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Last Updated: 12/15/08
African Clawed Frogs (ACF's)
African Dwarf Frogs (ADF's)
Salt and Frogs
Aquarium Frog Commercial Pelletized Foods
Aquarium Frog Health
My African Dwarf Frogs
Aquarium Frog Links
These are the most commonly sold species of frogs that can live their entire lives submerged in an aquarium. While they do come to the surface to gulp air quite often, they do not leave the water. Most frogs need to be able to get out of the water (to hunt, to breathe, to find mates) but these frogs do not. For information on common frogs found in the Eastern USA, see this frog page. I do not cover frogs or toads commonly kept in terrariums like White's tree frogs, Pac Man frogs, African horned frogs, fire toads, etc. See the links section of the main frog page for lots of links to sites that do cover these frogs extensively.
There is an excellent article entitled "Underwater Frogs: An Overview" in the March 2002 issue of Aquarium Fish Magazine on Pages 46-53. It has a lot of good information including breeding information. Due to lack of time and not wanting to be guilty of plagiarism, I have not copied any of the information to this page. You can visit Aquarium Fish Magazine to see about getting a copy of this back issue.
NOTE: If you own or have owned an African clawed frog (ACF's not ADF's like I have), please go to fill out the clawed frog groups survey on these guys so that more can be learned about their live expectancy, behavior, etc. The survey is at http://clawedfrogs.tripod.com/acf/id35.html .
African clawed frogs (Xenopus species) are suited for life indoors in aquariums. They are not a pond frog (except in Africa) but I am mentioning them here for those who keep them in aquariums. They have interesting behavioral and reproductive characteristics. African clawed frogs, such as Xenopus laevis, commonly sold as a "Grow-A-Frog," grow to about 5 inches. They eat things live black worms, small live fish, and really whatever they can fit in their mouths! African clawed frogs prefer a temperature around 75 degrees F. Being fully aquatic, they do not require a haul out site. They are pudgy with sharp rear claws. There is an albino form commonly sold. Because I do not know much about them and have never kept them, I refer you to the aquarium frog links below with more information as well as lots of additional links.
Dwarf African frogs (ADF's for short), or Hymenochirus boettgeri, are often confused with African clawed frogs. Unlike the above, they only grow to up to 1.5 inches or so. Due to their small size, they have a lower propensity to eat small fish in their tank. Like the Xenopus species, they are fully aquatic. Unlike the African clawed frogs, they have obvious webbing between their front toes and small eyes. They prefer to eat small live foods by scent. African dwarf frogs will also eat frozen (or live) bloodworms, brine shrimp, and daphnia. While some people report them eating fish food flakes, others say that happens rarely. In tanks with fish, the frogs can be given sinking fish foods to eat. Some may nibble algae- and plant-based foods, more luck might be had with meat-based sinking foods like shrimp pellets. Their preferred temperature is about 77 degrees F with a pH of 7.2 to 7.6. For more information on these neat frogs, visit the web sites under the links section.
ADF's do best with heaters keeping their water above 70 degrees F as they like it somewhat warm. Even though they can gulp air at the surface, they do need to get oxygen through their skin so mild aeration and filtration is a good idea.
Gail informed me that she put a ghost shrimp in her tank with two ADF's, and the shrimp caught one and bit off his leg! So, it would be wise to avoid adding large crustaceans to tanks with small frogs. I do have five shrimp with my ADF's but they are small shrimp and not as "grabby" as ghost shrimp.
Feeding:
Most amphibians only eat live foods. Aquarium frogs also prefer live foods but will eat some non-living foods. If there is a choice, they will go for live foods first. African dwarf frogs (ADF's) love small worms and insects such as blackworms, bloodworms (insect larvae of a species of midge), mosquito larvae, brine shrimp (not so much a favorite), daphnia, and so on. If the frogs find something they want to eat, the ADF's will do their bounce and suck move. When I put in live blackworms daily, the frogs amble over in their stealth mode. Then, they do a little hop while opening their mouths. The suction that's created sucks up the worms, and the frogs chomp away, very satisfied. ADF's are attracted by smell and movement. They look for movement first but if they're hungry enough, they may suck up something that smells good but isn't alive. As a side note, my ADF's live with small fish and shrimp and have never tried to eat them. But, they have bounce/sucked on a large false Siamese algae eater who probably wondered what in the world was going on! One person told me a large ghost shrimp ate their ADF's leg off. If live foods cannot be obtained, then frozen ones are the next best choice. Mine have eaten frozen bloodworms with relish, and many frog lovers report these are favorites.
