# Big fat dwarf frog?



## ripit (Aug 8, 2012)

I got 2 dwarf frogs maybe 2+ months ago. They looked about the same when I got them. Maybe a couple of weeks after I got them, one suddenly got fat (seemed over night it got a huge belly). I read up about them swallowing a piece of gravel, disease, eating dried food that expands in them etc. The same night, I very pregnant guppy became not so pregnant (must have had the fry and we were wondering if the frog ate them all as the frogs hang around in the same plant the fry hide in). The frog seems to be getting fatter, and fatter, little by little. I'm guessing its not disease or it would have been dean long ago. I feed the frogs maybe 1-2 times a week only (hbh pellets). I can only assume it is eating fish food or plants (I have live plants). Its fat enough it can sit on the bottom on its belly with its legs not touching. It moves around fine but kind of slow and cumbersome (like you would expect from a really fat frog). I did a little searching and saw others that got fat but this one seems to be taking it to the extreme. Is this normal for some frogs? I can not find the duration of carrying eggs for frogs but it has been getting fatter for probably at least a month and a half. 

fat_frog Photo Gallery by Richard Homeyer at pbase.com

Click on any pic and then choose large at the bottom.


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

looked at pics.I have had albino clawed frogs(gets big enough to eat or try to eat mice!), and yours are fat ,sorta. They eat what fits in ther mouth, and if it doesn't fit , they'll push.I don't know if pregnant ? Not super fat! They eat anything(kinda mean) or at least superior in predation. Got any of those fry?


----------



## ripit (Aug 8, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> looked at pics.I have had albino clawed frogs(gets big enough to eat or try to eat mice!), and yours are fat ,sorta. They eat what fits in ther mouth, and if it doesn't fit , they'll push.I don't know if pregnant ? Not super fat! They eat anything(kinda mean) or at least superior in predation. Got any of those fry?


None of the fry remained. There are 6 fry from previous drops that we saved (2 fish dropped close together so we saved the 6 ones that hid well enough to survive for a little while till we separated them). They are getting pretty big (maybe half adult size or bigger on some). There is also one lone fry that is fairly new. It's still quite small but for some reason no one tries to eat it. I also have at least one molly fry in another tank (maybe 2 or more, they are pretty good at hiding which is probably why they survived). The tank is already over crowded so I probably wouldn't have tried to save more. I have another tank some can go in when they get bigger (still a little small to go with mollies I'm guessing). Ultimately I would like to upgrade my 15 gal to a 20-30 gal and retire the 15 (or use as a hospital tank) which might solve the crowding problem.


----------



## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Check directly behind your frog's front leg. (Not under where the arm pit is, but directly behind the arm.) Is there a "white spot?" A little white spot means you have a male, but if there's no spot AND if there is a small bump between the frogs legs, then you have a girl. Girl frogs tend to me larger than the males and more round. http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/4c716c18c6e556bd7dccef86aff9b08c6674ce52.pjpg

It could also possibly be "bloat." I'm not sure how long it takes for bloat to progress.

Please stop feeding them pellets though. They should only be fed frozen or live foods. I feed mine frozen blood worms and frozen glass worms. I use a pair of 10" tweezers to feed them. When I first got them, I would "click" the tweezers in the water and also gently tap them on the glass when I fed the frogs. It only took them a few times to relate the click/tapping to feeding time, and now they come out eagerly to be fed every time. I feed mine every other day. I use about half a cube of frozen food for both frogs. It's best to feed them in the evenings or right before bed, as they are nocturnal and will be more interested in eating at that time.


