Feeding African dwarf frog and storing black worms?

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PuppyFluffer

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Jan 9, 2008
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I have one ADF in a 5 gallon (MiniBow5 tank).

I have been feeding him live black worms and he likes them but I have some questions.

Should this frog eat the food immediately once it's placed in front of him (like a fish)? He doesn't. I put the food right in front of him and often he moves away. I come back hours later and sometimes it's gone, sometimes not quite. He always eats within 24 hours. Is this normal for them? I think he prefers to eat at night.

Also, how to store these worms? The LFS gives them to me in a plastic bag, like fish. I was told to put them in a plastic container in the fridge and rinse them every few days. Also, put holes in the top of the container so they get air. It's nearly impossible to drain off the excess water after rinsing them. They clog the holes, they slip out. It's a mess.

I have gotten some frozen blood worms and thawed them and fed him some of them as well. I am unclear of how much to feed since I don't see him eating. It's not like feeding a fish where you can tell when they get disinterested in eating.

I have the Hikari bloodworms in small cubes. How much should he eat do you think?

I intent do put another frog with him and 2 same gender platies. (we tried 4 neons and lost them....long story)
 

phreakkn0t

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I have 2 ADF's with my betta. Mine will usually eat right away. I feed both ADFs as well as the betta frozen bloodworms, its much easier that live worms. I buy the bloodworms and break them into chunks and keep it in a ziplock. for 1 ADF you should probably just break a small chunk off and try that. Maybe keep checking on him to try and catch him eating. From what Ive read they have very poor eyesight so maybe it just takes him awhile to recognize that the foods there.
 

msjinkzd

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adf's are clumsy feeders at best, I fed brine shrimp (frozen) and tubifex predominantly to my adf's using a turkey baster. I only fed every 2 days or so. I would place a small lid out of the current and try to feed them on that. www.pipidae.net has some good info on adf's as well.
 

kj5kb

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I have been feeding him live black worms and he likes them but I have some questions.

Also, how to store these worms? The LFS gives them to me in a plastic bag, like fish. I was told to put them in a plastic container in the fridge and rinse them every few days. Also, put holes in the top of the container so they get air. It's nearly impossible to drain off the excess water after rinsing them. They clog the holes, they slip out. It's a mess.
My local club gave out blackworms at a meeting; I had the exact same problem with rinsing them. I tried adding water to the container (with the lid off), then pouring out most of it (and hopefully very few worms); kinda like a partial water change. Worked well. You could pour thru a fine net to save any that did sneak out; I did that at first but ended up not bothering cuz I had loads of 'em.
 

pcnicholson

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Apr 2, 2007
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I use a pipette from the lab at my wifes office to both feed them to the fish and rinse. Cut off the end of one so you have a wide intake, suck them up and feed them to the fish. I use tank water to rinse them down then use the pipette to suck off any extra water.
 

GuiltyPleasures

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I have about 6 adf's in a 10 gal tank with guppies corry cats and a couple of other fish. I just feed them anything that sinks to the bottom that my cats and other bottom fish like. The seem to like shrimp pellets, pieces of raw chicken, beef heart, raw shrimp, blood worms (frozen or fresh), the black worms, actually they will eat pretty much anything they find on the bottom of the tank. Never have any problems with them eating. As for the black worms, I take them to the sink, slowly dump out some of the old water, then slowly fill with fresh water, swish them around, then do that process all over again making sure most all of the worms have sunk to the bottom of the container before I slowly pour out most of the water. I loose very little worms doing it that way. Hope this helps :)
 

PuppyFluffer

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Thanks for the info.

How long do the black worms live in the fridge?
How often do you rinse them?

Also, on feeding frozen bloodworms, am I right to assume that you thaw them first? I have been thawing them first.

Also, will 2 ADF's eat one cube of bloodworms in a feeding?
 

msjinkzd

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I thaw first, I doubt 2 little adf's will eat a whole cube. Perhaps you could buy the "sheets" of blood worms that are frozen instead of the cubes and then cut off a smaller portion. Or refrigerate the excess bloodworms after defrosting. I would also try tubifex worms and brine shrimp. I haven't fed blackworms so can't offer any advice there. Good luck!
 

PuppyFluffer

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Thanks for the advice.

I just fed the guppies bloodworms for the first time and they like them too. They will also go to the bottom and eat them off the gravel so I will be careful to watch that the frogs are getting some too.

When we got the guppies, we got a second ADF and it's amazing the difference in activity level between them. The new one is really active. The first one hides a lot. They are also quite different in coloring. The new one has a much lighter base color with spots. The first one is much darker. My daughter has named them Moonbeam and Roger. I don't know where she gets these names from! The guppies are named too.
 
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