L & H Frog Journal
African Dwarf Frogs -  Hymenochirus boettgeri
page 7

9-5-02 We added a new brine shrimp grow kit and T valve off Tank E's air pump to circulate the eggs. The kit included eggs, salt, a stand, and air hose. We just needed a 2 liter soda bottle and a couple valves. We needed a T valve since I didn't want to buy yet another air pump and a stop valve so water & brine shrimp don't go down the hose to my air pump. Hopefully, very soon we'll have a new batch of brine shrimp to feed Pat. - L

9-7-02 The brine shrimp kit works fabulously! Tons of the little critters were successfully hatched and fed to our tadpole and fish tanks. The danios, tetras, and white cloud minnows loved them! Pat, our tadpole, gobbled many of them and developed a much rounder belly. - L

9-10-02 Another batch of brine shrimp were added the bubbling kit. I only added part of the bag so as not hatch quite so many at once. - L

9-12-02 Only part of the brine shrimp were siphoned out the bottom and fed to the tadpole & other fish tanks. Using less eggs & salt & less water worked fine. - L

9-16-02 A bit more shrimp were fed to the tadpole & other tanks. This time they had grown a bit in almost a week and were much easier to see. Pat had has developed much darker coloring. The aprox. month old tadpoles in tank A weren't visible when we looked for them. They may have perished. We did see a new younger recently hatched tadpole. For now, we plan to just raise Pat  and then move Pat into another location before pulling any more tadpoles out of tank A. Pat's legs now have knees & are noticeable moving more. - L

9-18-02 Pat has arm buds! Not only are Pat's legs moving but we noticed little arm buds! We ordered some daphnia for larger more diverse food. - L

9-23-02 Tank C's male ADF has been swimming frantically and singing. We think he's looking for his missing mate. We're very sad for him and may move one the ADF's from Tank D after it's next tank cleaning. After feeding Pat more brine shrimp we saw that his arms have little hands & fingers! - L

9-24-02 Daphnia shipment arrived. We put their containers in the tank to float and to get their temperature the same. Pat ate several daphnia immediately. Pat measures at 3/4" in total length. We believe Pat is breaking the surface of the water to breathe air! We did another photo shoot of Pat as well as video tape. *anxiously awaiting* - L

9-30-02 Pat's tail has become ribbon like and almost frayed or crinkly looking. We think it's being absorbed. We have ordered more daphnia and are hoping to keep some alive to have as an ongoing food source. - L

10-7-02 After not having seen Pat for two days, we noticed Pat's tail is disappearing. What is visible of the tail is almost curled and much shorter.

10-8-02 7:30 p.m. We went to fed Pat more daphnia and found Pat had passed on. We aren't sure what happened. We speculate many possibilities with many variables. Water quality issues, problems disgusting foods, temperature changes with the cooler weather or some unknown factors.

On the positive side: to cheer ourselves up we went to visit George & Jim. They just happened to be snuggling at this very moment and so to be optimistic we set up the baby tank with fresh water and a new filter. Tomorrow morning there will be many eggs for us. - L

10-9-02 We moved the eggs from George & Jim's coupling last night into tank E. We'll count the little tadpoles as they hatch. Hopefully, we will be able to use what we've learned and grow more. - L

10-16-02 We have several hatched tadpoles. As of yet it's difficult to count them since they're so tiny and the tank has live plants and a pagoda in it. In fact, George had been hanging out at the top of the tank often behaving a bit odd for a day or so. I went to George & Jim's tank and found George had died 3:08 p.m. We are terribly sad; it's been a rough week for us. For the time being, we have put their tank aside removed Jim into quarantine then to be added to Tank D. Pat & George are presently preserved and mourned on our altar. We are unsure what action we will take besides the continued care for our beloved aquatic family. It was suggested to me by G. on the bulletin board at  http://www.pipidae.net/ to use stale treated tap water. We may give this a try as well as see how we can continue to care for our little tadpoles. G. suggests a heater/thermostat combo and keeping the water level to about 4".

10-18-02 Jim and the midget sucker catfish have been added to Tank D. Our little tadpoles are growing each day. I haven't gotten a heater for them as of yet.

10-26-02 I haven't seen any activity in the tadpole tank and am anticipating that the tadpoles died from either the cold, water quality or food issues. Upon reflection I think George & Pat & Boboloo may have all died from gorging themselves a sort of bloat. I think I should of fed Pat smaller meals of daphnia or just stuck with brine shrimp. Boboloo died after eating a very large catfish and then Mogoli tried to mate with her while she was so bloated. George seemed to die with a mouthful of glassworms at the top of the tank trying to breathe. I probably should have done some sort of intervention for George at the time I saw her having such difficulty. If the little tadpoles have perished, their bodies will be added to the beautiful flora of our house. Today I lit two candles for Pat and George to say goodbye. I feel ready to let them go now. They are in a prominent place on the altar and as these candles burn themselves out we'll say our goodbyes to George & Pat. Releasing their little froggie spirits back to the Universe.

I think this whole process has been quite educational. I have a much better understanding of many things about the little critters. They don't self moderate in their eating, they do have normal behavior patterns which I can now recognize better, and they are very sensitive to water quality and temperature changes. The house is much colder now with winter approaching and the house cools even more at night. I think if our other ADF's lay more eggs we will be very equipped to deal with tadpoles. My plan is if they have successful snuggling, we'll buy a heater for the tadpole tank and re-start. For the time being, Jack, Janet and Jim sing us to sleep every night. They are terribly cute and seem quite happy together. Mogoli and Chrissy hang together quite a bit. Mogoli doesn't seem to mind that Chrissy is also a boy and they snuggle briefly quite often. I feel this has been an interesting project, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for my froggie adventures.

12-7-02 Upon cleaning Tank D we came to realize we had leeches. They are segmented and have triangular heads with two little nobby like projections on the sides of their heads. We did some reading at http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/bruno10.htm and at http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/SS/leechlove.html. We decided we had some variety of leeches probably one that primarily eats small invertebrates and interestingly enough during the time [2 months maybe] we apparently had leeches, our snail population had diminished greatly. We also learned that they can survive for months after a single meal! So we used the information we learned and completely cleaned out the tank, are drying out the rocks & ornaments, tossed out our plants & tree parts [that were totally infested], and pulled all the fish & frogs out into quarantine tanks. After careful inspection, we decided our fish were ok and we put them into Tank E.  Our frogs are still in quarantine because Tank E is small enough for them to really hunt the fish. The last time we had a frog in that sized tank [under 3 gallon] with the minnows she ate one a day for a week. So, we need to wait or put the frogs in another tank. The rocks need a week or more to dry thoroughly so we're sure we got rid of all the life stages of leeches. We believe we got our leeches from a single leech mixed into our live bloodworm batch we bought from the pet store. H thought there was one in there but didn't know what it was or didn't think much of it at the time. We don't want to find out if they'll feed on our fish or frogs. So, we're eradicating them! ickky...  - L

More froggie stories to come.... next page