# Dwarf Frog?



## gforster (Jul 30, 2006)

It's not a fish or an invertebrate, and there was no "amphibian for the planted aquarium" forum. . .sorry if its in thw wrong place

anyway, Amano mentions in his first book that the "dwarf frog" helps control the snail population and is a necessity in a planted tank along with amano shrimp and ottos. Is this the african dwarf frog or the clawed frog that he is talking about? Or something different altogether? I can see the shrimp and the ottos as almost essential for a cleanup crew (maybe i'm just partial to them), but are the frogs really that good?

thanks


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## karmalotus (May 2, 2006)

In my own experience, the frogs only ate pellets that fell to the substrate. (I had the African dwarf frogs). IMHO clown loaches are the best for snail detail…


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## aquariageek (May 27, 2006)

Well, I have three dwarf african frogs in my tank and a wealth of small snails that keep getting bigger and bigger, so I don't think that they eat them. However, they are great to have. They talk at night, and are very entertaining.

Just my $ .02 ....


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

The only dwarf frog I know of is the African dwarf frog, why they would be essential in a planted tank I don't know. I have one that does not touch the snails (although I have seen the Amano's eating snails) or do much of anything. I actually have to feed her by hand, she will not eat any other way.


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## abnormalsanon (Jun 6, 2006)

I thought about getting one or two but decided against it. Everything I read suggested that they are mostly blind and you have to feed them with a turkey baster if there's any competition for food in the tank.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

i have a frog in a comunity tank, (not addvised) but it seems to work, he's over a year old now, and seems to be doing well.










dont know about eating snails, i havent seen any in the tank, but i havent seenn him eat any either.

as for the turkey baster thig, never tried it, he's allways managed to get food somehow, every so oftern i feed him directly and keep the corys away, but he seems to do ok without it


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## Brian_T23 (Jul 25, 2006)

omg african dwarf frogs are so stupid lol
i throw in a hell lot of frozen brine shrimp and its right in front of them and they cant see it lol

btw my african dwarf from just layed eggs a week ago


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## gforster (Jul 30, 2006)

Here is a link where Amano says the same thing again

Amano Article

I don't think amano is stupid, but his experience doesn't seem to coincide with everyone elses. I don't necessarily plan on getting frogs (haven't had good experiece with them in the past), but I really have a hard time understanding amano's rationale.


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

Amano writes that they won't necessarily eat the snails unless they've been starved first. 

Also, since the ADF's that we know are mostly blind and mostly rely on movement to locate food, I can't imagine them pursuing a snail as lunch. I think maybe he's talking about another type of frog?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Looking at that article the supposed scienticfic name of the dwarf frog he is talking about is "shime-gaeru", the African dwarf frog scientific name is "
Hymenochirus boettgeri", so it is not the same frog.

When I Googled that name I did not come up with much, except for one referring to the clawed frog... Re: snail eradication

Then I looked at some websites on the clawed frog, which I came to the conclusion this is what Amano is talking about. There is a dwarf version of the clawed frog also.


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## tropism (Jul 21, 2006)

I have no idea what type of frog Amano was referring to, but "shime-gaeru" is it's Japanese name, not a scientific name. I know gaeru / kaeru means frog in Japanese, but unfortunately, I don't know what "shime" means. Any Japanese speakers here?

Something to note for anyone thinking about getting African dwarf frogs: be sure not to accidentally get the African dwarf frog and African clawed frog mixed up. They are very different in at least one aspect... What's (usually) sold as African clawed frogs can get to *six inches*! Almost all of the albino aquatic frogs are these bigger clawed frogs too. The dwarf frogs stay pretty small.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I wasn't sure if that was the scientific name or not, that is way I used "supposed". Thanks for clearing it up!