Many keepers of ADF's feed manufactured foods, sometimes exclusively. I too offer two brands of frog pellets but have never actually seen my frogs eat them. Others say they do since that's all that they offer. The two foods I have are "HBH Frog & Tadpole Bites" and "Jurassi Diet Newt & Aquatic Frog Food." Both contain mostly krill and fish. The softer HBH food, which I've only found at my local aquarium store, is much smaller and may work for smaller tadpoles as well (probably too big for dinky ADF tadpoles though). The Jurassi Diet is a bit larger but may be easier to "catch" for larger aquarium frogs. Some people say their frogs eat fish flakes or sinking fish foods. I have not seen my frogs eat anything but live or frozen animals.
On 7/29/06, Paula told me that when her frog starts to look thin, she places him in a small plastic container floating in the main tank and fills that up with live worms until he gets his fill. They can also be put in a net breeder for a few days with foods. African clawed frogs are prone to both anorexia and dropsy (super fat from fluids).
Kate sent the following message and link on 3/25/07.
"I was browsing through your site and found many interesting links and bits of information
regarding frogs in general and ADF's in particular that I thought perhaps I would share a glimpse
of my own ADF. I recently took a short video of my frog at "feeding time" (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4aHreWP9N0). There is a bit of an odd story that goes
with this frog. She does not like frozen food at all! Two years ago she was in serious danger of
starving. She would eat nothing I fed her, not live, not frozen, not even the commercial 'frog
bites.' The food just sat there untouched, and she kept getting thinner. I finally decided that there
was no way to save her and moved her to a small tank with my betta where at least she wouldn't
get picked at by the more aggressive fish. (My betta is an odd one in that sense as well, an
extreme pacifist). That turned out to be a very fortunate move! I occasionally feed my betta dried
tubifex worms (normally reserved for the goldfish) as a treat. He loves them even if they have
minimal nutritional value. As it turns out, so does my frog. I put in a few extra, just in case. I
hadn't tried this particular food yet with the frog, and I really had nothing to lose at that point.
Two years later, they are still happily sharing the same small tank on the edge of my desk, and
the frog now eats freeze dried worms of all kinds and will often steal the betta pellets before the
betta has a chance to get to them. As you can see in the video she is far from in danger of starving
anymore either! My past experience has shown that these frogs are somewhat shy and, when
kept in larger environments, are rarely seen, so I thought I would share the video. This frog is
such an attention monger that I thought perhaps it would be interesting for others to see."
Breeding:
Mature male African dwarf frogs sing at the surface of the aquarium to attract the girls. You can read information on breeding and listen to some of the males' calling at All About Frogs African Dwarf Frogs Page. ADF's (like ACF's) are sexually mature at 10-14 months old. Mature males have a white lump behind the front arm on the side of the body. Based on that, it seems I have one male and two females but the male has never sung. I was told the males sing underwater by forcing air over their vocal chords and not via a neck pouch. The eggs are laid singly or in groups on the surface but I have only seen amplexus (where the male grabs onto her tightly as during mating) with my frogs before on the bottom of the tank once. He was riding her around the aquarium floor. If I ever find eggs, they will be moved to a separate tank or area to be raised because the frogs and fish will eat both eggs and tadpoles. ADF tadpoles can be raised on live baby brine shrimp. My male likes to sit on the surface and move his neck pouch (no sound) while one of the females is very fat. They may have already laid eggs that were simply eaten before I could notice. I hope to get to try to raise some someday!
One person asked about salt and ADF's. Some people say to avoid salt entirely but I use about a tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons, and my ADF's are fine. Frogs are more sensitive to salt than some fish, perhaps as sensitive as some of the scaleless fish. That means, you do not want a lot of salt but some is okay. I would not put in more than a tablespoon per 4 gallons or so. If you do not have fish with the ADF's, do not use any salt. It is not needed for the frogs. I use it to help the fish in with them as my water is super soft and low in anions, cations, and minerals. The salt helps with the osmotic regulation of cations for the fish (sorry, I am a chemist!) and reduces the stress on the fish. This information on salt probably holds true for all other amphibians as well! A little is fine; a lot is bad. Too much salt will make water try to leave the frog and can leave him without enough water inside the body despite being surrounded by water. I also use low levels of salt in my ponds which have green frogs, bullfrogs, and other frogs in them. No problems have arisen.
