African Dwarf Frogs with Pygmy Corys?

[FishKeeper728]

I have a 29 gallon tank, currently housing a few mollies and an african dwarf frog. Will the African Dwarf Frog eat the pygmy corys? I’m planning on adding 8-10 pygmy corys, since they enjoy shoaling.

 

[Colin_T]

Frogs should be kept in their own tank for several reasons. If the fish get sick, the medications used to treat them usually kill the frogs. Frogs eat anything small enough to fit in their mouth and that includes pygmy catfish. If catfish get eaten, they extend their pectoral (side) fins and get lodged in the mouth or throat of whatever tried to eat it. Then both fish/ organisms die.

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Mollies don't do well in soft water.

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

 

[Lcc86]

I go against the grain here and I do currently have 5 ADF's in with 12 pygmy corys. I can only speak for my own experience but the pygmies and the frogs don't have any issues with each other, never seen the frogs try to eat the pygmies or seen the pygmies bother the frogs. They occasionally follow the frogs when they're swimming but that's it.

That said, if you're going to try and mix them then you have to be prepared to split them up if it doesn't work, or as Colin has mentioned, if either the frogs or the fish need medication. I keep a spare 10g tank in case I need to split them in future.

 

[FishKeeper728]

Ok, thanks a lot for the help guys. I do have a spare tank I can use to treat the frogs or corydoras, so I’m not too worried about that. However, Colin mentioned worries about the frog eating the corys, should that be something I should worry about? There seems to be quite conflicting information both online and across forum posts Ive looked at

 

[Lcc86]

How big are your ADF's? Mine wouldn't be able to eat anything anywhere near the size of a pygmy cory but that's a sample size of 1 so not exactly definitive! I have to admit I've never really read about ADF's trying to eat fish other than fry, clawed frogs I know are much more aggressive in that respect.

 

[FishKeeper728]

I've had the frog for a little over a year now, I would say the frog is maybe 1.5-2 inches. In the past, he has lived peacefully with otocinclus in the past, no real troubles with temperament besides picking off a weak ghost shrimp once.

 

[Lcc86]

Hmmm if he's eaten a ghost shrimp before maybe he would be partial to a pygmy, assuming he could catch one! ADF's do like to be in groups, maybe you could forego the pygmies and get a few more frogs instead?

 

[Herpin Man]

I would keep them separately. My biggest concern is that the fish would eat most of the food, leaving the frogs to starve.