My female african dwarf frog is the more dominant one in the tank and gets more food so she is really fat, the other one is normal I think. The problem is that at feeding time if the male gets a piece of food the female with hit him in the stomach until he spits it out and if he tries to get away she grabs his foot in her mouth. Why is she doing this, is there anything I can do about it? I think that the male still gets enough food but I think the female gets a bit too much, she's more than twice as fat, I could try to get a pic, u'd b surprised at the big difference.

I've only kept single frogs but I would be a little worried. If she continues to grow like that (and feamales are larger anyway, so odds are she will) she may really hurt him. Any way you could sepearte them, at least during feeding time? Maybe put him in a breeding basket or something?

I have a breeding trap (a small plastic one and a bigger net one), u think I shoud put him in there at feeding time? I just dont wanna hurt him when catching him cause he's rather shy,r there any alternatives to nets for the frogs for catching them?? Poor thing really freaked out yesterday when she grabbed his foot. This only happens at feeding time usually.

How big is the tank they're in? Would it work if you fed them at different ends?

It is tough trying to figure out how not to stress them hey? Hopefully someone else will have a suggestion

the tank is 5 gallons. It doesnt matter where I feed them, the female is like a bulldozer, once she goes through nothing can stand in her way and she gets food everywhere, the male often is too scared to eat the food when she's nearby. I have hiding spaces for them, thats where he spends alot of time in the evening around feeding time and comes out only if he cant see the female.

How long has this been going on? Isn't 5 gallons a little small for them though?

they dont need much space, 5 gallons is plenty for them, I did lots of research before getting them. I just saw this the first time yesterday but the female has always been more dominant.

Could you put a tank divider in there?

there r no dividers for 5 gallon tanks

You don't have to buy everything, you could make one

Go the craft section of wallyworld. They have these *cheap* sheets of plastic mesh. I think they're for weaving on??
They make perfect dividers, you can trim them to fit your tank. I have a 5 gal with my snail in it, but if I ever need to move a fish in there I just pop the divider in so the two aren't together. It doesn't even look that bad.

maybe i'll do that cause yesterday she attacked the male again.

Yea, you should take some action before it really gets bad and good luck

I'll ask my mom if we can go to wallyworld soon, poor froggy isnt getting that much to eat ever since this started and the other frog just keeps getting fatter and fatter and FATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry about him not eating for a bit, they can go a long time. I have an OLD clawed frog and he will only eat if I drop the food in his little hands (I think he's blind), so if he's not at the surface of the tank I can't feed him. It means he only eats every other day, but he's still plenty fat

Keep us posted on your little ones!

not weaving, cross-stitch

That's the one!

we might go there this saturday if the weather is good . Poor little guy hides every time the female comes into sight, she's got control over the poor thing. He keeps looking at me with his sad little eyes like he's saying "get her away from me before she eats me!!!!!" lol. I dont know why she's doing this all of a sudden, they used to get along great, what might b the reason for this?

Sounds like a Bridezilla!

lol. R dwarf frogs usually agressive to each other like that?

I'm not sure if they're always agressive. I do know that my clawed frog (the bigger version) basically stuffs anything in it's mouth that moves. Maybe your female is just over excited at feeding time!

maybe but I dont want my male to get hurt

For sure, sounds like a divider is still your best bet. One thing I remembered, again about clawed frogs, is that females prefer to eat their food from the surface and males off the bottom. I don't know if you could try to feed two different types of food (sinking/floating) and see if that would help?

Poor guy....

really? I've never heard of that before and anyways, any food that floats she ignores but food on the bottom she'll go for immediately

maybe you could feed them more often. that way the female will be too stuffed to want any more food.
I don't know whether or not this would work, and at this point there is no telling how big the female would get, but you could just give it a try

Hope this helped

J

One of the first rules of keeping any type of animal is not to overfeed them

this is not a viable solution, and since she has posted this a few days earlier she may have already fixed it

sorry but that sounds like a horrible idea. I managed to find some kind of plastic mesh at wallyworld, not sure exactly what its called and it looks absolutely horrible in the tank but its keeping them seperated so Im happy

I never said it was pretty LOL. Glad to hear it worked though, hopefully you can fatten up that male now.

I fed him a bit extra yesterday, the female started pushing the divider to make her side bigger lol, Im gonna have to secure it with suction cups or something similar to keep their sides even

Hahaha, she sounds like quite the bully!

yeah, she suddenly became such a mean little froggy, I dunno why....

That's hilarious, pushing the divider. Sorry she's got such a bad attitude tho.

Hopefully the divider will work, he'll get fattened up, then be able to hold his own against her. That sounds like a good solution.

I'm sure she's not that bad...frogs just want to eat eat eat, even if it is their own kind!!!

Wow super frog, pushing her barrier like that!

yeah, everytime I check on them her side seems to be getting bigger and bigger lol. I'll keep them like this for probably 1-2 months and then try removing it and see how they get along.

thats crazy frog managed to lift the divider and crawl under it! Luckily the male was able to hide until I came and pushed her back over the her side, I dug the divider deep into the gravel now, she shouldnt b able to move that now!

Oh wow lol! That frog is a maniac

she wont stop at anything! I think she was trying to get at his food lol

And did you say she's a dwarf?? That's impressive, it's the hulk frog!!!

haahahahahahaha I cracked up on that one!

she's supposed to be a dwarf frog I hope my brother didnt let her near an energy drink lol

I just hope she doesnt learn to climb over it lol!

Shamu african dwarf frogs (the tiny ones) have very poor eyesight, so it may seem like she is attacking him but in fact may be just trying to get at the food. I have a pair in my snail tank, and sometimes it looks like they 'bite' at the air or whatever is close to them. That is because their vision is so poor. I have noticed that at feeding time, I feed them at the same time every night, and I drop the sinking pellets right in front of them, and they are quickly learning the routine. I hope this helps a bit.

How are they doing lately? Are they still separated?

Im gonna keep them seperated for awhile still. I got some advice on a frog site, they told me to put live food in the tank so that there is always food and they dont get over excited at feeding time.

That's a good tip. Goldyfan is right, they do have really bad eyesight, they rely more on lateral line to sense vibrations. I have to tap the water with my finger when I feed my geezer of a frog , and half the time he bites my finger, not the food!

Are they nearsighted or farsighted? If they are nearsighted, they should be able to see clearly something close to them. For example, Goldies are very nearsighted and can only see clearly about a foot in front of them. They too rely heavily on lateral lines.

Maybe your finger looks more tasty to him than the food.

Hahaha, I always thought they were extremely near sightned. But my frog is also ancient, so maybe he's just gone blind with old age

maybe I will buy a brine shrimp hatching kit and see if they like those. My male has been fattening up a little and my female is on a diet lol.

Live food sounds like a good idea. I bet they'll like that!




Watch out Chrissy...he might think your finger is a fat little worm on his dinner menu.