Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK so...

I am a university student and recently acquired a very young AFC (so young I cannot yet determine the gender).

I thought I was feeding it just fine (the bottle says 4-6 pellets, but I normally give a little more because the frog eats it all quickly) with some aquatic Frog pellets from the petstore and the frog had never acted "awkward" before this afternoon.

All of a sudden, I hear splashes and the little frog is jetting from the bottom of its "aquarium" (more like plastic tub) to the top and then back down again. S/he has done this multiple times within a short time range. I am worried that something is wrong.

I have tried looking for answers on the Internet, but I am so new at being a frog owner that I just feel (hopefully) that this is a normal stage, somehow.

Any help would REALLY be appreciated. Please and thank you so much.

Worried frog owner,
Jammy

Your frog might be behaving skittishly because it has no place to retreat to that's dark and in which it feels secure. Do you have any places in its tank/tub where it can hide? If not, try providing some.

Thanks for the quick response!

I talked with the resident assistant (RA) of my dormitory (because she is the one that gave me the frog), and she said that her frogs do that, as well... so it is normal, possibly?

On a good note, the frog is certainly not dead at all - and now that I have a bigger tub, it is swimming quite fast.

I will try giving it some shade (it definitely does not have any hiding places or anything in a tub with only water), thank you for the suggestion.

One other thing I was wondering about... I know that my frog is small... and this might sound weird... but for some reason, it does not seem to eat its little frog pellets unless they direct land on/in front of him/her after they sink from floating on the top. I know that might sound weird, but I am just wondering why s/he does not search around for food or bother scooping up food unless it hits him/her from floating down.

Also, do you have any general comments for the upkeep of an ACF? Especially of a small one (I believe it is just 1-2 months old). I am about to acquire an older (by "older," I mean a couple more months old) albino ACF, and I just want to make sure I am taking the best care of them that I possibly can.

Thanks again for the quick response! I was really worried.

Jammy

The skittish behaviour might be "normal" but it's not desirable. Your description suggests it's essentially panicking, for whatever reason, which means it's being subjected to stress. Stress can lead to the animal's immune system being compromised making it more vulnerable to disease. Having said all that though, Xenopus are very resilient frogs.

It's manner of feeding can be explained by noting that the eyes are positioned on the top of the head; it therefore can only see what's above. Some field studies have suggested that their natural diet consists of insects and other invertebrates on the water's surface. Other studies have revealed stomach contents consisting of aquatic invertebrates, some of which live in mud at the bottom of pools. The frog can detect movement in the water by it's lateral line system, which help it to locate moving prey so that it's not dependent on vision alone. The frogs eventually get conditioned to accept inanimate food like pellets, which they seem to locate by smell.

There are thousands of websites devoted to these frogs and I suggest you enter "xenopus care" in Google to find all the information that you need.

Platanna,

Thank you so much for both your responses. I feel so vulnerable being naive about ACFs. I will try and locate some type of xenopus care groups on Google.

I am sad that s/he is stressed, but I still wonder what might have happened because the frog had not exhibited that behavior for the entire first week I had it (and one day, it start jetting around all of a sudden).

Anyway, the behavior has extremely declined, and there is a temporary frog companion there (which has seemed to (in)directly help in decreasing the frequency of the jetting around).

My Resident Assistant said also what you said (the eyes are on the top), and I noticed this, too. I just wanted to make sure it was absolutely normal since I was already worrying about the jetting to and from the surface.

Anyway, thank you again for your responses.

I will hopefully not have to use this forum again because I will be able to buy him a real tank and little objects where he can hide or have darkness in case he is stressed. (Although I will use this forum if I feel something is going horribly wrong - though I doubt anything will.)

Thanks again,
Jammy

you should also consider a filter. amonia from the frogs waste will build up and kill him if its not changed.they should be set up like tropical fish.dechlorinated water etc. etc.they love ghost shrimp to .very fun to watc them chase them around good luck