I hate to say this but I think you should be prepared for the loss of this one as well
i agree...it will make it much easier on you, whether she lives or dies.
such a sad thing to happen to a little frog though :cry:
African Clawed Frog unable to use rear legs.
- Thread starter LindaD
- Start date
i agree...it will make it much easier on you, whether she lives or dies.
such a sad thing to happen to a little frog though :cry:
I did a simple google search and found a thread on another forum that is suprisingly similar to yours....
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2975087
The suggestion is that the specimens are chronically stressed due to OVERfiltration and/or excess water movement (since they typically live in stagnant water conditions). Re-reading your original post, you state your setup is also overfiltered. I don't know enough about the care of these 'phibs to validate that logic, but I would at least consider the possibility in the absence of any other logical explanation.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2975087
The suggestion is that the specimens are chronically stressed due to OVERfiltration and/or excess water movement (since they typically live in stagnant water conditions). Re-reading your original post, you state your setup is also overfiltered. I don't know enough about the care of these 'phibs to validate that logic, but I would at least consider the possibility in the absence of any other logical explanation.
yeah..i wouldnt write it off as a stroke just yet, a stroke is only one of MANY possible causes for paralysis of any form.
Linda, a few quick questions off the top of my head. Bear with me as I'm shooting of the top and have never owned ACF's:
1) What's the temperature in your tank? How are you heating (or cooling) it?
2) What's the tank size and filtration? Does the tank have a lot of water movement or is it relatively calm?
I hate to say this but I think you should be prepared for the loss of this one as well
Tank is set at 72F.. with a visi-therm heater. It's a 10g with 2 HOB filters.. AC200 and ACmini packed with sponges. Both filters are set on high flow but I put silk plants where the water flows out to slow the flow. There really isn't much current.
I just read that link.. Well CRAP! Here I am overfiltering thinking I'm doing a good thing... when I basically just killed them. :wall:
I moved her to a unfiltered 5g with only a couple inches of water... but it's not looking good.
i was going to respond to the statement regarding your overfiltration and it also damages their lateral line as well. since this happened to both frogs you can assume that it wasn't due to only one of the frogs escaping. have you put anything into the tank that is foreign recently? new source of food?
and although the filtration was an issue...if you had it like this for a while..it is unlikely both would die for the same reason at pretty much the same time.
and although the filtration was an issue...if you had it like this for a while..it is unlikely both would die for the same reason at pretty much the same time.
Nope no new decor or food. They were in that tank just under a year.
I just can't believe this! These 2 were mating and laying eggs last month. I never removed the eggs since I figured they were related. But the male was attempting to mate with the female again just days before he lost the use in his legs. Now she lunges at a piece of food and she's seizuring?
This is messed.... :cry:
I just euthanized the female... No point in letting her suffer. I pretty much new the outcome when I posted. :cry:
I'm tearing the tank down, disinfecting it and will fishless cycle it. If I ever decide to keep these frogs again in the future I won't be using a filter. It may not have been the main problem but it probably contributed?
I just can't believe this! These 2 were mating and laying eggs last month. I never removed the eggs since I figured they were related. But the male was attempting to mate with the female again just days before he lost the use in his legs. Now she lunges at a piece of food and she's seizuring?
This is messed.... :cry:
I just euthanized the female... No point in letting her suffer. I pretty much new the outcome when I posted. :cry:
I'm tearing the tank down, disinfecting it and will fishless cycle it. If I ever decide to keep these frogs again in the future I won't be using a filter. It may not have been the main problem but it probably contributed?
Really tough to tell but its a possibility... again, I am so sorry for your loss. I think you did the right thing by euthanizing if the outcome looked grim. We wanna see this tank reborn!
Thanks.. My hubby wanted me to leave her be. But she was struggling to move. I figured I'd get up in the morning and find that she had drowned.
I'm used to keeping large messy cichlids so overfiltering and frequent water changes were a good thing. I guess I carried that habit over to the frog tank too.
As for the 10g.. I had a sudden change of plans. A friend of mine brought me a fish lastnight. I guess she tried to introduce it to her 75g with a baby Oscar and Firemouth. Well my 40g is fishless cycling. :shakehead: I can't put him in there... the nitrite in that tank is 5ppm. So he's in the 10g for now since it's the only cycled tank I have. I'm hoping there is nothing nasty going on in there. Luckily it's a tiny half inch fish.
