a dwarf African frog site

Since the vast majority of our visitors at this site are from the U.S., all the references to water volume are made in gallons, and the water temperatures are given in Fahrenheit.  To convert these to liters/centigrade, please see this link.

You just came home with that cute little frog and have no idea what to do with it, and having read this site, you're convinced your froggie is doomed.  Right?

Fear not.  The author once made the same mistake, and the frog lived to tell the tale (well, one of them did...)

Little Flippers is in a plastic bag in the kitchen, looking helpless and scared.  Of course he looks that way, because he is.  Frogs are fairly smart.  He knows that the best home for a newly-purchased DAF is an established (over 1 month old) aquarium .

Now it's your turn to ride to the rescue.

First, remember that you are going to set up your frog home away from windows and sunlight.

If all you have to put your frog in is a large vase (which is clean and free of chemical residue, including soap), that will do for now.  If you don't even have that, run back to the store and at least buy a fish bowl.  While you're there, ask them for some used gravel from the tank the frog came from.  They may look at you strangely, but too bad.

Even if they refuse your request, all is not lost.  Buy two things: a water conditioner that gets rid of chlorine and chloramine (read the label carefully), and a beneficial bacteria product such as "Stability" or "Nite-Out II."  You may also wish to buy some test strips that test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and perhaps pH and GH and/or KH.  Jungle has a good one that tests for everything but ammonia.  Right now you're most concerned with ammonia so make sure that you get some ammonia test strips if nothing else.

DO NOT BUY any product that promises to get rid of ammonia unless the water you will be using to fill the aquarium tests positive for ammonia.  The reason is that ammonia removers tend to make ammonia water testing kits work incorrectly.  Right now you want a correct reading of how much ammonia is building up in your tank through natural processes during the cycling period.  Of course, this point can be ignored if your source water has ammonia in it.  If that is the case, you must treat it to remove the ammonia prior to using it.

Also buy a filter of some sort.  You can start with an inexpensive sponge filter and an air pump, as well as airline tubing.  You should be able to get this kind of set-up for less than $20.00 from most big pet stores.

Now, get home quickly, treat the water that will be used in the frog's vase/bowl/aquarium with the chlorine remover, then dump in a capful or two of "Stability" or whatever other kind of beneficial bacteria product you bought.  Better yet, if you have an aquarium shop nearby and they stock "Bio-Spira," get that.  It's expensive, but if you can manage the expense you can ease your worries about cycling the aquarium with the frog(s) already in it. 

If you managed to get some used gravel, put that in too.  Install the filter with its airline tubing and air pump; plug the pump in and watch the bubbles start. 

Now you can do two things to acclimate your little frog: put him in another container with his store water and slowly add water from his permanent home until the container is full (the preferred method), or float him for 15 minutes in the permanent container before releasing him.  Whatever you do, do NOT keep him in the plastic bag for long.  Remember that he needs to breathe atmospheric air.

Test the water for ammonia every day.  If you start getting dangerously high ammonia readings, do a water change of at least 1/4 to 1/2 of the water in the frog's container.  Do not change 100% of the water, however, because you'll set yourself back in the cycling process.  Only do water changes in response to dangerous ammonia spikes (rely on your color chart to identify these).  A frog can adjust to a small amount of ammonia, so don't panic if you are getting small readings as long as they gradually diminish over the space of a month or so.

A dangerously high level of ammonia can quickly kill a frog, so always be mindful of the ammonia level. 

Add beneficial bacteria to the new tank EVERY DAY for a MONTH.  Two highly recommended products of this type are Stability and Nite-Out.  Use of one of these will help ease the ammonia-into-nitrite-into-nitrate cycle that the tank will have to undergo in the coming month.

Meantime, you can do your frog a big favor and go out and buy him a permanent home if you don't already have one.  Adding live plants to the frog's home will also help ease the cycling process.  Java ferns are readily available, and don't require much knowledge to grow.

After a month, your frog's home should be cycled and comfortable.  See?  You rode to the rescue, and you did just fine.  Now don't put yourself in that position again  .

If you're willing to shell out some big bucks, you CAN cycle your aquarium faster.

There seem to be more products available for quickly cycling a marine tank than there are for doing a fast-cycle on a freshwater tank.  But that doesn't mean that we freshwater aquarists are totally without resources. 