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

tropism is right...

lots of times, the LFS have no clue what they get... sometimes they are dwarf frogs, sometimes they are baby clawed frogs... and the clawed frogs get BIG and... well... eat things  the dwarf frogs stay very small and are the most entertaining things to watch. their sight is pretty poor, but i've never had a problem feeding them (just dumping blood worms into the water). i have kept them for a loooooong time... and they couldn't do anything to a snail if they tried.

the clawed frogs might... but they might also eat other stuff that you don't want them to!

since you are looking for information about killing snails, i thought i'd give you a little thing i lucked out with. i left some khuli loaches in a tank with snails and didn't feed them... they became snail-killing machines! sorta odd because other people say they won't eat snails. after that tank, i moved them into another tank with other fish... the loaches still decimated the snail population, even after being exposed to some fish food. so... this could be a cheap solution for you (although you may have to starve/train them first like i did on accident).


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## fredyk (Jun 21, 2004)

OK so now I've got dwarf frog, dwarf crayfish, cherry shrimp (dwarf shrimp), cories. 

All I need is a taste for seafood and I can have gumbo!

Mark


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## fehmuhnist (Nov 1, 2006)

*Dwarf African Frogs*

Hi there, 
i have a weird problem in my aquarium! i have four frogs and one golden (mystery) snail.

Last night i noticed one of the frogs was missing it's front leg and when i bought them, they all had all four legs. This morning almost all of them are missing one front leg!

Is it possible that the snail could do this?

or do you think they might have gotten a leg stuck in the filter tube?

I am puzzled! if anyone has any insite, it would be much appreciated!

thanks,


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## skincareaddicted (Mar 19, 2007)

This is an old post, but i wanted to add my experiences too about african dwarf frogs. I have been raising ADF for 6 years and simply love them. I find them so adorable and different from anything I have ever raised in an aquarium. 

I have observed my frogs eating those little snails but i think that was a time when i did starve them (bad i know) and the snails were so abundant in the tank. 

Mine have always been quick when i feed them (frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms) and even dive to the surface to get at the hunk of food. They do seem a bit greedy though, they'll snap at each other when eating, especially my large female who is twice the size of the male. 

I was at the tropical fish store yesterday and found that they had albino dwarf african frogs. I am tempted to get some but they are about 1/3 the size of my female and 1/2 the size of my male and am afraid they will get hurt. 

I love my little froggies and they have the been the easiest aquatic creature to raise, even easier than my betta fishes! :-D 

Kristen ~


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## fredyk (Jun 21, 2004)

I am glad you resurrected this because my ADF has been hanging around the surface lately. This morning he was sitting, crouched in the frogbit at the surface. He is getting lots of food, but very active lately, and I'm wondering if there's a lazy winter faze that he is coming out of, sort of a hibernation? I'm fairly confiedent that he is not going to jump out, but wondering, nontheless.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

If you're planning a frog for a community tank, keep them straight. ADFs stay pretty small and pose little or no threat to other tankmates. ACFs (African clawed frogs, usually Xenopus laveus or closely related species) get quite a bit larger (at least 5x) and do pose a significant threat to other tank inhabitants (anything that could possibly fit in their mouths).


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## fredyk (Jun 21, 2004)

This little guy has a pretty big mouth, and snaps at everything moving, so I'm keeping him alone. Will he not eat shrimp, and bother cories, etc?


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## gibmaker (Jan 3, 2007)

Brian_T23 said:


> omg african dwarf frogs are so stupid lol
> i throw in a hell lot of frozen brine shrimp and its right in front of them and they cant see it lol
> 
> btw my african dwarf from just layed eggs a week ago


I am pretty sure that is because they are pretty much blind! they search out food mostly by scent.


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## skincareaddicted (Mar 19, 2007)

I am tempted to add a betta in but am scared my ADFs will hurt the betta. I have seen the female snap at the male during feeding time and he does wince like it's quite painful, and vice versa. The female is kinda big, about an inch. I didn't realize how big my ADFs were until i saw the ones in the pet store, about the size of a dime.


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