Can an ADF survive a cycling tank?

[Teelie]

No one freak out if they can't. I have him in a 1 gallon quarantine tank but I have set up a 5 gallon to stick him in (just added the gravel tonight so it'll be a while), and eventually a male Betta once it's cycled though in the mean time if I can, I'd like to stick the ADF in the 5 gallon so he'll have all the nice ammenties of a fully functional tank over a barely functional 1 gallon.

I can do some shuffling if I must and stick him in a 10 gallon though I really, really don't want to until I know he's clean of parasites and won't infect the Betta in there. He came from Wal-Mart and so you know he needs the quarantine.

 

[ToWnPrEp]

Being a n00b to this hobby when I got my first 2 ADF's the tank wasn't cycled. So far they are ok (knock on wood) but I definitely wouldn't recommend it. I was just naive and hadn't thought about cycling it before I got them.

 

[Teelie]

On another board I've had two replies that said they have had frogs live through cycling and when I first started out I had a frog though I don't know if I'd cycled the tank at the time or not so I wanted to be sure.

 

[pandora's lily]

i made sure to cycle my tank before i added my two ADF's, they would prolly be able to survive, but to be on the safe side, and IMHO, i'd make sure everything was cycled properly first

 

[Teelie]

The only problem is he's in a 1 gallon, unfiltered, unheated hex tank with some fake plants. It's worse than a Betta cause he can get out when I do water changes so I want him in the 5gallon asap.

 

[pandora's lily]

i have a question...have you started to cycle your tank yet? cuz the sooner its done the sooner you can add your little guy in. as for the 1 gallon, he should be alright for the 5-7 days or so that he would be in there waiting for your tank to cycle. just make sure to change his water and keep everything pretty clean, as the smaller one doesn't have a filter...

 

[Teelie]

I only started it the night I got him unfortunately. Fortunately however, I have a 10 gallon planted nursery tank he can go in with my Crowntail Betta, provided the Crowntail doesn't get aggressive with him. I'm wanting to quarantine him before adding him there though.

 

[Pugwinkle]

Hi, what type of filter are you using in the 5 gallon tank? If it's a sponge type filter you could take some of the sponge out of your 10 gallon tank that I am assuming is cycled and put it in the 5 gallon tank filter. Then take some substrate from your cycled tank as well and place that and possibly a piece of the decor from the cycled tank. Put all that in the 5 gallon tank and that should help speed up the cycle. You could put the ADF in there but I would check the ammonia and nitrite levels daily until it has fully cycled.

 

[Teelie]

Hang off the back filter, and my other cycled tanks are sand so that kinda is ruled out. This tank was cycled but I took the sand out and put it in another tank to get it cycling so this one sort of got uncycled. I also changed the filter cartridge on it and put a new one in. I may be able to get away with just having a minicycle but I'd rather it go the whole way and not happen again.

There are also no decorations to take out to put in there. All the other decorations are homes for one fish or another.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Teelie

How's your little frog doing?

A frog can be treated like a betta, that is, kept in an unheated and uncycled tank, provided that it gets regular water changes and the temperature doesn't fluctuate too much or isn't really cold.

I've kept 2 of them in a one gallon jar for a long time and they are just fine.

Is the HOB filter safe for them? I would be careful that their little arms or legs don't get caught in it. I've heard some very sad stories involving frogs and these filters. Also, can you close off all the openings so he cannot jump out?

 

[Teelie]

The frog I have now is doing fine. I added some broken off parts of fake plants to his 1 gallon and changed his water yesterday and been keeping him fed and happy. Last night he made a few chirping sounds, loud as hell though and woke me up.

I've kept ADF's in the 5 gallon I'm cycling right now before with HOB's and they were never a problem. In fact most of them tended to just ignore the intake and float around the top just outside the current when they were even near it. I did have one go up and into an underwater tank filter once though.

He lived fine through it and wasn't harmed at all. Turns out the tube was the "perfect" size for him to slide into intentionally for whatever reason and I had to get him out before he realized the top was closed off and panicked. After that I had to really secure the underside to prevent him from climbing back in.

I've got the holes covered with this plastic orange mesh meant for quitting or something that works great. Small holes that they can't get through but lets air in. Before I had to tape small pieces of wood or cardboard over them but this matte was only 10­¢ and I'm finding it useful for a multitude of things, including a barrier for my filter floss in another HOB. I took out the old carbon filter and replaced it with filter floss but the stuff kept clogging on the biowheel. I cut this to size, stuck it in and no more clogging.

So the frog will do fine in a cycle? I've recently seen people actually doing half-fish cycles with Bettas but I don't want to risk ammonia poisoning.

 

[flintstone]

My 4 frogs were placed in a 10 gallon tank before it finished cycling and they were fine (I didn't know about cycling at the time). They are about a year old now.

My tank also was knocked out of whack a month ago (sickness & medication) and they survived the re-cycling very well also. I did, however, do daily 20% water changes this time though.

I have always used a hob filter and they love it. They like to climb on the intake pipe and they also do this funny, spread-eagled, floating, zen meditating thing in the current. (They just let the "flow" twirl them around). Cute little things! I love my frogs.