Gravel for ADFs?

[Leopardfire]

I will be getting 1 or 2 ADFs to live with my female betta in her 10 gallon once it cycles. I was going to do a bare bottom tank because I was worried that the ADFs might eat some gravel and die, but now I'm not so sure.

My tank looks ugly and it's been cycling for a week and still no nitrites and I heard that bare bottom tanks can actually be messier since any disturbance of the water will send the gunk on the bottom flying. I have some white gravel that I want to use in the tank, but do you think that is too risky? The gravel is the regular size that you get at petsmart.

[Juicebox]

regular size gravel from petco should be fine,i have regular black gravel from there with my 2 adfs and so far no problems, u can see that the gravel is too big to fit in the frogs mouth..

if you buy adfs try petco they have them for 2 dollar fifty cent and they dont sell african clawed frogs which pass on diseases,my lfs has adfs for 8 bucks so i made a good saving at petco

[Leopardfire]

I think I will put the gravel in then. I was planning on getting my ADFs from Petsmart because I heard that they keep them away from ACFs so they're safe.

[lakemalawifish]

We used smooth sand for our African Dwarf Frogs because you will find that when they go up to take in air (which they need some room at the top of the tank to do that, so best to keep the water level dropped down some) after they go to the top and take in air they will nose dive back down to the bottom of the tank and if there are rocks, bare bottom, etc. they can hurt themselves. A soft sand landing is much easier on them. Also, when they shed their skin they thrash around a lot and again, the sand is just smoother for them.

[Leopardfire]

I have a 10lbs of ecocomplete substrate left from my 20 gallon. It has small granules, but not quite sand. It is small enough for a from to swallow though, but so is sand. Would it be safe to use this and do I have enough?

[lakemalawifish]

Not sure what size tank you are using for your African Dwarf Frogs, but usually you want 1 pound of substrate for each gallon of water in the tank. I would go ahead and use what you have and if it's not quite deep enough for your liking, or not enough cushion for your frogs, add some more when you can. I used a terra cotta pot saucer "that sits underneath the pot to catch water". Put that in a corner of the tank where there's not as much water flow and either drop the food into the saucer, or use tongs or a turkey baster to place it there. The frogs will learn to go there for their dinner. If they ingest a small amount of sand it will not hurt them. But, most of the food will land in the saucer.

[Leopardfire]

The saucer is a good idea. I have a 10 gallon tank and 10lbs of substrate so that should work. Do I have to dump out the tank to put in the substrate? It's cycling and it would be a ton of work to empty it and redoes the ammonia and everything.