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My hubby to be has 2 little girls, 5 and 7. He came home with one of these
http://www.wildcreations.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=176&category_id=&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=117
He bought it at a toy store. Yes they might be low matenace but the poor little frogs have no room. I have been reading up on these African Dwarf Frogs and they need at least 2 gallons. Can’t believe they sell them like this. I am going out to get a new tank tomorrow and I have been reading up on tank set up and I am a little nervous. I don’t want to kill the little things. Should i get a larger piece of bamboo? Should i buy a snail? I am so confused 🙄Aww, I have no idea about those cute little frogs, but I do have a betta and am disgusted with the tiny ‘tanks’ they sell for them. My boy Jasper has his own 5 gallons. Glad your frogs will be getting a better home!
My betta also has 5 gallons. 😀
Glad the froggies are getting a new home. Yeah! But you want to treat amphibians the same way you treat fish. You will need a filter and their water will need to be “cycled” or the ammonia they produce will go through their skin and eventually kill them. Depending on your tap water, that could kill them also. Get a good water conditioner (that removes chlorine and chloramine).
Until the tank is cycled, you will need to do partial water changes to remove the waste products. Water in a smaller tank gets dirty faster and will need to be changed more often. I would feed them very little during this time. Less food = less poop. LOL.
What tank cycling means (the nitrogen cycle)… http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html
If you have any further questions, let me know. 🙂
I just read the little care sheet that comes with the tiny tank. After reading, it sounds like the Living Gravel is seeded with the good bacteria you need to cycle the tank (which is why they do not want you to wash it with tap water – the chlorine/chloramines in tap water will kill them). Put this gravel in the bigger tank when you get it. It will jump start the cycle right away. 🙂
I would still recommend a small filter (hang on the back kind). I’ve got an AquaClear 20 on my betta’s 5 gallon. The most important function of the filter is not necessarily to take crud/poop out of the water but to have a place for your good bacteria to live. They are the most important thing you need! Once you have the bacteria settled in, tank ownership is actually pretty easy. :yes:
I remember having some of those little frogs before. I used to breed Mollies and guppies for entertainment, so I had aquariums in just about every room. I had my frogs in a five gallon freshwater tank with some live plants (NOT FROM PETSMART), gravel, some small goldfish, and a filtration system. I recommend going to walmart and getting a five gallon tank kit, they come with the filters and light for the top and are fairly inexpensive. They’re great for starting out. Once you set up a little tank for them, they are very easy to take care of and relaxing to watch (and I think all kids love watching frogs swim around!).
The reason I say not to buy live plants from Petsmart: I don’t think highly of Petsmart. Everytime I bought plants there, the plants were infested with snails. The snails killed all the plants that I already had in the tanks. Those tiny snails are a pain in the butt. This happened at two different Petsmart locations, years apart. If you want to buy live plants for your new habitat, don’t get them there!
Thank you so much bayoudragon and skeeterdeee. I will go to Wal-Mart and get a 5 gallon tank first thing tomorrow. That living gravel sounds really good. You can buy it from that website that sells the frogs. I have a case of Deer park bottles out so they will reach room temp. Do you think Deer Park bottle water is ok to use?
As far as the plants is bamboo ok? or do you have any suggestions on freshwater plants not from Petssmart?Your right Eleu, I can’t believe they sell frogs like this and betas to. Seems really cruel. I know my hubby to be was just trying to be nice but I wish we had done some research first.
At the moment the girls have named them Naveen(Princess and the frog’s Prince) and Eric (Little mermaid’s prince) thought it was cute 😀Bamboo should be just fine. The only reason I have live plants in my tank is because I think they look prettier than the plastic plants. 🙂 I don’t think you NEED live plants in your tank, but once you get your tank set up, you and the girls are probably going to be inspired to decorate it. If you want to use live plants, I had the best luck with a package of bulbs I got at walmart. They were around 2 or 3 dollars per pack and all you do is drop them in the water and watch them grow for a couple weeks (The kids may enjoy watching their little plants grow, too.) The best part about the walmart plant bulbs is that if a couple of them don’t grow, you mail them to the address on the back of the package and the company sends you a big bag of replacements!! 😀
Yep, you don’t NEED plants in the tank… but they will absorb some of the wastes your frogs produce. There are many aquatic plants that are very low maintenance. Jave Fern and Anubias actually attach to pieces of wood (and sometimes rock). They don’t have to be buried into the gravel to survive. Java Moss is also a good one. A few crypt species are also easy to care for, and they spread by runners under the gravel. They do fine in low light and without any extra fertilization. Note that some get BIG! I have drawf anubias with my betta. 🙂
I like my snails. 😳 I have ramshorn and Malaysian trumpets.
