ADF questions

[Leopardfire]

I am moving my female from her 1.5 gallon to a 10 gallon lightly planted tank. I want to get a frog, so I was thinking of getting an ADF to live with her. I know frogs are bad eaters, but since the frog pellets are too big for my female's tiny mouth, I think the frog would be able to sift them up without a problem. So, here are my questions:

1) Can ADFs live on small gravel? I don't want the frog to ingest it while sifting for food and die. Should I do a bare bottom tank instead?

2) Is there a risk of Chystrid fungus? I know one member on here had an ADF with chystrid fungus and said it was common on frogs from local pet stores. I was thinking of getting one from Petsmart or Petco, but is there a risk they could be infected?

3) Should I get a snail to help clean up the frog's uneaten food? I know frogs are messy so I was thinking about getting a mystery snail to help clean up. Would this overload they biofilter or cause the frog to starve?

I don't know much about ADFs so these are the basic questions that came up when I considered getting one. Please add anything else that is important to know about them. I have kept an aquatic frog before, but it wasn't an ADF.

[Leopardfire]

Also, is there a risk the ADF could be aggressive toward my female? She's only 1in long so do you think she could get hurt?

[katydidmischief]

Honestly, I tried feeding my frogs the pellets and neither one was interested in them. I tong-feed bloodworms and other frozen thawed like beefheart and brine shrimp; they go batty for beefheart.

As for gravel, my guys are on gravel and I haven't had a problem with them ingesting any of it. And the fungus--ask the stores if either of them carry African Clawed Frogs. I did that at all three of the stores I was looking at, one of which did and I was able to immediately cross it off the list. If you're still concerned, you can do a 3-month quarantine.

I haven't had any issue with my frogs going after my fish or the fish going after the frogs. There's been a couple of times where Toothless or Stormfly dashed up for a breath of air and bumped into the fish but no scuffles.

I'm not sure about the snail, but you can use aqadvisor.com to put in all your parameters and check the bioload.

And there's a great thread here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=84033 with a TON of information on ADFs and their care.

[Leopardfire]

Thanks for the info! Could you describe your feeding in more detail though. I don't want my ADF to starve!
How much do you feed each thing? Is it like bloodworms 3 days a week, brine shrimp 2 days, and so on?
Also, do you just hold the tongs above their heads with the food and they eat it? That's what I trained my last frog to do and it worked pretty well.
Finally, do you have to restrain your betta during feeding. I'm thinking of getting a divider and putting it during feeding to keep my female out of the way.

[katydidmischief]

I don't have a schedule set up; it's more like okay, today we have bloodworms, tomorrow, the same, then some beefheart, then bloodworms again. I keep two packages at all times--bloodworms and something else--and just go between them at random intervals.

Yup, I hold the tong over their head and when they leap for the bloodworm/beefheart/brine shrimp, I open the tongs and they slurp down their food. I actually had taught them to come to a small ceramic bowl I'd had in the tank (Terrarium dish from Zilla) for meals for a while, until I decided to tong-feed them.

It depends--I've had three different bettas in with them at different times and one had to be cupped or he'd actually try to steal the food right out of the frogs' mouths. The others were/are no problem; if it'll be easier to keep her away during feedings, then by all means--sometimes I wish I had a divider to isolate the frogs from the fish.

[Leopardfire]

Ok thanks for the feeding help! I can't wait to get my ADFs, they sound like so much fun! Did you get yours at Petco or Petsmart or from another store? I'm trying to see where most healthy frogs come from.

[LadyVictorian]

I got mine from a local LFS however from what I have seen at my petco the ADF's are very fat and healthy there. When I get my second for the 10 gallon I'm going there.

[Olympia]

I would go to Petsmart. People on here have been in contact with them and they do vigorous testing against chytrid to keep it away from their frogs there (this came as a surprise to me). I'm not sure if Petco does the same thing. I got mine from an LFS and I guess I just lucked out with them. Cases do seem to be on a downward trend however.

[skepkat]

I got 3 from Petco a little over a week ago. They were skinny and 2 are missing their left hand. :(

[Leopardfire]

I think I'll get mine from Petsmart. From what I've heard, they try to prevent the fungus so their frogs have the least chance of getting it. Do you think I should get 1 ADF or 2? Will 2 overstock the tank or cause them to be more aggressive towards my betta?