I was suppose to be a Convict.. once I got a good look at it.. it's not. It's a baby JD and a male I think. I wish I had of kept my 75g. DOH! So it looks like I'll be buying and setting up yet another tank since I kind of like the little guy.
I'm used to keeping large messy cichlids so overfiltering and frequent water changes were a good thing. I guess I carried that habit over to the frog tank too.
As for the 10g.. I had a sudden change of plans. A friend of mine brought me a fish lastnight. I guess she tried to introduce it to her 75g with a baby Oscar and Firemouth. Well my 40g is fishless cycling. :shakehead: I can't put him in there... the nitrite in that tank is 5ppm. So he's in the 10g for now since it's the only cycled tank I have. I'm hoping there is nothing nasty going on in there. Luckily it's a tiny half inch fish.
I was suppose to be a Convict.. once I got a good look at it.. it's not. It's a baby JD and a male I think. I wish I had of kept my 75g. DOH! So it looks like I'll be buying and setting up yet another tank since I kind of like the little guy.
I just made an account so I could give my two cents. About a year ago I got my current albino acf's. They were juveniles and in good active health. Randomly, overnight, I saw my female spasm, and seizure, and double over and struggle to get to the surface. I was shocked. I panicked and scooped her into my shallow container I use during cleanings. I have had acf's multiple times in the past and am well knowledgeable on common problems like bloat and red leg and all sorts of other things. Nothing made sense. My water temps, and parameters are spot on. Etc. I scoured and scoured and asked people online. Only she was struggling! For the most part, no one had an answer. Eventually I figured my frog may have hurt herself? Because her back legs just didnt seem to want to move at all. I thought perhaps a spinal injury? Or something. However, I learned a couple things... I think perhaps one factor may have been that at the time, i didnt realize that freeze DRIED food is BAD for them because it causes gas, etc. And many other issues. It can give them the spins where they have trouble swimming straight. So I figured maybe this could be a version of that? Etc. So maybe it has something to do with the diet? And maybe also that played into higher risk for an injury? In the end I was so stressed about trying to find an answer that I managed to keep her alive! I kept her in shallow water for 4-5 weeks. I changed the water daily. Switched to a different water conditioner (prime) vs the Zilla brand i used before. And switched to omega one cichlid pellets and never used freeze dried food again. And people also swear by cutting up earthworms, beef heart, frozen shrimpies, and live guppies. I havent tried anything besides the pellets because I'm only trying one new thing at a time, but I hope to work new variety in eventually because I'm sure that can only help. Anyway. I stuck with the shallow water and new food for about 5 weeks and when I stopped seeing seizures and she had been good for like a week. I introduced her back to the tank. Her legs were sooooo weak, but I observed her, to see if she could make it. I figured give her a little time to acclimate, let her give it a shot. And lo and behold. She managed! It took a bit for her strength to come back, but now she is swimming fine. All be it a bit differently because now on her left foot her first 3 dark clawed toes don't fan out as much. This is constant and she kind of... 'flicks' her left leg to swim instead of using a full range of motion. However her hips seem fine on both sides and she can easily turn and swim backwards and shimmy. It just seems to be the long kicking motion that is difficult for her left leg. Anyway, this is why in my case I feel it was an injury. And I think even if my feeding wasnt a factor, that initially if she had hurt herself badly. Perhaps it was the intense pain that was causing the seizures or a knock on the head. Especially if she did hit the tank lid or something to that effect. It's likely something like that happened and was not observed. Anyway, I know I'm going on a long time, but so few people have ever typed something so similar to my struggle and I couldn't find an answer in the community online and so I wanted to see if this helps anyone. At least for my girl... Snowflake.... she is doing much better now, and just needed some time to heal, patience, shallow water, better suited food, and a lot of love... I know how hard it is to see them suffer and wonder if it's best to euthanize, especially when we don't know what's wrong. But it always stuns me when someone jumps to euthanization so quickly? At least, online, reading, it seems quick? Anyway, healing in some cases like mine, just took some time and a lot of research to find an answer. Hopefully this helps someone. Even if it's to rule out something else on the list of "maybe's" that pet owners face when they have something new ailing their pets. Good luck everyone. And lots of love to you and yours!
