RIP ADF :(

sinistral

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Yesterday my two remaining ADF's (one is missing, I suspect it was a leap of faith) were out and about on my tank floor. One was particularly active, was investigating plants, swimming to the surface, no signs of distress. I fed them as usual, and then went to bed. This morning I found the active one lying upside down on the bottom of the tank. If you're wondering how I knew he was dead, in part it was because he wasn't moving even when I poked and prodded at him, and also because snails were crawling over him without provoking him :(

I didn't have time to check water conditions before work, but as of 2 days ago ammonia and nitrites were at zero. Temp has been in the 80-85 range depending on if it's day (warmer) or night (cooler).

My suspicion is that I noticed the active one eating almost all the bloodworms that came his way. The other one was a lot less active and didn't eat as much. I'm wondering if the greedy one ate himself to death :(

I'm wondering if maybe this tank isn't appropriate for ADF's. The temperature gets up to 85 at times. I'm wondering if this is too hot. There isn't all that much fluctuation though. I think I have only one ADF remaining (if the other one is still in the tank it's better at camouflage than the US Armed Forces). I don't want to keep him or get him more friends if I'm just going to end up killing them all :( I get sad and discouraged just thinking about the deceased one :-(
 
I'd say that's rather hot. I wager these frogs come from marshes and the like, which don't really get that hot (then again bettas live in water that gets pretty hot, but I doubt they have the same habitat).

Lower the temp, if possible, or move the frog. Also, if one was getting too much food and the other was getting none, the best thing to do is feed them with a turkey baster. It's a bit tedious, but you don't pollute the tank, the frogs eat out of it without complaints, and you can limit the amount of food they get.
 
Awww...I'm sorry to hear that. :( Don't beat yourself up too much for it you're just as new to ADF's as I am and it just takes time and experience to get things right. I encourage you to keep on trying because you'll figure it out. I don't know why they died (considering I'm as new as you with the whole thing) so I don't have much advice I can give except to yeah, get another one because you seemed like you liked them. Don't get too discouraged. *hugs*
 
sorry to hear about your frog :( I've been meaning to get some as you may have read lately, I'm scared of killing them off so I know how you must feel. He may have ate too much? Were you feeding them live worms or freeze dried? I heard that live ones are much better, fresher obviously and cause less digestive problems, but you have to be careful to only feed healthy worms, no brown ones or dead/inactive ill looking worms, probably as feeding them sickly worms isn't good for them.

I'm not sure about the temp, I've read they like 23-26 degrees, dunno what that is in f. I thought they were pretty used to hotter waters, but then again I'm no expert can only go off what I've read, I know the aquarium that stocks them near me keeps them at 26 degrees and they all look quite happy.

Have a read of the dare devil ADF thread if you want cheering up and encouragment to get another 1/2 froggies. I'm waiting for my tank to get settled then I think I'll introduce some in with Squishy the lionhead (pictured left).

Chin up anyway, hope all goes well with the remaining 1/2.
 
Thanks to everybody for the suggestions and support! I'm feeling better about the whole thing now. I'd like to figure out what happened to the frog before I get new ones.

tempestuousfury wrote said:
I'd say that's rather hot. I wager these frogs come from marshes and the like, which don't really get that hot (then again bettas live in water that gets pretty hot, but I doubt they have the same habitat).

This is something that I was concerned about prior to getting the frogs. Some websites I looked at suggested that the upper range of 85 would be fine; others suggested more of a temperate range. I figured I would give it a go and see what happened.

Also, if one was getting too much food and the other was getting none, the best thing to do is feed them with a turkey baster.

This is a great suggestion. I suspect the feeding problem might have been more chronic than I had thought. If the first missing frog hadn't been eating any food for the past week or so and the active (now deceased frog) was eating the lion's share the whole time, then...it would make sense that he would be dead now.

ToWnPrEp wrote said:
Awww...I'm sorry to hear that. Don't beat yourself up too much for it you're just as new to ADF's as I am and it just takes time and experience to get things right. I encourage you to keep on trying because you'll figure it out.

Thanks so much for the kind words of encouragement! I will try again I think, after figuring out what went wrong. I think TF has pointed me in the right direction with his tips on temperature and feeding. But I needed the positive words, so thanks!

turnip wrote said:
He may have ate too much? Were you feeding them live worms or freeze dried? I heard that live ones are much better, fresher obviously and cause less digestive problems, but you have to be careful to only feed healthy worms, no brown ones or dead/inactive ill looking worms, probably as feeding them sickly worms isn't good for them.

Thanks to you too turnip for the kind words. I was feeding them frozen bloodworms. They all look pretty heterogeneously red. The guy at the LFS recommended I drop a chunk of the frozen worms into the tank and let them defrost, but maybe next time I ought to defrost the worms first...

I'm not sure about the temp, I've read they like 23-26 degrees, dunno what that is in f. I thought they were pretty used to hotter waters, but then again I'm no expert can only go off what I've read, I know the aquarium that stocks them near me keeps them at 26 degrees and they all look quite happy.

26celsius is about 79 degrees farenheit, so that's a bit to a fair bit cooler than my tank. So far for whatever reason I've been unable to keep the temperature lower than 80 despite having the heater at the lowest setting and the air conditioning going. I think it may be the light, the sunlight, and the heater all together. I'll have to change some things around I think...

Thanks again to everybody for the feedback and support!
 
Sorry to read about your frogs. I think it was a bit too hot for him and also he very well could have had too much to eat.
 

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