----------



## ripit (Aug 8, 2012)

holly12 said:


> Check directly behind your frog's front leg. (Not under where the arm pit is, but directly behind the arm.) Is there a "white spot?" A little white spot means you have a male, but if there's no spot AND if there is a small bump between the frogs legs, then you have a girl. Girl frogs tend to me larger than the males and more round. http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/4c716c18c6e556bd7dccef86aff9b08c6674ce52.pjpg
> 
> It could also possibly be "bloat." I'm not sure how long it takes for bloat to progress.
> 
> Please stop feeding them pellets though. They should only be fed frozen or live foods. I feed mine frozen blood worms and frozen glass worms. I use a pair of 10" tweezers to feed them. When I first got them, I would "click" the tweezers in the water and also gently tap them on the glass when I fed the frogs. It only took them a few times to relate the click/tapping to feeding time, and now they come out eagerly to be fed every time. I feed mine every other day. I use about half a cube of frozen food for both frogs. It's best to feed them in the evenings or right before bed, as they are nocturnal and will be more interested in eating at that time.


Thanks for the info on gender. So far as I can tell it is a female. When It first started I looked up the possibilities and so far as I can tell, most things like bloat disease, dropsy, swallowed a piece of gravel would have killed it a while ago (it's been this way for a good month and a half or more). I did give one bit of misleading information though (not on purpose). At the time it started, I feed frozen blood worms, freeze dried shrimp pellets, and baby brine shrimp (the baby brine shrimp was for a previous batch of guppy fry but it was in the tank). I also feed flakes for the fish. I didn't feed all these at once but alternated. 

I quit feeding blood worms because I read feeding nothing but bloodworms could cause dropsy (from the bacteria in the bloodworms intestines). The frogs didn't seem to like them anyway (they would either ignore them or bite at them a little and spit them out without eating them). I do still have a mostly full package of frozen blood worms. 

It's possible the frog ate a freeze dried shrimp pellet and it expanded inside, but I quit feeding them shortly after. In part because I read about them getting swallowed whole and expanding, but also because nobody would eat them, and if I missed even one tiny bit, it would rapidly get a huge bloom of fungus (something with that particular brand I think). I had a huge fungus problem in another tank from them. I do not feed the baby brine shrimp because all the fry are bigger now (though I still have some frozen baby brine shrimp left and on rare occasion I feed them in general to all the fish as a treat). 


The pellets I am currently feeding are hbh frog, newt & tadpole bits. They are a small soft pellet (not freeze dried). I don't know if its relevant (just happened to notice it) but it seems I have seen recommendations for feeding frozen peas if fish etc have a blockage or bloat. The 5 th ingredient in the hbh bits is dried ground peas (not sure if it is meant for nutritional value or if maybe it keeps them regular). 

So it it ok to keep feeding the hbh bits? They were recommended on another forum and they are intended for frogs. The frogs seem to like them too (I have seen them eat them on several occasions and they seem to disappear meaning someone is eating them). I could start feeding blood worms now and then too (if the frogs won't eat them, the fish will).


----------



## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

That is so weired that yours don't like the blood worms! From everyone I've talked to (and including my own frogs,) they LOVE them!! Mine won't eat brine shrimp - they will spit them out. Someone said it's probably the salt and to try rinsing them in a coffee filter. So far I've just stuck with Blood worms and Glass worms.

When I first got them, I was feeding them the two kinds of worms and also feeding the soft HBH pellets that you have, but I stopped after reading that pellets can cause blockages. Mine did seem to like them, IF they could find them... ADF's don't see too well.

So, basically, if the pellets seem to be working for you and your frogs, then just stick with it. You can try the blood worms again if you want, and try the brine shrimp too.


----------



## ripit (Aug 8, 2012)

I don't see any harm in occasionally using blood worms. I bought them for the frogs as plenty of people recommend them but the fish seem to love them as do the ghost shrimp so they will get eaten and they will be there if the frogs want them. I might try baby blood worms too. These are pretty large so maybe that's why the frogs don't like them? I have no idea if they are eating the brine shrimp. They are baby brine shrimp (bought for guppy fry) and they are so small it's hard to tell who is eating them. The fish do seem to go for them. I tried the blood worms in my other tank but only some of the mollies got some (I think). A whole frozen cubes worth thawed in a cup of tank water lasted about 3 seconds (they went completely insane).


----------

