How often to feed African Dwarf Frogs?

dani_starr

dani_starr

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Aug 6, 2011
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Dani :)
I apologize if this should be in the freshwater invert category, I just figured it would get more action here. Mods, feel free to move this post if needed :)

Fairly easy question, how often should I be feeding my african dwarf frogs? I usually feed them every other day, and share ~1.5 frozen blood worm cubes between the six of them and my 4 kuhli loaches, fed with long plant tweezers. I feed them til they are quite plump/not interested in food. Well, for the males. A couple of the females would eat and eat and eat and are bottomless pits. They won't touch the pellets, and miss 99% of brine/mysis shrimp. I really have no idea how these guys survive in the wild.. :p

(Yes, I am aware that the kuhli's would be better in a 20+ gallon tank and that the tank is overstocked atm, they came with one of the frogs from a fish bowl rescue on CL and I planned to rehome them originally, but they are quite tiny still and do a GREAT job eating the worms the frogs miss, plus they seem quite happy with all the live plants, sand, and driftwood, so for now, they stay).

Just want to make sure that I shouldn't be feeding them more often. I've read everything from twice a day to once a week.

(In case anyone is curious, tank stats. Ammonia-0ppm, Nitrite-0ppm, Nitrate-10ppm)

Thanks :)
 
dani_starr said:
I apologize if this should be in the freshwater invert category, I just figured it would get more action here. Mods, feel free to move this post if needed :)

Fairly easy question, how often should I be feeding my african dwarf frogs? I usually feed them every other day, and share ~1.5 frozen blood worm cubes between the six of them and my 4 kuhli loaches, fed with long plant tweezers. I feed them til they are quite plump/not interested in food. Well, for the males. A couple of the females would eat and eat and eat and are bottomless pits. They won't touch the pellets, and miss 99% of brine/mysis shrimp. I really have no idea how these guys survive in the wild.. :p

(Yes, I am aware that the kuhli's would be better in a 20+ gallon tank and that the tank is overstocked atm, they came with one of the frogs from a fish bowl rescue on CL and I planned to rehome them originally, but they are quite tiny still and do a GREAT job eating the worms the frogs miss, plus they seem quite happy with all the live plants, sand, and driftwood, so for now, they stay).

Just want to make sure that I shouldn't be feeding them more often. I've read everything from twice a day to once a week.

(In case anyone is curious, tank stats. Ammonia-0ppm, Nitrite-0ppm, Nitrate-10ppm)

Thanks :)
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I housed my ADF's with Guppies so they got fed 1-2 a day. Mine would eat pellets but for the most part I hand fed them bloodworms like you do. You say they would do better in a 20 but what is the tank size now? For 6 ADF's and 4 Kuhlis, a 10 gallon would be alright as long as you maintain their water, just like any other tank.


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It's a 10 gallon, the max size my apartment complex allows. :( >:[ It's pretty densely planted too :) Should I feed them every day then you think? By the way, you had no problem keeping them with guppies?? My male betta would literally snatch food out of their mouths or block them from the tweezers. He got so bloated one time he couldn't even swim, but was still trying to snatch the worms. That's when the frogs got moved to their own tank. He is a pig though.
 
Here are some pics if anyone's interested :)

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dani_starr said:
It's a 10 gallon, the max size my apartment complex allows. :( >:[ It's pretty densely planted too :) Should I feed them every day then you think? By the way, you had no problem keeping them with guppies?? My male betta would literally snatch food out of their mouths or block them from the tweezers. He got so bloated one time he couldn't even swim, but was still trying to snatch the worms. That's when the frogs got moved to their own tank. He is a pig though.
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Dang that sucks and I know how that is. In the last 2 places I lived before this one I couldn't have anything more then a 20g, but had a 30g anyway.. lol I would feed them everyday but only a few worms a piece, not much. I had no issues keeping Guppies with them but the ADF'S would eat the fry if they could catch them. Bettas are gluttons and in my experience with eat themselves to death if you let them.


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I get the feeling I *may* be overfeeding them... I think I'm gonna cut it down to 1 cube a day and feed them once a day and see how that goes.

