6 gallon ADF tank

I got curious with this thread, even though I have only babysat these creatures, and never had them here for long. When I look at their original habitats, I would expect a temperature range from around 20-22, up to 26 in some places. They seem to have similar habitats to many killies from equatorial Africa, although with water that's still. Those forest ponds under the canopy were usually between 22 and 24 when we measured them. Some of the killies from higher elevations in the region are good around 20.
In forested or degraded habitats, the water was around 24 in Gabon, right on the equator. But that destruction is recent.
The magic number for Cichlids from the region is often 26, but the wider streams they like are exposed to the sun all day. The little creeks around them are often dark, heavily shaded places where the water doesn't heat up. It's weird to be in mid-day darkness with only the narrow road lit by the sun. Some of the fish we brought back seem very unhappy above 22 degrees.
When I can't get accurate natural history info on a creature, I try checking the info on the creatures that live with them in nature. ADFs are surrounded in hobby lore, but I always start by ignoring hobby info and going to field data. Then I go to see what hobbyists have done with that.

GaryE said:

I got curious with this thread, even though I have only babysat these creatures, and never had them here for long. When I look at their original habitats, I would expect a temperature range from around 20-22, up to 26 in some places. They seem to have similar habitats to many killies from equatorial Africa, although with water that's still. Those forest ponds under the canopy were usually between 22 and 24 when we measured them. Some of the killies from higher elevations in the region are good around 20.
In forested or degraded habitats, the water was around 24 in Gabon, right on the equator. But that destruction is recent.
The magic number for Cichlids from the region is often 26, but the wider streams they like are exposed to the sun all day. The little creeks around them are often dark, heavily shaded places where the water doesn't heat up. It's weird to be in mid-day darkness with only the narrow road lit by the sun. Some of the fish we brought back seem very unhappy above 22 degrees.
When I can't get accurate natural history info on a creature, I try checking the info on the creatures that live with them in nature. ADFs are surrounded in hobby lore, but I always start by ignoring hobby info and going to field data. Then I go to see what hobbyists have done with that.

Click to expand...

This is something I had been thinking about too. I had been meaning to try to find information and environmental data on their natural habitats, but the chaos of life kept thwarting that. But I did know they were from equatorial Africa in forested streams and the like, so I had suspected they naturally live at cooler temperatures. It's lucky that we have someone on this forum who's actually been in those habitats and remembers specific things like temperature readings.

I had made a vague promise to get an adjustable heater for this tank to keep it at 75-76F and kept putting it off because the frogs always seemed fine and I wasn't particularly excited to spend another $20 on a heater. Well, seems my laziness ended up paying off because the tank in its unheated state ranges from 71-73F (21.5-23C), which fits perfectly with what you observed in situ.

If you read my initial posts about temperature requirements, you saw me run into the exact issue you mentioned regarding hobby lore. It's something I've been running into while researching the tree frogs I'm planning to get as well. Different lines of information get so twisted and discolored over time as people in the hobby try to assert inferences they've made based on their own care setups. I think that's the curse of hardy species. It can be hard to know what's ideal for them when they tolerate relatively wide ranges of conditions. And ADFs have been in the hobby long enough for their native habitat to be rather forgotten about.

I'll be honest I keep mine a bit higher than that, the tank is at 25°c/77°f. I've never noticed any issues with it at that temperature but then again, don't know exactly how such issues might manifest. I could probably do with turning the heater down a tad.

Lcc86 said:

I'll be honest I keep mine a bit higher than that, the tank is at 25°c/77°f. I've never noticed any issues with it at that temperature but then again, don't know exactly how such issues might manifest. I could probably do with turning the heater down a tad.

Click to expand...

Well, right, I think that's the root of the high variation in care advice for these critters. They seem to do well at higher temperatures too. At least well enough that any detrimental effects are minor and therefore aren't easily noticed. My tank was at 78-80F/25-26C when I was using the spare secondhand pre-set heater I had, and the frogs seemed perfectly fine. Really, my primary motivation for transitioning back to unheated was when I thought I might be getting some taiwan bee shrimp.

Seisage said:

Well, right, I think that's the root of the high variation in care advice for these critters. They seem to do well at higher temperatures too. At least well enough that any detrimental effects are minor and therefore aren't easily noticed. My tank was at 78-80F/25-26C when I was using the spare secondhand pre-set heater I had, and the frogs seemed perfectly fine. Really, my primary motivation for transitioning back to unheated was when I thought I might be getting some taiwan bee shrimp.

