallons minimum or they will stunt and die a slow and painful death. The good news is 10-20 gallon kits are very cheap.

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Oh, no worries! I'm planning to order a 30gal. tank for him this week! In the mean time though, he's tinsy tiny- so the 5 gal. will do for him without any problems until i get the 30 gal. up and running! He's about two" now and goldfish need 2 gallons of water per each inch of fish- so he's ok for the moment. He will be upgraded soon though!

Originally Posted by joyzerelly

I can't help with African frogs, but take a peek at red eyed tree frogs, they're the most beautiful little things I've ever seen!!

Click to expand...

Oh he's darling!!!

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Very tricky care for those guys. But thankfully they are a popular herp so there are lots of forums for or with sections dedicated to them (and dart frogs).


About aquariums - Look in the local paper, sometimes people are selling them. Check craigslist and freecycle! Thrift stores and garage sales too - it's about that time of year again that people should be having garage sales.

Just remember to sterilize everything very well. Working at a shelter/as a vet tech you should probably be able to have access to nolvasan (chlorhexidine), this as you probably already know, is great for cleaning out aquariums - with a thorough rinse after of course.

How many aquariums will you have now? Have you ever thought of anything a bit more exotic (but still freshwater) then the commonly kept fish? And for those little containers you may have sitting around still, you can use those to start aquatic plants in.

Click to expand...

What i would REALLY REALLY love would be a 100 or 200gal. saltwater tank. I'd love to get one set up and cycle it slowly over time and add some beautiful fish to it. I had an 80 gal. fresh water growing up so i'm experienced with a somewhat larger tank. I would however like to do a little more research into saltwater before i make that leap though- that's definitely my dream aqurium though!!!!! It's just SOOOOOO pricy getting started on one that large- so for the next few yrs i had planned to stick to freshwater smaller tanks ....then maybe a medium sized salt water and then make that huge leap into a large saltwater after i research a lot more and save up more $. I've been reading a ton on www.aquaria.info and trying to learn as much as i can so that when i do get there i'll know how to get started!

I love your idea about putting the live plants in my small containers i'm not using anymore!

^Saltwater would be amazing. One of my doctors had two of them in her waiting room and there's a very nice pet store in OKC that has some lovely saltwater tanks... Now that I think of it, they probably serviced the doc's aquariums! lol

You may be able to find a nice store to help work with you.
It's been a while but I remember seeing some very nice set ups on pethobbyist's photo section. One photo showed where a person had taken the wall out under their stairs and replaced it with a huge tank. Here's the aquarium section http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/.


Though as you pointed out, those are pricey. You've mentioned fertility issues/treatments in other threads so I know that's going to be a lot of $$$ there Keep checking papers though, sometimes people sell their whole saltwater setups (with all the living creatures included) or just the equipment.

One of the keys to keeping ADF's long term in my experience is to not add them to un-cycled tanks. As amphibians, their skin really cannot take any ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates need to be as low as possible too. Use of live plants can help with this. Any tank I set up with frogs or inverts in it (and honestly all my tanks at this point) is always cycled using a fishless cycle. I use pure ammonia to jumpstart it and then conduct water tests every day for 2-3 weeks to wait for the bacteria to cycle the ammonia into nitrites and then nitrates. Once your tank reads 0 ppm for ammonia and 'trites, you do a 25-50% water change and can then add all your fish/critters.

In addition, I think it is mandatory to feed african dwarf frogs live or frozen worms as opposed to frog pellets. Of the 3-4 frogs I've kept, only one ever took a bite out of a sinking pellet, and I doubt sincerely he'd have gotten enough nutrition from those to thrive. I always fed mine live blackworms, guppy fry, frozen bloodworms and frozen mysis shrimp. They did well for several years on that diet.

I kept mine in with male bettas, and believe it or not, the betta was the one that kept getting attacked. They would grab his long fins and pull on them. I eventually had to move him to a seperate tank!

Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

In addition, I think it is mandatory to feed african dwarf frogs live or frozen worms as opposed to frog pellets. Of the 3-4 frogs I've kept, only one ever took a bite out of a sinking pellet, and I doubt sincerely he'd have gotten enough nutrition from those to thrive. I always fed mine live blackworms, guppy fry, frozen bloodworms and frozen mysis shrimp. They did well for several years on that diet.

