African Dwarf Frog -  Hymenochirus boettgeri
L & H Tank Set up

Our Setup:  We have several tanks, several fish and frogs. Tanks A-D have live plants, gravel, marbles, and hiding places for our frogs and fish. We don't regularly monitor our pH or nitrogen levels of any of our tanks. Many of our tanks do have sticky thermometers on the outside of the tank. To keep the water levels safe and prevent chlorine from getting into our tanks, we only use bottled spring water.

We have changed our fish and frogs from tank to tank over the years. Things change regularly and I try to update the journal as they do.

January 2008

We have one 5 gallon Eclipse tank in H's room with white cloud minnows, gold tetras, blue tetras, lots of live plants, a pagoda ornament, and a single otto [midget sucker catfish.] The Eclipse tanks are great, the light heats the tank and is sufficient to really give plants the light the need, it's very quiet, easy to clean and the filters are easy to acquire at pet stores or online.

We have a 3 gallon Eclipse tank at L's bedroom with two ottos and 20+ red cherry shrimp with a heater and a smallworld filter instead of an eclipse filter.

We have one 10 gallon glass aquarium in the kitchen area of our house 2/3 full of water, with a lighted hood, a heater, an ornamental rock sculpture, a lovely pagoda ornament, and a small world filter. It has two lively ADF's.

We have one 5 gallon glass aquarium tank in L's office with small world filter, a small tank heater, and a small fluorescent plant light. It has live plants, pagoda temple ornament, two fancy tailed male guppies, two female guppies, two ottos, and seven cherry red shrimp at last count.

We also have one outside water garden in a whiskey barrel container with live plants, a pump, three koi and feeder goldfish.

February 2007

We have one 5 gallon Eclipse tank in H's room with white cloud minnows, gold tetras, blue tetras, lots of live plants, a pagoda ornament, and a single otto [midget sucker catfish.]

We have a 3 gallon Eclipse tank at L's bedroom soon to be home to a male blue betta fish.

The Eclipse tanks are great, the light heats the tank and is sufficient to really give plants the light the need, it's very quiet, easy to clean and the filters are easy to acquire at pet stores or online.

We have one 10 gallon glass aquarium in the kitchen area of our house 2/3 full of water, with a lighted hood, a heater, an ornamental rock sculpture, a lovely pagoda ornament, and a small world filter. It has two lively ADF's.

We have one 5 gallon glass aquarium tank in L's office with small world filter, a small tank heater, and a small fluorescent plant light. It has live plants, pagoda temple ornament, and two male ADF's.

We also have one outside water garden in a whiskey barrel container with live plants, a pump, and feeder goldfish.

Tank set up November 2005

We have one 5 gallon Eclipse tank in H's room with white cloud minnows, gold tetras, blue tetras, lots of live plants, a pagoda ornament, and a single otto [midget sucker catfish.]

We have a 3 gallon Eclipse tank in L's room with live plants & a tank ornament, and a single 3 zebra danios and some snails.

The Eclipse tanks are great, the light heats the tank and is sufficient to really give plants the light the need, it's very quiet, easy to clean and the filters are easy to acquire at pet stores or online.

We have one 10 gallon glass aquarium in the kitchen area of our house with a lighted hood, a heater, an ornamental rock sculpture, a lovely pagoda ornament, and a small world filter. It has Jim a lively ADF, an otto catfish, numerous cherry shrimp, snails, live worms, and java moss & fern. More about shrimp http://www.petshrimp.com/

We have one 5 gallon glass aquarium in the massage room with a lighted hood, a heater, a lovely pagoda ornament, and a small world filter. It has Jack a lively ADF, half dozen cherry shrimp, snails, and numerous live plants.

We also have one outside water garden in a whiskey barrel container with live plants, a pump, and three feeder goldfish. To learn more click here and go to July 2004 entries.

We occasionally use a small set up or a 1 liter bottle brine shrimp growing kit set up with water, sea salt, brine shrimp eggs & food for brine shrimp. The eggs are much cheaper on line. We bought them from the live kits from our web link section. The kit is great, we just hook up an air pump to it and in a few days, we have tons of brine shrimp. They're easy to get as they settle to the bottom and the egg shells float to the top. I just siphon the shrimp out the bottom. I bought the kit from our local petstore.