For more information on salt, go to the salt page.
I have found two commercial aquatic frog pellets. I do not know if my frogs even eat them as
they are so happy with the daily live blackworms and freeze-dried insect larvae and worms. One
brand is HBH Frog and Tadpole Bites. The first three ingredients are anchovy, krill, and squid.
My local store sells it. I do not know of mail order sources but check out HBH's web site for more information. The other food is
called Jurassi Diet Newt and Aquatic Frog Food. The first three ingredients are krill, fish, and
alfalfa. It contains larger balls, and I think they are less appealing to the frogs. More information
may be found at the Jurassi Pet web site. Two places
that sold these pellets are That Pet Place and Drs. Foster and Smith but they may no longer do
so. Drs. Foster and Smith also now has "Frog and Newt Medley" as shown below.
Aquarium frogs are generally pretty healthy. When they do die, there is often no sign of anything wrong.
Shedding:
Like all amphibians, ADF's and ACF's shed their skin as they grow, more often when young and
maybe once a month when grown. Like most amphibians and reptiles, this is normal, and they
often eat the skin although I have seen many empty "skins" in my tank. Presumably, eating the
skin returns some nutrients to the frog. Perhaps they also like to clean up and reduce signs of
their existence to avoid attracting predators. Prior to shedding, the frog may appear whitish. If
this passes after shedding, there is no problem. If the whitishness remains, the frog may be ill
from a bacterial or fungal infection.
Fungus:
Aquatic frogs often lose pieces of limbs here and there, perhaps from other frogs. Usually, they
recover but sometimes fungus sets in. It may also occur in really dirty tanks or with other
physical injuries. I am not sure if fish fungal medications would be prudent as the toxins may be
worse for the frogs than the fungus. Instead, try treating with aquarium salt at a tablespoon per
3-5 gallons. Frogs generally do not like a lot of salt but neither do funguses. At these levels, the
frogs will not be harmed but perhaps the fungus will be reduced.
Bloat:
Aquatic frogs may appear fat for a number of reasons including just eating too much or being a
female with eggs but sometimes they get bloat. Bloat is probably caused by an internal bacterial
infection which messes with frogs ability to drain excess fluids (mostly water) from its body. So,
it gets larger and larger, full of fluid. Treatment is to use aquarium salt at about a tablespoon per
5 gallons and to try aquarium fish antibiotics. I will add more on this topic later. A frog with
bloat will literally look like it is ready to explode. There are two photos below under my African
dwarf frogs of one that I have with bad bloat.
I finally got my first African dwarf frogs on 2/1/02. I put three of them in my 20 gallon tank which has a temperature of about 78 degrees F and only a few docile small fish. They were young frogs and pretty small. I have seen them eat sinking frog food (mini pellets), live adult brine shrimp, and frozen bloodworms. One that seemed particularly skinny died on 2/7/02. You can see a photo of my two ADF's at the top of this page. I finally got some live blackworms for the frogs (I was afraid of introducing other critters to the tank like detritis-eating leeches that usually come with the blackworms) in early March. They have really fattened up! They are more active. They try to pull the worms from the mouths of the glowlight tetras and lunge at their fins even. They stare at the ground and lunge at food. My ADF's are now doing great! So, buy them live worms! On 4/19/02, I bought another ADF to join the two now fat frogs. So, I had three ADF's in my 20 gallon tank that were fat and happy living on blackworms. Thanksgiving, 11/27/03, I looked in and saw my bristlenose plecostomus sucking on one of my froggies! I tapped the glass, and he swam off. My poor froggie was dead! So, there are two left. I have no idea why the one died. There was no apparent physical injury (from the sucking either which was most likely post mortem) aside from some red in the feet (septicemia, could be post mortem too). I am not sure yet if a male or female died. I hope I still have a pair. I may get a few more soon.