Click to expand...

Yeah see mine live with cories so it's trying to keep a balance where they're all happy, but I think now that its getting marginally warmer here the tank is getting a little hotter unintentionally.

Bit of an update on this tank. Nothing huge, just some cute pictures, really. Everyone's been doing great, although the shrimp have become rather bold. They like to crawl all over my hands when I'm working in the tank and they'll also try to steal mysis directly from the feeding tongs as I'm trying to feed the frogs. I'm not complaining though. I love the shrimp—they add a whole lot of character to the tank.

I'm actually interested in getting some crystal red bee shrimp for this tank too. My inherent water parameters would be great for them, which eliminates most of the difficulty in keeping them. I would've gotten them initially instead of the amanos, but I wanted to see how shrimp in general did in this tank first. So far, all of them have been perfect. They eat well, molt well, and one of the females is even berried! I'm almost a bit sad that I won't end up having babies in the tank.



I'm debating whether I should move some or all of the amanos to my 20gal to make room for the crystal reds. My other tank could definitely use some grazing anyway, but I worry about the shrimp being able to get their calcium-enriched food with tetras in the tank. If anyone has ideas for keeping the tetras away, I'd love to hear them. My substrate is unfortunately a bit too shallow for one of those shrimp caves, I think.

Otherwise, the only thing of real note in this tank is that I've been getting some algae on the glass that's too tough to brush off with a toothbrush, so I'm going to have to upgrade to a magic eraser, I think. The shrimp don't really help out with the algae on the walls anymore lol—they've gotten lazy—but Dumpling likes to help me scrub algae!



And, just as a bonus, here's Soup chilling on a java fern.

Love this! Your frogs are so brave!

Seisage said:

And, just as a bonus, here's Soup chilling on a java fern.

Click to expand...

Soup is definitely a spirit animal

Lcc86 said:

Love this! Your frogs are so brave!

Click to expand...

They are! It might be because I tong feed them for every meal, so I have the tongs and my hand in the tank every day, and they've learned to associate those with food. And they do recognize when I'm in front of the tank—they'll come to the glass to beg.

Seisage said:

They are! It might be because I tong feed them for every meal, so I have the tongs and my hand in the tank every day, and they've learned to associate those with food. And they do recognize when I'm in front of the tank—they'll come to the glass to beg.

Click to expand...

Mine recognise the pipette I use and come up but they're not brave enough to chill in my hand!

Another update with some more photos

Biggest news here is that... I think Soup may have just been a very late bloomer. S/he's started to develop some lighter patches in the armpits. It's weird though—they don't look very similar to the ones Dumpling has. Dumpling's post-axillary subdermal glands are small with defined edges, whereas Soup's are large and more amorphous. But I'm still leaning towards male. It would also explain why Soup hasn't filled out in body shape or grown bigger at all.



Also, @Lcc86 you were impressed at how brave my frogs were. Well, here's more evidence! It's Dumpling again. I'm not sure if it's because he's actually braver than Soup. I think Dumpling just really likes hanging out at the surface, especially when I'm by the tank (he definitely can swim down and stay at the bottom—it's not a bloating issue), so he's more willing and able to interact with my hand than Soup is.



And here's a video of him diligently trying to eat my finger

Seisage said:

Another update with some more photos

Biggest news here is that... I think Soup may have just been a very late bloomer. S/he's started to develop some lighter patches in the armpits. It's weird though—they don't look very similar to the ones Dumpling has. Dumpling's post-axillary subdermal glands are small with defined edges, whereas Soup's are large and more amorphous. But I'm still leaning towards male. It would also explain why Soup hasn't filled out in body shape or grown bigger at all.

View attachment 347024

Also, @Lcc86 you were impressed at how brave my frogs were. Well, here's more evidence! It's Dumpling again. I'm not sure if it's because he's actually braver than Soup. I think Dumpling just really likes hanging out at the surface, especially when I'm by the tank (he definitely can swim down and stay at the bottom—it's not a bloating issue), so he's more willing and able to interact with my hand than Soup is.

View attachment 347029

And here's a video of him diligently trying to eat my finger

Click to expand...

Haha what a clever boy munching the giant worm fingers! You get some great pics of yours. I need to check mine more closely to see if I have males/females, from size and shape I think I have one male but not 100%.

I've been feeding mine live worms and they absolutely love it, you should give it a try