A 20g and 30gal look pretty darn similar to anyone who doesn't know tanks, I would probably do the same too. My last apartment allowed ANY size aquarium. I called and asked the lady if there was a limit for aquarium size, her answer "no, large tanks are fine." Me: "So there's no maximum limit?" Her- "No." I don't think she realized that there are people who have 300 gallon+ aquariums.. I had a beautiful lightly planted 75 gallon, it was gonna be goldfish/dojo loach tank, but I went with "mini monsters" instead and had two senegal bichirs, two blood parrots, one african grey knife, and a peacock eel. To go from that, to a teeny tiny 10 gallon was awful.

I definitely agree that bettas are gluttons, it seems more so males than females. People online said to feed my betta first, and then the frogs, and he wouldn't go after their food. Ummm ya right...sure.. I did it anyways though, to try. Nope, that was an epic fail, as you would imagine. It was so pathetic watching him too, he was like a balloon and couldn't even swim, yet was still trying to get the worms. :headshake2: Every time I go near his tank (also a 10 gal, denselyish planted), he races to the corner where I feed him, and swims up and down frantically to get my attention it seems.

Everyone in there loves how densely planted it is too. I originally had it aquascaped all fancy like with the sand sloped and very precise planted. That didn't last very long as you can see. It's just too much work to keep it looking a certain way, plus the inhabitants prefer all the cover too compared to having wide open areas with no plants.

By the way, I love the goldy in your avatar! What type of goldfish is that, and how old? I love the look of the bronze/green goldfish, and black and orange, but have been reading a lot that black is unstable and they change from black to bright orange normally.
 
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dani_starr said:
I get the feeling I *may* be overfeeding them... I think I'm gonna cut it down to 1 cube a day and feed them once a day and see how that goes.

A 20g and 30gal look pretty darn similar to anyone who doesn't know tanks, I would probably do the same too. My last apartment allowed ANY size aquarium. I called and asked the lady if there was a limit for aquarium size, her answer "no, large tanks are fine." Me: "So there's no maximum limit?" Her- "No." I don't think she realized that there are people who have 300 gallon+ aquariums.. I had a beautiful lightly planted 75 gallon, it was gonna be goldfish/dojo loach tank, but I went with "mini monsters" instead and had two senegal bichirs, two blood parrots, one african grey knife, and a peacock eel. To go from that, to a teeny tiny 10 gallon was awful.

I definitely agree that bettas are gluttons, it seems more so males than females. People online said to feed my betta first, and then the frogs, and he wouldn't go after their food. Ummm ya right...sure.. I did it anyways though, to try. Nope, that was an epic fail, as you would imagine. It was so pathetic watching him too, he was like a balloon and couldn't even swim, yet was still trying to get the worms. :headshake2: Every time I go near his tank (also a 10 gal, denselyish planted), he races to the corner where I feed him, and swims up and down frantically to get my attention it seems.

Everyone in there loves how densely planted it is too. I originally had it aquascaped all fancy like with the sand sloped and very precise planted. That didn't last very long as you can see. It's just too much work to keep it looking a certain way, plus the inhabitants prefer all the cover too compared to having wide open areas with no plants.

By the way, I love the goldy in your avatar! What type of goldfish is that, and how old? I love the look of the bronze/green goldfish, and black and orange, but have been reading a lot that black is unstable and they change from black to bright orange normally.
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Honestly it's okay to skip a day of feeding every now and then or feed every other day. Just feed what you think they need and go from there. It's better that their a little hungry then overweight.

That sucks. I would have hated to rehome all those fish and downsize to a way smaller tank. Luckily for me it was the opposite. I don't think most people understand what a fish keepers term of "big" is either. In their mind they're probably thinking a 20-30, when our mind is set on 100+ gallons.

Aquascaped tanks look amazingly but sometimes they are a hassle to maintain, esp when fish like to redecorate the tank. I learned that the hard way with Dojos and moss. I would love it too if I was a fish, it's like a jungle.

He's a Butterfly tail Black Moor and 3-4 years old now. Last time I measured him he was almost 9 inches, from nose to tail. He stayed a deep velvety black until last year then started to turn orange. I had hoped he wouldn't but he's still a gorgeous Goldie. He's also only got one eye.


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