Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had this one Pacman for a few days now (since monday) And he's been behaving very weird. He's about 2" wide and he just buries himself in the moss and chills there. He doesn't come out to eat or anything, and he doesn't eat when I offer him food. I've tried waiting him out, but he is just that lazy. So I actually have to take him out with my hands, put him in the water dish, wait till he calms down and THEN feed him just to keep him alive. Even then he'll only take one or two TINY rosy reds. My small pacman (about the size of a half dollar) will take 3 or 4 of these fish daily! Is there something wrong with the bigger one?

I thought maybe it was too cold (definate possibility) but the bottom of the tank is very warm. Do you think I can use a table lamp to heat him up, if I constantly mist the cage? Also what's a better substrate that he won't hide in as well (he won't eat when he's hiding)

If you've only had him a few days you have to give him time to adjust to a new environment. As Pac Mans grow they don't need to eat every day to stay alive. Also, I hear it isn't very good to feed fish as the staple diet. Crickets and eathrworms dusted seem to work best. Pac Mans love to hide and it is good that he is able to bury himself. Mine just showed himself today for about 10 minutes after about a month and now he's gone again, probably hibernating. I wouldn't worry about eating problems until he's had over a week to adjust to a new environment. Mine ate today, but hasn't eaten in about a month before that and hasn't lost any weight.

Well every other day I lift him out of his hiding place with latex gloves and put him in his water dish, then I feed him the fish and he eats them fine. I know fish isn't supposed to be the staple diet but he REFUSES to eat anything else! I even scented the gutloaded crickets by rubbing them on fish, and a wax worm. He ate them thinking they were fish, but today i found them spat up in the water dish disolving. Very unpleasant. I dont know how to force him to eat other things, he either eats fish or not at all.

im haven the same problem.. i think hes getting to cold under the substrate.. causei cna pick him up and he will sit in my hand for a few minutes then start getting active again.. then i will feed him and he will burry again IF he eats..

What is the temperature?
In captivity these frogs often have enormous fat pads in the abdomen and can go without food for significant periods of time. As the metabolism is based on the temperature, the cooler the frog the less often it needs to eat as all of its energy reserves can probably be met through its stored reserves and infrequennt meals.
Additionally, remember digestion is temperature dependent, digging up a cool frog and feeding it may not be in the animal's best interest as the food could potentially putrify in the animal's stomach leading to infections and/or death.

Ed

Thanks Ed. The thermostat claims that the temperature is always between 70-80 but when I felt the moss and the water, it felt much much colder. I put the aquarium near my heat vent to warm it up a little, but do you have a better solution? Currently the aquarium is so small that there are no light fixtures I could put on it, and the heat pad seems to do nothing. I was planning to get a reptile carpet under the moss as well, but it seems like this would just make it even colder. As to not digging him up, I had thought of that but was concerned that he may be so lazy that he wouldnt' get out himself. If I tried to feed him in his hiding place, he just wasn't interested. How long should I wait before I'm concerened?

Never trust what you personally feel as it has to be close to your body temperature to not feel cold.
If you are unsure get a second thermometer, one that sit right where the frog is to get you the exact temperature (as an alternative, temp guns are down to about $30-40 and usually are accurate to within a degree).
I hate putting animals close to vents as they can overheat before the thermostat turns off and they increase evaporation increasing the risk of a potato chip frog.
If you have a larger aquarium, you can place the smaller cage in the bigger one, heat the bigger one and adjust the temperature in that manner.

Ed

Why don't you just use a heat lamp?A 40-60 watt bulb will get the temperature just right.