Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i received a tadpole in a shipment of feeder fish, its illegal to sell them here, and so, not wanting him to die, i took him in. he got his arms this morning!! so now he has both legs and arms, he still is breathing under the water though i lowered it a bit. I dont have rocks in there because i didnt want him to suck one up and choke by mistake. but tomorrow i think i'm going to put some in now that he has arms (his lungs are probably developed by now) and build a hill so that he can get out of the water for air. what do they eat? crickets? small ones? how should i set a tank up for him? tell me know everything i need to know to keep him happy. thanks!
K

So glad that he's hanging in there!

He will be VERY tiny when he turns into a frog. You're going to need to feed him pinhead crickets a fruit flies. An exotics store may have them, but your best bet for the fruit flies is to order them online. Worm man is a really good provider of them. One vial will produce thousands of little, flightless fruit flies!

My leopard frog is set up in a ten gallon tank. His substrate is large rocks, NATURAL, not painted- they're less dusty and less toxic. They slope uphill, out of the water. His water is about 4-5 inches deep. I currently don't have a filter, but I'm going to get one. The gravel probably isn't the best substrate, either, but it seems to be working fine.

He is always wanting to bury himself, so I provided him with a bunch of low fkae plants to hide in- they seem to be working fine. Make sure your guy has a way to hide himself... you don't want him to stress out.

You're going to want to dechlorinate his water, too. Whether you use a conditioner or let tap water sit out in the sun for 24 hours is your choice- I use water conditioner.

UV light is a debated topic with these guys- personally, I use one. I don't use a heater although I probably should. But this is what I've done and Comet seems farely happy.

Here are some pretty good care sheets. Take care, good luck.

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/leopard.html
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/frogsandtoads/a/leopardfrogs.htm
http://www.anapsid.org/leopardfrog.html

i sell fruit flys and pinheads at the store i work at i specialize, though mainly in fish so unfortunately i dont know much about leopard frogs. Also, i might recommend putting some moss in there for him to bury himself in. frogs really like it. are rocks more suitable than dirt or forest bedding? since he likes to swim, should i provide him with one of my larger tanks rather than the small one hes in? like a 20-30 gal? well, i know for sure the 30 is free. lol. hes doing well and developing WAY faster than i expected. i just want to make his home as natural as possible. well, thanks for the input.

K