[ukboxer]

Hi Everyone,

After months of anticipation I have finally got myself 4 ADF's last week. They are in a 10 gallon tank and on their own, no fish. They are great fun to watch when not hiding!

Just a quick overview - I have 6 live plants for them to hide in and several ornaments which act as caves. Temperature is between 75 and 79. I use a small feeding dish and a turkey baster to put food in and also to take old food out. I also have some floating plants should they want to hang on to them when they come to the surface. Top of tank is covered to reduce escape attempts and I use a 24 hours light that mimics sunrise/sunset and then moonlight.

I just have a few questions to make sure I am doing everything right for them:

1. I have found very mixed information when it comes to using a filter. My tank comes with an under gravel filter which was initially on, and turned down low but after reading that they do not like much water disturbance and vibrations I have turned it off completely. My question is, should I use a silent internal filter perhaps turned down low? Or just leave tank with no filter? If yes, how often and how much should water changes take place?

2. I feed my ADF's a mixture of frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, guppy fry every other day (meaning one or the other at a time) and intend to give them a treat of some beef heart once a month as a treat. The frozen food (bloodworms) comes in a double cube with each cube being perhaps 2cm by 2cm by 0.5cm depth and containing hundreds of individual worms. Should I be feeding by individual worms? If so how many? Or should I defrost a half cube and add the whole lot to the tank and scoop out any uneaten the day after?

3. Bit of a follow on from question 1 but I have a smaller tank that the ADF's can go in when I do a full tank clean. For this I will empty and clean everything as if starting a new aquarium. Before I got the ADF's I obviously set up the new tank using all water treatments and left it running for 3 days before adding the ADF's. The ADF's would be in their smaller holding tank, with their current water and plants for 3 days, is that ok for them? How often should I do this deep clean?

Sorry for the long questions just wanted to give as much information as possible!

If you think I am doing anything wrong please let me know as I dont want these ADF's to be learning ones if you know what I mean. I care very much about doing things correctly for them so that they are happy and healthy so any comments are welcomed even if they dont answer the questions.

Very pleased with these little guys!

 

[ukboxer]

Lol just noticed I forgot to specify 'frogs' in the subject line! As I cant find how to edit my post i'll make it clear now that I am refering to 'African Dwarf Frogs' NOT small people from Africa :thumbsup:

 

[Sasami]

1. That depends on if you want to cycle your aquarium or not. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the nitrogen cycle but essentially you can "grow" beneficial bacteria that convert toxic ammonia (from waste products, uneaten food, etc.) to nitrite. Over time, a second group comes in to convert nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate isn't too toxic, especially in low amounts. It can be absorbed by your live plants and removed through water changes. A cycled tank doesn't need (and shouldn't get) full water changes. Instead, you might change 10% of the water a week by gravel vacuuming. A cycled tank is more stable than one relying on full water changes so it's something to look into . There's a product called Tetra SafeStart that kick-starts the process by containing live bacteria. Since you already have your frogs and can't do a "fishless cycle", I would use a product like that or seed your tank with bacteria by taking some gravel or filter media from another established aquarium.

Over time, if you're just doing partial water changes, the tank will cycle on its own. You'd want to be testing ammonia/nitrite/nitrate regularly during this time. I wouldn't normally recommend cycling a tank with animals in it but the live plants may actually keep things safe by absorbing some waste products . Heavily planted aquariums rarely get spikes at all.

I'm not a fan of undergravel filters for planted aquariums (what kind of plants do you have, though?). I like simple hang-on-back models. Some are even adjustable so you could turn down the flow .

2. I'm not a fan of feeding beef heart to aquatic frogs. It's a very unnatural food for them. The guppy fry should be a treat IMO and the beef heart shouldn't be fed (dogs love it, though!). I generally feed what they can consume in a few minutes so yes, you could just siphon out uneaten food. But one of my frogs was a pain and needed to be hand-fed so I had to feed him individual worms :lol:.

Consider adding blackworms, freshwater mysis shrimp, and/or wingless (or flightless) fruit flies to their diet for variety instead of the beef. Blackworms especially tend to be a big hit with amphibians. Mine also enjoyed the occasional pinhead cricket.

3. I wouldn't do full water changes at all, I would cycle the tank and get a good aquarium test kit. If you do decide to do 100% water changes, I would test the water frequently and immediately do changes whenever you get a positive test for ammonia. Besides that, I'd be changing the water completely every other week or so. But look into cycling first . There's a sticky in this forum that explains the basics.

By the way, welcome to Paw-Talk and congrats on your new frogs! It's always great to meet someone who truly cares about their ADFs . Many people get them as "decorations"/gifts now.

