In need of some ACF froglet advice

[sabre]

Hey all! Hopefully if you guys don't know, someone can point me toward someone who does. I recently (Tuesday Afternoon) acquired what I was told were African Dwarf Clawed Froglets only to discover that they were ten young African Clawed Frogs (three tadpoles, two still absorbing their tails, and five newly morphed froglets). I got them from an elementary school teacher who had them in the classroom so her students could watch them morph so I figured they were probably ACFs...but I didn't realize there would be tads and froglets both.

So, a tiny bit of scrambling and much head-scratching later...I decided to put their terribly small container of only three inches of water in the basement (which is probably a bit too low in temp now that the weather changed abruptly from high 80s to low 70s. Ugh.) so that they wouldn't overheat while I acclimated them to my dechlorinated aged tap water which I'm sure is quite different from whatever spring/distilled/bottled water they had. Some sites say change the water daily, others say daily water changes will kill the tads so you should only do a small water change once a week (if ever while they're still tads ). So I've just been taking out a little bit of water and junk off the bottom. Probably done maybe a quarter change over the last couple of days. Everyone seems to be doing alright with the changes so I hope I'm acclimating them slowly enough. But this is leading to some other questions.

1) One of the newly-morphed froglets (still has a teeny tiny nub of a tail as of today) is the largest at about nickel size. The smallest froglet is dime-sized. Do I need to be concerned that dime-froglet will become a snack? I'm trying to feed them enough without overfeeding them. (Zoomed tad/frog bites atm. I'm ordering HBH but it will be a couple days. They seem to like the Zoomed well enough. Nice feeding response from everyone when it's put in). But according to some, I absolutely should not separate the froglets until all of them have morphed. On the other hand, Nickel Froglet has gotten noticeably bigger since Tuesday while Dime Froglet has stayed about the same. I notice occasionally that a couple of froglets will get into a tussle over the same bit of food (at least I think that's what they are doing when they are both heading for some food and one seems to grab onto another 'by mistake.' I'm 'feeding as directed' as best I can at the moment, but as many of them are around the same size, it's difficult for me to make sure everyone is getting their fair share.

2) When froglets are...well...froglets, is it actually possible for me to overfeed them, or can I just keep dumping in pinches of food every five minutes or so for about an hour until the food stops disappearing (which is kind of what the bottle says) or just drop in 'x' number of pellets per frog and call it a day (which is also what the bottle says).

3) I'm pretty sure that two of the tads are starting to morph. They look like they have fully developed front and back legs, and one of them was completely uninterested in food today, but just wanted to rest around like the froglets do. The last tad barely has nubs for front legs. This is another 'when to separate' question as I'd like to move everyone into a larger set up which I can hopefully manage the water conditions (temperature, changes, etc) a bit easier.

4) How deep is too deep for the water level? I have 20 gallon tank that I'd like to put them in as a bridge between ridiculously small container and 90 gallon tank (I have a 50 gallon rubbermaid in between if need be). I'd like to skip the 10 gallon so I don't have to just move them in again in a month or so, but I don't want to drown them by filling the 20 gallon up higher than they can swim. Nobody seems to be having trouble making the three inches they're in now to come up for air. Does anyone have a ballpark figure for me, or should I just start with about six inches and 'build up' an inch a week or something? Would it help if I constructed a 'low water area' like people do for turtles?

5) If I only fed the froglets in either a feeding dish or pellets from the surface (occasionally their current pellets float but they've been champs about figuring it out and doing alright thus far. One took in a little air the first time I fed them, but he was back down comfortably within ten minutes), how early would it be safe to put in a substrate like pool filter sand (really fine grain)? I don't want to hurt them, but I've got them some little terra cotta pots for them to hide in in the tank and I'd rather not have to silicone them to little saucers or something to get them to stay in one place and not roll around without a substrate. But if that's what they need, it's what they need.

I tend to be a bit of a worry wart when it comes to my wet pets and furry friends. I appreciate any and all advice anyone on here has to give.

 

[somerss]

I have 2 African clawed frogs in a 10 gallon tank. They are about 10 months old. One of the frogs has gotten bigger than the other just in the last month not alot just some larger. They have been clicking and singing. The larger one is holding onto the other one and its arms have turned dark. Sometimes they are locked together for hours at a time. I know that the one holding on is suppose to be the male and I am not sure if the other is a female or not but they are not suppose to be able to mate either way. My question is, since they will never actually be able to produce will they just keep on and is this bad for them in than it seems exhausting?

 

[sabre]

The one with the dark hands would definitely be a male, somerss. I do wonder why you think they aren't physically capable of reproduction, though.

I popped over to frogforum.net (It's run and populated by some of the same people if I'm not mistaken) and posted these same questions. I finally separated them all yesterday as the last tad is about a week behind and the smallest froglet was being left behind developmentally (it's only about half the size of the largest froglet now) so I've got the tad in one container, the small froglet in one container, and the nearly morphed frogpoles and the rest of the froglets in a different container.

So here's an update with the answers I've found/received for my questions.

1) Yes. Small froglets can become lunch. But I haven't figured out how small is 'small enough to fit in mouth.' Since I didn't really want to find out, I consider that a success. xD

2) Apparently it is possible to overfeed them. The way I'm doing it--put in a pinch, check back in twenty minutes and put in another pinch if they've cleared things up and remove whatever's left in an hour--is apparently not going to overfeed them. I guess they can self-regulate? The next thing to do is work on variety in their diet.

3) The tads mentioned are now a day or so away from being froglets. They have been separated by size to the large froglet container.

4) Members at frogforum.net have reported success with keeping froglets in 20H (15" max) and full adults at greater depths (so long as they are really ACFs!) but suggest having something that either reaches the surface or floats at the surface so they can rest in it if they want to to make surfacing easier. Another suggestion was to wean them to greater depths to allow them time to adjust. That step may or may not be necessary--and almost certainly isn't necessary for depths of 12".

5) I've been told they should be fine sand safe at their current size but I'm still worried about it. I'll probably wait til they get bigger just because I'm paranoid. lol

Now I have other questions like whether or not dirted tanks are safe, and random questions about specific brands of food to increase the variety in their diet. But they're still too small for most pellets and turtle bites/sticks.