Feeding frog & fish... How?!

Rava

Rava

Betta Babe
Dec 26, 2002
223
0
16
CA
Alrighty, so adding my ADF to my tank with my female betta went great, but now froggie isn't getting anything to eat... And he hasn't eaten since I brought him home Sunday! I've distracted Vitara by feeding her in one corner, then I plopped the frog pellets in, so they floated to the bottom, as close to froggie as possible. But he never sees/smells them, much less EATS them, and then Vitara finds and eats them before he does... And, froggie *never* comes to the surface, except for a split second to breathe or whatever, and then darts back to the bottom. So what am I cupposed to do? I considered taking the net and bringing him up to jsut below the surface, then plopping the pellets in so I KNOW he eats them, but I'm afraid to do anything too complicated, 'cause other people sometimes have to feed him too! Ideas please? I'm desperate here...

Also, froggie has five legs. Three in front, and normal two in back. At first I thought it might just be him shedding skin, but when I looked closer, it's literally another arm. It looks like he broke one arm, and grew another in. Is this possible? I tried to take a picture so y'all could see, but he's soooo tiny, the pictures all come out very blurry if I'm close enough to show the extra arm. :P Any ideas what could cause this though? Thanks for any and all help, I really appreciate it!
 
Well...frogs don't normally have five legs...thats so wierd lol. He's probably mutated, but it shouldn't be anything to be too worried about - he's made it this far in tanks with a lot more competition that yours has.


As for feeding, I didn't see mine eat for weeks after I got him...but he was still alive so he must have been. Try feeding sinking shrimp pellets. They won't go after them while you are watching (at least mine never have) but will eat them in the middle of the night while the lights are off. The betta shouldn't touch the shrimp pellets, but the frog should love them:)

Don't try scooping him to the surface. He won't eat at the surface and will not eat flake food unless it has settled on the bottom of the tank for a while. Just put shrimp pellets/bloodworms in (maybe some algae wafers) and let them sit in there over night.:)
 
Also, frogs aren't like fish where they will just eat whenever food is plopped in. Also, the pellets need to soften a while before they will touch them:)
 
when i had adfs it took me a while to get down the whole process of feeding them without my fish getting all the food. its easier if you start out with live or at the very least frozen foods (which i have found they greatly prefer over pellets).

the way i did it was to use a cut-off piece of airline tubing to suck up a tiny bit of food, which i then transferred straight to the frogs. as long as your airline doesn't float it should work out fine and in time they learn to come to it to eat... it's like door to door service- hopefully they'll react fast enough to keep the fish from intercepting.

if you keep on feeding the way that you are now just keep an eye on his stomach... you should be able to tell when he has eaten and if he starts losing weight you should catch on quickly enough to change tactics
 
Turkey basters also work well for that method.
 
I've had two African Clawed frogs in my tank for about a year now, but from what I've heard from you and learned while working at a Pet Store, I think they are much the same.

I just fed my tank Sinking Shrimp Pellets, (Wardley,) yet never saw the frogs eat any. But eventually they grew large enough, (from the shrimp pellets, I presume...because they only eat at night.) Now they eat Hikari Cichlid Pellets and Rosy Red feeders mostly, although they will eat anything but flakes that I put in the tank.
 
You were warned

I have repeatedly attempted to warn people about this very problem.

Do the right thing: give your frog his own home. Feed him properly. Don't put him with fish.
 
BettaFish, I find that rather rude... some people do it, even if it does take more work feeding than usual, and it works fine. Fish nor frog is getting hurt, so long as the froggie gets to eat.

Because I didn't want to make too much work feeding the frog (I don't want my pet sitter to have to mess with it, or my family when I'm gone), I moved Frodo to his own little home, with some plants floating on top, and a regular feeding where he actually gets to eat. :) So Frodo is very happy! Vitara seems to miss him though... Er, probably his food really. Hehe. :)

So thanks everyone so much for your help! I really appreciate it!!
Frog hugs from Frodo (hey, he's got an extra arm to go around:D )
He appreciates it too. :)
 
I don't think it was rude, Bettafish is probably just speaking from an experience he/she had. I have my own soapbox I preach from about insisting that epoxies used in the fishtank cure for at least 7 days at room tempurature.

Back to the frog at hand. I dip a length of airline tube into the water, then dip it into the frog pellet jar while wet. A few pellets will stick. Then just dip the tube into your tank and place the pellets exactly where you want them.

Frogs are pretty dumb IMO. They seem to miss the obvious and it seems to them take forever to find what is under their nose. But they survive just the same. My frog never seems to get food, but he is healthy and I have had him for about four months now.
 
imho as long as you are careful about what kind of fish you house your frogs with and always ensure that the frogs and fish are well-fed, you most likely will not have any trouble between the two. i'm sure there have been exceptions but in ime it is a pretty safe situation.
 
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