 

[ukboxer]

Thank you very much Sasami,

I'll reply to your message by the numbers as its a little easier

1. My knowledge of the nitrogen cycle is not brilliant but I have read up on it and will continue to do so as I am with all things ADF related. I have been out today and bought an internal filter as I would like some filtration It is an Intrapet power filter PF mini. It is designed for 1-9 gallon tanks. With mine being a 10 gallon I intend to perhaps use it at half rate so there is some filtration within the tank but hopefully not enough to be annoying for the little guys! Its a real toss up for me between having filtration within a closed environment and the welfare of the ADF's but I think a small internal filter is a good balance. What do you think?

Ive got some 'stress zyme' that I am using, it contains live bacteria and is added every week as per instructions.

I will do 10% water changes every week using gravel vacuum and will prepare the new water atleast a day in advance with 'stress coat' which removes chlorine and chloramines.

The plants I have in the tank are 'Vallisneria Spiralis Vallis' which looks like long grass. I have some 'Hornwort' which is like a mini fern and the majority are oxygenating plants Curly Waterweed (the standard plants in the pet shop). i also have some floating cork which has 'Java Moss' attached

2. I will not give the beef heart (I haven't yet anyway) and yes you are right its not natural food for them so I will stay away from that. My local pet shop also sell frozen black mosquito larvae and krill, would that also be suitable along with blackworms, freshwater mysis shrimp and the fruit fly that you suggest? (All of which I will have to source as my local does not sell). Also, my local sells small bags of live 'guppy fry' so I was thinking of getting some of those once a month as a treat. I know ADF's are lazy when it comes to catching food but it would be variety for them!

With feeding the only problems I have is that Ive not yet had all 4 ADF's feeding at the same time. I normally get 2 or 3 come out of the plants straight away and feed then there is a lot of darting back into the plants and out again for food so I dont know if its the same ones feeding all the time. This is why I am leaving the food over night and scooping up the left overs in the morning. I wouldnt want to scoop it out before they have all had a feed but I dont want to overfeed them too. Is it likely they will overfeed? Should I maybe leave the food for an hour and scoop? Would that be better? I could start to leave it less and less until they all learn to come out right away, what do you think?

3. Thank you very much for this, I will stay away from full water changes and enable the tank to cycle. I'll stick to 10% weekly water changes initially and see how that does. I have an aquarium test kit and will monitor plus will look into 'cycling' in more depth.

And finally....thank you very much for your kind welcome to the forum! I am really enjoying looking after the ADF's! Although I dont see them as much as I would like too due to so many plants and hiding places but I know thats what they like so im cool with that. My ADF's being happy is my main concern

 

[Sasami]

1. I wouldn't worry so much about the flow. I bet it will be buffered by the plants, anyway . That filter sounds fine although I don't have any personal experience using an internal filter for ADFs. I used a small hang-on-back with adjustable flow. I haven't heard good things about Stress Zyme, there are a lot of bad batches out there and some stores are storing them improperly, leading to bottles with no living beneficial bacteria. If you have SafeStart available, I'd get that. If not, just keep testing to make sure the Stress Zyme is working.

2. Yup, those foods would be fine. Mine loved krill but I fed it as a treat since it's not a freshwater species and is also rich in thiaminase. It's great for variety, just not as a staple food .

The feeding problem can be tricky. You're going to have to watch them to see if they all end up coming out to eat. Watch to make sure none are losing weight. I kept my ADFs in pairs so it was easier for me. They probably won't over-eat if you're feeding just a few times a week. If they do, the weight gain will be obvious. Hopefully, yes, they get used to a schedule.

3. No problem and let me know if you need help with anything.

Once they relax you might get to see them doing "frog yoga" and floating at the top of the water . But yeah, they feel secure when they can hide. Believe it or not, more hiding places can result in them coming out more often since they become more relaxed.

 

[pseudorocknroll]

I MIGHT SAY SOME THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID, BUT I'M JUST ANSWERING ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS THE BEST I CAN

1. Get an external HOB aquaclear 20. It is completely customizable so you can choose your filter media. My 6 dwarf's love it...and even hang out near it all day! I swear the outflow must massage the **** out of 'em! ( http://www.marinedepot.com/filters_hagen_aquaclear_power-ap.html )


2. I love the frozen blood worms! I use a turkey baster! I take a small cup that hasn't been contaminated with soap and fill it half way with TANK water. Then I dissolve the cube in the 76 degree water. When the worms start to separate just suck up small amounts at a time and "target feed" your lovely little ones! I agree with Sasami about the beef heart.

3. 3 days doesn't sound long enough- you need to completely cycle your tank! I'm confused about the rest of your question though.


Also, I recommend keeping ADF's with Otocinclus! They help each other and the tank so very much!