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I strongly believe all herps need real food. They don't eat pelleted foods that come in a can in the wild, and food makers for herps don't have to follow as strict of guidelines when making foods. I see too many herp and fish foods that have ethoxyquin in them -many of us wouldn't feed this to our other pets, so why should herps get lower quality food.

Sorry, a bit O/T.

I used to have 3 ADF's. I kept them in a regular sized, plain ol' fish bowl. I fed the freeze dried bloodworms, and kept fresh elodia plants in the bowl (they liked to eat them). One died after about 8 months, the others I had a good 2 years. I came across this link that has info about which fish can live happily with ADF's, too. http://frogworld.net/african-dwarf-frog/

I recently got two of these for one of my Bettas, Sweeney (to stick with a Johnny Depp theme, I named the frogs Ichabod and Crane, lol). One of them (Crane, the smaller one) is shy and hides, but Ichabod is always out and about. It's fun feeding them, though, especially when Sweeney, being a total pig, comes down to try to get some frozen brine shrimp, and Ichabod lunges at him and nips him. "My shrimp!" I always have to seek out Crane, though, who's usually under the java moss, and make sure he gets food that way. If I wait for him to come out and come across scattered shrimp by himself, well, he won't. Sweeney will have hoovered them all up by then, lol

Ok, so upon reading in this thread I found that that the frog company where I got my African Claw isn't exactly correct saying she's ok in her small tank, I hit up freecycle and craigslist... I posted wanted ads on both for a 10 gal with hood for free or very cheap (I'm currently job-less)... well a woman saw my craig's ad and emailed me... she had a 10 with hood and filter and a bunch of other "stuff" for 10 bucks (I can swing 10 bucks)... so I went to pick it all up today! There's tons of other stuff included (I had mentioned I have a freshwater tank and a hermit crab tank)... including one of those double chambered whisper filters (I've never had a REALLY big fish tank, so I'm not even sure how many gallons this filter would be for)... I've just about cleaned everything up with my steam cleaner and am getting ready to set it all up for my frog!

Bonus that came along with meeting this woman today: when I came into her house, I saw her 2 younger children and another older woman (I thought her mom maybe)... the older woman is actually her daughter's nurse (I don't know what's wrong with her daughter, not my place to ask) but the important part was the woman was wearing a Kenny Chesney t-shirt.... so I ask if she was a fan (Lord knows I am! HOOOOOTTTTNEESSSS! ) She said she was and I mentioned I was seeing him this summer in Philly... her next words are "OH! I couldn't get tickets!" My jaw dropped! I've been trying to find someone to buy my 2 extra tickets at face value! All of my family/friends have their tickets already and I was getting nervous that I'd be stuck for the extra $229.40 for these two... so she took my name and number and will call me about it! I'm so excited for both the tank and my tickets! haha

Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

I kept mine in with male bettas, and believe it or not, the betta was the one that kept getting attacked. They would grab his long fins and pull on them. I eventually had to move him to a seperate tank!

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I can understand that now, lol (though I've heard this before, that the Betta usually goes running, but Bettas do that with other fish too... They're such wimps when other fish call his bluff, lol). One of my froggies, Ichabod, gets offended when Sweeney (the Betta) keeps eating the brine shrimp that's laying about on the gravel/sand (it's a fine gravel, but too rough to be sand). Sweeney will be hoovering up shrimp, and Ichabod will be creeping closer and closer...and then he'll suddenly lunge at Sweeney. Then he wanders after Sweeney for a few seconds to make sure he's gone. But the first time I gave them bloodworms, he scared the snot out of me. Sweeney grabbed one of the bloodworms, which was long (after the first day, with all the fish having to take extra time to chew the spagetti worms, lol). Ichabod didn't like that, and when Sweeney swam by with his worm trailing out of his mouth, Ichabod lunged at him and he held on (I don't know if he was using his feet, or if he was biting down on fish flesh) and Sweeney darted to the other end of the tank before Ichabod let go (I think Sweeney was trying to bite him back, but frankly it all happened so fast that I can barely remember what happened). Ichabod, when he let go, went hiding and refused to eat any more bloodworms. He's okay now, but he must have been upset and/or tramautized. Sweeney seemed all right too. Ichabod still hates seeing Sweeney hoarding the food, though, and always creeps towards him when he gets near his food, lol