The simplest thing to do is to find a freshwater aquarist with an established tank that has no frogs in it and no disease problems, and ask to borrow some used filter media.  Desirable filter media is usually a sponge or a collection of small, rough ceramic balls.  (You don't want their grungy carbon or ammonia zapper!)  Put the used media in your filter and voila! cycled tank.  Or so the legend goes.  I say this because while your new tank may be instantly cycled, you'll still get into trouble if you overload it with fish and frogs.  Try to keep the population low for the first few months (one frog per 3 gallons of water; less than one inch of fish per gallon of water).

There are other ways of doing this.  I managed to cycle my frog tank in under a week with help from a "live" freshwater substrate called Eco Complete.  As far as I know, this is the only "live" substrate currently available for the freshwater aquarium (update: as of 2008 there seems to be another "live" substrate available for freshwater aquariums: "Activ-Flora" by Nature's Ocean, which appears to be smoother than Eco Complete and perhaps better for frogs; I have yet to try it).  There are many of these substrates available for marine aquariums; they are of no use for you when building a frog habitat and could actually do harm.

What is a live substrate?  It looks like normal gravel, but when you open the bag, you'll see that it is wet.  It has to be wet because there are bacteria living in it.  The aquarium substrate (gravel) we normally purchase is dry and has nothing but dust mites living in it.

Why are these bacteria important?  Because they are what will help quickly cycle your aquarium.  In a normal cycle, the substrate arrives barren of any helpful bacteria.  The bacteria build up throughout the cycling process, until they reach the point where they quickly eliminate ammonia and nitrites and leave you with nitrate.  This bacteria-building process takes at least a month.  "Live" substrate arrives with the bacteria already in it.  But while this is a great help, it is NOT the whole answer.

Along with "live" substrate, you will also need to add a product called freshwater Bio Spira.  This will seed your filter with the correct bacteria and make the process go much more smoothly.

Putting lots of live plants in will also be helpful.  Again, Java fern is the easiest; you don't even plant it, but instead tie it to a rock or something and let it take root itself.  It's not fussy about light, pH, KH, or much anything else.  Anubias nana is also an almost fool-proof plant. 

Any plant that grows tall tends to be harder to care for, although some ludwigias are reasonably easy if you give them proper lighting (about 3 watts per gallon of water).  But keep in mind that if you used Eco Complete, you can probably grow even more difficult plants more easily than if you just had regular gravel.  Why?  See the next paragraph for the good news.

Don't worry about fertilizing the plants at this point because -- and this is another nice feature -- Eco Complete substrate is designed to support plant life.  Along with bacteria, it contains vital nutrients and minerals for plants.  It will support most of your plants without much help for at least 6 months, giving you lots of time to learn about the care of aquatic plants.

Even with all this help, you may still have a quicky nitrogen cycle for about a week.  Definitely your pocketbook will be thinner, because Eco Complete and Bio Spira are expensive.  But if you want a quick, elegant permanent home for your frogs, go for it!

Once in every DAF owner's life comes the moment when he or she finds a frog hopping around on the floor -- or worse, lying on the floor motionless.

First, I have to assert the need for a well-covered aquarium home for your DAFs.  They are guaranteed to eventually jump out of any tank that is not covered.  You'll be surprised at how often you hear a frog noggin hit the lid of a covered tank!  All it takes is one good run at the surface of an uncovered tank (frogs do surface frequently for air), and your DAF will be off to the races on your floor.  Since there are many fish who are also jumpers, I am alarmed at the current craze of aquarium designers to create uncovered aquariums.  No matter how chic this becomes in the future, never keep your DAFs in an uncovered tank!

Another danger, as mentioned on the Frog Basics page, is that your frogs may hide out in plant or algae waste that you are removing from the tank during a cleaning.  Never throw your plant waste directly in the garbage for this reason.  Put it in a bucket or in some other plastic container until you are done cleaning, and then go through it carefully before discarding it.  Eventually you may find a frog hiding among the waste, and when this happens you will be amazed at how tiny and hard to see an out-of-water DAF can be.

If you find a frog having an adventure on the floor, be mindful that they can survive up to 10 minutes out of the water before they start to dehydrate.  They can be quite challenging to catch, since they can jump surprisingly far, but eventually the frog will tire and you will be able to grab it.  When you do, do so carefully.  Remember that your DAF is quite a fragile creature and do not pinch it.  You may try sliding a spoon under it with your hand cupped over the frog.

If you find a dehyrated DAF on the floor, but it is not entirely mummified yet, there may be a chance to rehydrate it.  Put some tank water in a plastic cup and soak the frog in that for about 15 minutes.  If it is going to survive, it should show signs of life in that amount of time.