I can’t remember what those little snails are called. The ones that were on the plants from petsmart were those teeny, tiny, almost microscopic little buggers and all they do is eat your plants. The ones you have, Bayou, are the ones that keep your tank clean, aren’t they? Those snails are great! It’s those tiny ones that wreak havok in my tanks that bug me. They’re like underwater vegetarian fleas. I bought plants from walmart and petCO but never had that problem.
I had some of those plants that get real long, everytime they reached the top of the water I would start pinching off some of the leaves. When I got pregnant I stopped taking care of my tanks, some of the plants started to overrun the tank (I believe they were Aponogeton plants). Aponogeton are pretty, but they have to be kept trimmed or your tank will look like it’s full of seaweed. Griffin, if you do decide you want real plants, get some dwarf anubias like Bayou has, they’re pretty and won’t take over your tank. 🙂We used to have a turtle, and we didn’t have a filter, so I changed the water in the tank regularly. What I did was fill plastic container with tap water and let it sit for at least 24 hours (container opened) to let the chlorine and all that stuff evaporate. At the time, we had very little money, so water conditionner was out of our reach. If I recall (this was almost 20 years ago), the water “treatment” helped a lot for the turtle’s shell.
Now I don’t know if that’ll be good for fish or cute frogs 😀
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http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htmYes, chlorine will “gas out” of water if you let it sit. Chloramine is more stable and will not (this is why water companies have been switching to chloramine). Check with your water company. If they still use chlorine, then letting it sit as dragonmedley says will be just fine, esp. since you will have a small tank. 🙂 Otherwise, you will need something to use on the chloramines.
SMALL water changes can get by without a water conditioner even if you have chloramine in your water. I wouldn’t risk it though. I made that mistake and learned a hard lesson. 😥
skeeterdeee wrote:I can’t remember what those little snails are called. The ones that were on the plants from petsmart were those teeny, tiny, almost microscopic little buggers and all they do is eat your plants. The ones you have, Bayou, are the ones that keep your tank clean, aren’t they? Those snails are great! It’s those tiny ones that wreak havok in my tanks that bug me. They’re like underwater vegetarian fleas. I bought plants from walmart and petCO but never had that problem.
Vegetarian fleas!! 😆 You must of had ponds snails (Physa). Those can be a menace!! Ramshorns are supposed to eat plants, but mind don’t. I think the anubias are too thick for them. They eat my algae instead. 😀
Not about frogs, but snails! Since it came up…
There are a few types of snails that can ‘infest’ your tank.Ramshorn Snails: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramshorn_snail
Also called pond snails.
In a nutshell, they like to eat delicate, tender parts of plants. If you have soft plants they will eat them. If you have tough plants (Java fern, anubias) they generally won’t.Malaysian Trumpet Snails: http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Melanoides_tuberculata.php
In a nutshell, these snails don’t do any harm at all. They eat debris (plant debris from dead or dying parts of the plant– NOT from live healthy plants!), extra fish food, and other organic matter such as algae and sometimes yes fish poo. They burrow into the bottom substrate and are somewhat nocturnal. They can be beneficial in cleaning up and aerating the substrate for your plant roots.The other, large ornate snails that you can buy (such as mystery snails/apple snails, Nerite, etc) generally leave healthy plants alone but are big enough to need some food supplementation unless your tank has a ton of decaying vegetation (not a good thing) or a ton of the algae type they prefer. Yes, there are many different types of algae. 😉
In any case, snail population is directly related to the amount of snail-food in your tank. If snails are getting out of control, there is too much food.. either fish food being wasted, or plants dying, or too much fish poo (related to too much fish food!). Overfeeding is one of the biggest problems most people face.
Also, snail infestations can come from ANY fish shop. It is immensely hard to completely keep any plant shipment clean of snail or snail eggs at the retail level. The best thing you can do is to either dip your new plants in a chemical bath to kill any snails/eggs/other pests/diseases that might be in the plants, or to accept that if you keep live plants you will just have snails at some point. 😉
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My art: featherdust.combayoudragon wrote:Chloramine is more stable and will not (this is why water companies have been switching to chloramine).
Like I said, almost 20 years ago, when chloramine probably didn’t exist… Years, where have you gone!!!! :shout:
Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
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I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
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