Ok, I did! I bought and added two young ADF's with my two older ones on 12/7/03. The new ones look so tiny in comparison to my big fat adults! Maybe one day they will lay eggs. They all seem to be doing ok, having fun hiding in the jungle that is my tank!
So, I currently (12/9/03) have four ADF's, two big and two small.
You can see the three photos I have of my ADF's at the top of this page and just above.
On 6/18/05, for the first time in perhaps a year, I saw all four frogs at the same time so I know they are still all alive! They are good at hiding.
On 10/14/05, I found one of my ADF's dead. He was somewhat anorexic. I was very sad. The other ADF's are showing signs of aging as well.
One of my ADF's has developed pretty bad bloat. Here is a photo taken on 9/2/06 that is not in focus (bad camera!). I got a better photo on 9/30/06.
On 3/3/07, I gathered up the java moss in the 20 gallon tank so I could stick it on some clips
instead of having it all over. I found the two African dwarf frogs. Unfortunately, the bloated one
was deceased. The other one is skinny but not really anorexic and seems fine. I took some
photos of the dead bloated ADF next to a ruler. It shows how bad it was. Please do not look at
the photos if you are bothered by dead animals (although you cannot tell he is dead).
Dead, bloated ADF - size view; note his
tiny little head on the right, up under the inflated body
Dead, bloated ADF - top view
So, as of 3/3/07, I had one ADF left. On 3/11/07, I bought two new little ADF's. So, now there are three. The first night, one of the new smaller ADF's grabbed onto (amplexed) with my original ADF who is bigger but I think male. The earnest little new male ADF was not going to have much success because he was on backwards! He was grabbed on with his head facing the rear of the other frog.
On 3/17/07, I redid the 50 gallon tank. The reason I mention it is because the next day, I was able to vacuum behind that tank for the first time in 11 years since we pulled it out more to put in a different filter. Something jammed in the crevice tool while vacuuming all the gunk. It was a well desiccated African dwarf frog! I guess that is where one of the missing ADF's went.
Here you can see a photo of two of the African dwarf frogs that I took on 10/4/07. The one on
the top left is nice and fat (not bloated though, just ate a lot I think). The one on the bottom right
is severely anorexic. I do not know why. They have plenty of food. Obviously something is
wrong with the frog as he/she is nothing but skin and bones.
Two African dwarf frogs
The little anorexic frog vanished by late 2007. I bought and added another African dwarf frog on 1/8/08 to join the other two frogs. Sometime in 2008, one of those frogs must have died (no body was ever found).
On 11/4/08, I found one of the ADF's deceased in the 20 gallon tank. There is only one left. Oops, surprise! On 11/23/08, I saw two ADF's in the tank at the same time! So, I had more than I thought!
I was trying to get photos of a baby panda cory on 11/29/08 when I also got photos of one of the
two remaining ADF's.
African dwarf frog at the bottom right.
African dwarf frog at the bottom right.
On 12/14/08, I found the older ADF had died. Now, only one for sure remains.
HerpIndex - links to three web pages on African clawed frogs and one on African dwarf frogs.
Frogland - includes an internal link to a FAQ on African Clawed Frogs and internal links to dwarf frog information and telling clawed frogs from dwarf frogs. If the previous link does not work, try this one.
Patrick Timlin's Aquaria Page - links to five or more African clawed frog web sites.
Mike Edwardes' Dwarf Frog Page - this page has general information and some good information on feeding and breeding African dwarf frogs. The site is gone so this is an archived version of the site.
The World of Webby the Frog - site on African dwarf frogs.
African Dwarf Frogs - a nice site on these guys.
African Clawed Frogs or African Clawed Frogs (updated site) - a lover of clawed frogs sharing information, includes free e-mail newsletter. They are also doing a survey of ACF owners.
Dwarf Clawed Frogs - a new ADF site
Yahoo African Dwarf Frog Group
Flippers and Fins - a site on fish and African dwarf frogs which includes care sheets and more
Flippers and Fins Forum - a forum on African dwarf frogs
Below is the banner for Fluffy's Frog Pond, a site on African clawed frogs.
Aquatic Foods - sell live blackworms, great to feed your frogs if you cannot find them locally.
Frog Video - it is supposed to show an African dwarf frog eating a minnow. I cannot get the video to work (do not have the software) but Paul let me know on 11/17/07 that it was in fact an African clawed frog as I suspected.
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