JoshOfMichigan
New Member
Hi! Please excuse the tome below, but I figure too much information beats too little.
I purchased three ADFs in May for my 29 gallon planted tropical community tank: two males, one female. At first, they seemed quite content - singing, amplexus, good appetites. About a month in, one of the males developed a fungal disease. I put him in a quarantine tank with antibiotics, but he didn't make it (survived about two days).
I ordered chytrid tests for the other two, and both came back negative. The female is overweight, but the male seemed to be a healthy weight. So I figured everything was good.
A couple days ago, the remaining male ate an entire shrimp pellet (after a few tries - I wasn't able to gently take it away from him). I decided to keep an eye on him, and he was behaving normally and looking healthy through this morning. I did trim back a lot of the water wisteria yesterday because it had gotten very overgrown. But, when I came downstairs in the afternoon for the twice-weekly 10-15% water change, he was floating dead and bloated at the top of the tank.
I took the body to the lfs, and the employee said she found no signs of infection, nor any water quality problems other than the expected chloramine "ammonia" from the first few hours after any water change (I add Prime to neutralize it until the BB get ahold of it). My own test had measured 0 ppm right before that. Nitrites 0, nitrates 5 ppm. DGH 7, pH 6.6 (though the lfs oddly got multiple readings). KH two readings: 2-3 and 7. I add a pinch of alkaline buffer to water changes to support the pH and kH.
After confirming that she thought the issue was diet leading to an intestinal blockage and not the tank itself, and showing her pictures of the female to rule out any obvious illness I might be unaware of, I purchased a female and a male replacement (she wanted to be extra cautious about not having an excess of males, though I have no reason to believe that's relevant in this species). She recommended I occasionally feed them frozen/thawed brine shrimp and prevent them from eating any leftover fish flakes (not quite sure how; and some sites say flakes aren't harmful for them).
My current staple for them is ZooMed Aquatic Frog pellets, but of course they also eat whatever else falls to the bottom from tankmates' food.
The other inhabitants of the tank are a(n almost always, and always with the frogs) peaceful male betta, whom I feed Dr. Bassleer garlic pellets; nine cardinal tetras, which I feed Tetra fish flakes, eight Cory habrosus, which I feed Hikari sinking wafers and catfish pellets, two amano shrimp, which I feed ZooMed shrimp pellets, six assassin snails, which eat pond snails, and a couple dozen uninvited pond snails, which eat algae and leftovers.
I give the tank frozen-thawed bloodworms once a week as a treat, as well as pre-soaked freeze-dried brine shrimp once a week. The filter is a sponge-baffled Tetra Whisper 30 at half-flow to keep current low while still agitating the surface. The substrate is aquarium pebbles with a bowl of coarse sand (almost fine gravel) and some indian almond leaves to provide everyone a choice of surfaces. I keep the tank at 78 F, except for one week after I lost the first male at 80 F to hopefully kill any infectious fungus. I didn't want to keep the cories that warm any longer.
The two new frogs are active and already eating - including pond snail eggs, thankfully), the female is still quite chonky but seems otherwise healthy (I attached a picture below), but all the fora and care guides give contradictory advice on food, substrate, even acceptable tank height, and I very much don't want to lose anymore of them. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Josh
I purchased three ADFs in May for my 29 gallon planted tropical community tank: two males, one female. At first, they seemed quite content - singing, amplexus, good appetites. About a month in, one of the males developed a fungal disease. I put him in a quarantine tank with antibiotics, but he didn't make it (survived about two days).
I ordered chytrid tests for the other two, and both came back negative. The female is overweight, but the male seemed to be a healthy weight. So I figured everything was good.
A couple days ago, the remaining male ate an entire shrimp pellet (after a few tries - I wasn't able to gently take it away from him). I decided to keep an eye on him, and he was behaving normally and looking healthy through this morning. I did trim back a lot of the water wisteria yesterday because it had gotten very overgrown. But, when I came downstairs in the afternoon for the twice-weekly 10-15% water change, he was floating dead and bloated at the top of the tank.
I took the body to the lfs, and the employee said she found no signs of infection, nor any water quality problems other than the expected chloramine "ammonia" from the first few hours after any water change (I add Prime to neutralize it until the BB get ahold of it). My own test had measured 0 ppm right before that. Nitrites 0, nitrates 5 ppm. DGH 7, pH 6.6 (though the lfs oddly got multiple readings). KH two readings: 2-3 and 7. I add a pinch of alkaline buffer to water changes to support the pH and kH.
After confirming that she thought the issue was diet leading to an intestinal blockage and not the tank itself, and showing her pictures of the female to rule out any obvious illness I might be unaware of, I purchased a female and a male replacement (she wanted to be extra cautious about not having an excess of males, though I have no reason to believe that's relevant in this species). She recommended I occasionally feed them frozen/thawed brine shrimp and prevent them from eating any leftover fish flakes (not quite sure how; and some sites say flakes aren't harmful for them).
My current staple for them is ZooMed Aquatic Frog pellets, but of course they also eat whatever else falls to the bottom from tankmates' food.
The other inhabitants of the tank are a(n almost always, and always with the frogs) peaceful male betta, whom I feed Dr. Bassleer garlic pellets; nine cardinal tetras, which I feed Tetra fish flakes, eight Cory habrosus, which I feed Hikari sinking wafers and catfish pellets, two amano shrimp, which I feed ZooMed shrimp pellets, six assassin snails, which eat pond snails, and a couple dozen uninvited pond snails, which eat algae and leftovers.
I give the tank frozen-thawed bloodworms once a week as a treat, as well as pre-soaked freeze-dried brine shrimp once a week. The filter is a sponge-baffled Tetra Whisper 30 at half-flow to keep current low while still agitating the surface. The substrate is aquarium pebbles with a bowl of coarse sand (almost fine gravel) and some indian almond leaves to provide everyone a choice of surfaces. I keep the tank at 78 F, except for one week after I lost the first male at 80 F to hopefully kill any infectious fungus. I didn't want to keep the cories that warm any longer.
The two new frogs are active and already eating - including pond snail eggs, thankfully), the female is still quite chonky but seems otherwise healthy (I attached a picture below), but all the fora and care guides give contradictory advice on food, substrate, even acceptable tank height, and I very much don't want to lose anymore of them. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Josh
