Injured African Dwarf Frog

N

nlmadison

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Sep 16, 2005
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Yesterday, about 1 hour after I had fed my ADF's I noticed that one was now missing her front foot. She's now hanging at the top of the tank behind the filter intake. She's going to be very difficult to feed up there. I don't know what, if anything, I can do for her. Any suggestions?

N.
 
First thing you have to do is find out what caused it. It seems there are two possibilities:

1) She's in with very aggressive tankmates
2) She got her foot sucked in by the filter/intake.

You may want to cover the intake with a filter sponge to rule that out, or move her from aggressive tankmates.

Keep your water extremely clean, watch out for infection. If things don't start healing up immediately, remove her to a hospital tank if possible, and treat with appropriate antibiotics.
 
Thanks for the quick response, Leopardess.

Looks like the foot may have been crushed. She can use the leg but the foot is mangled. She's the smallest of 3 ADFs in the tank. 1 large female (I think she may be the larger ADF species cuz she 2x bigger than the others) and 1 male just slight larger. She and the male were purchased together and the larger female came from another LFS. I didn't notice the injury when I fed. I'm feeding live black worms with a turkey baster. I did notice that she wasn't very interested in the food so I dropped a few right onto her head to be sure she got some. The other frogs have become more adept at hunting the loose worms. I think that one of the others may have accidentally gotten her foot while going after the worms I dropped on her head. She may have gotten her foot caught under a rock cuz she came out from under a "large-ish" rock when I was feeding. Other tank mates are 2 danios, 1 dwarf flame gourami and 1 small golden mystery snail. I don't think the filter is a problem, its a small tank - Marineland Hex 5 w/bio wheel hood unit. She did fiinally come down to the bottom of the tank for a few minutes so I may be able to hand feed directly from the turkey baster. Thanks for the advice!

N.
 
Little froggie is looking better today. I was able to get a close look at her leg and I can see now that her foot is there. I think she broke her leg. She's swimming around OK and has stopped hiding behind the filter intake. I think she's going to make it :o Sure wish I knew what happened to her tho.
 
Nlmadison, I think you have a situation on your hands. There is no larger species/variety of ADF. There is only the African Clawed Frog, which is very different than ADFs. They are voracious eaters and get much larger than ADFs. When adult, they will eat ADFs and attack/eat even large fish. They also need a much larger tank. Perhaps this is your answer.

As for the rock, if you think it somehow may be the culprit, you need to work on securing it somehow.

Please look into this matter. The quickest way is to look at the front feet of the larger "ADF". Are the toes webbed???

If it is an ACF, not an ADF, you will need to find it another tank ASAP.
 
I did do some research and yes, the larger frog has 4 toes on her front feet and they are webbed. Here's a site with info/pics of the different species. The last pic on the site is accurate example of my frogs. I do have a 29 gal I can put the larger frog into but I've angels and elec. yellow cichlids in that tank. Would they be compatible?

http://aquaticfrogs.tripod.com/id19.html

N.
 
Interesting. Where did you get your frogs? The vast majority of them are some sort of hybrid breed, with them all being pretty much the same size (with perhaps only minor differences in skin texture/color). That, and there is confusion as to whether or not the "four" species are or ever were distinct (regardless of that one site's conviction that they did all exist separately)...interesting.

If you've got a pure strain of something that'd be something indeed.

Can you get a picture of your frogs?

If what you have is indeed only some other hybrid/pure strain of ADF, then it's fine in the tank you've got it in. As long as the front feet are webbed, then it isn't an ACF and will be fine right where it is.
 
I got my larger frog at Petsmart ($6.99). They did have smaller ones for $2.99 and they were in a different tank. I thought at the time that the smaller ones were the same species, just younger. The two smaller ones came from Petco (mislabeled as Clawed Frogs and priced $1.99). Had to explain to the fish guy difference is between the two. He's strictly fish and didn't know anything about the frogs. I really couldn't tell you if my frog is hybred or not. I'm not that well informed ... I just really like the little guys, they're just too cute! I'm not sure if I can get a pic, I've never tried. I do have a digital camera but to tell the truth, my kids (twin boys) prom & graduation pics are still in there on the memory card and I'm not sure how to get them onto the computer (LOL). But I'll give it a try.

N.
 
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