July 2004

We have one 5 gallon Eclipse tank in H's room with white cloud minnows, gold tetras, blue tetras, lots of live plants, a pagoda ornament, and a single otto [midget sucker catfish.]

We have a 3 gallon Eclipse tank at H's office with several feeder zebra danios, live plants & a tank ornament, and a single leopard danio.

The Eclipse tanks are great, the light heats the tank and is sufficient to really give plants the light the need, it's very quiet, easy to clean and the filters are easy to acquire at pet stores or online.

We have one 10 gallon glass aquarium in the kitchen area of our house 2/3 full of water, with a lighted hood, a heater, an ornamental rock sculpture, a lovely pagoda ornament, and a small world filter. It has three lively ADF's, an otto, and at this point several ADF eggs & tads in a breeder net.

We have one 1 & 1/2 gallon glass hex tank in L's office with small world filter, a small tank heater, and a small fluorescent plant light. It has live plants, an ornamental barnacle sculpture with holes, and one adorable midget pufferfish. To learn more about them click here and go to July 2004 entries. *Buffy died October 2005 due to poor water quality in 2005 due to school distracting me from my fish family.

We have a 1 liter bottle brine shrimp growing kit set up with water, sea salt, brine shrimp eggs & food for brine shrimp. The eggs are much cheaper on line. We bought them from the live kits from our web link section. The kit is great, we just hook up an air pump to it and in a few days, we have tons of brine shrimp. They're easy to get as they settle to the bottom and the egg shells float to the top. I just siphon the shrimp out the bottom. I bought the kit from our local petstore.

We also have one outside water garden in a whiskey barrel container with live plants, a pump, and three feeder goldfish. To learn more click here and go to July 2004 entries.

Previously our Set up
 

Tank A - This tank is retired; it originally contained: George & Jim, our original ADF's and one midget sucker catfish [otocinclus] and many eggs, and live plants. It was a one and half gallon tank with temperature 66-72, a "Smallworld" air pump & filter, and no direct light or heat source. George passed away 10-16-02 and Jim is currently in  Tank D.

Tank B - Several feeder danios that have outgrown the possibility of being eaten by the ADF's live happily in L's home office in an Eclipse tank with a light and air filter.

Tank C - L's office 3 gallon "Eclipse" [filtered with light & air pump] tank with two male ADF's [Mogoli & Chrissy], one midget sucker catfish, two cardinal tetras, and several live plants - sadly everyone perished during some extremely warm weather in Seattle 6-10-03.  I should have brought everyone home and kept the light off.

Tank D - H's 5 gallon "Eclipse" [filtered with light & air pump] tank with several white cloud minnows, various tetras, live plants, and snails. The temperature of this tank is 70s to low 80s.

*Side note: H lost a handful of minnows. For about a week or so after setting up the tank, each day a minnow was missing.  H's original female ADF ate them. L's female ADF in Tank C ate a large cory catfish and then perished, probably due to trying to digest the sharp fins of the catfish. We suggest carefully considering whether or not to have fish in with ADF's. The frogs will snap at the fins/tails or even latch onto them. This is fine if the fish are feeder fish. see pg 8

Tank E - Ten gallon glass tank half full of water, topped with a light, "Smallworld" filter/air pump, small heater, three ADF's [Jack, Janet and Jim], feeder guppys, snails, and live plants. The original Tank E was a three gallon plastic tank with a smallworld filter/air pump and has been retired.

Tank F- was a betta sized holding tank with algae, infusoria, snails, and daphnia. It held less than a pint of spring water and has no heat, light, or air pump. This was my recycling and holding tank during cleanings. It has been retired and we've been using our suction hose for cleanings leaving the fish & frogs in the tank so as to disturb everyone less.

Flask A - holds brine shrimp & eggs & salt water and is hooked up to an air pump. Which we only occasionally use if we have tadpoles or to diversify our feedings for our fish.