Aggressive African Dwarf Frog??????

[dirtbikindame]

Hello,

I'm new here. I have a small tank that holds about 2 gal of water and has an aerator and no filter. I have 3 dwarf frogs in it. Two of the frogs are a light gray color and the other one is a dark almost black color. I have been told that the black one is a male???? and the other two are female although they all have the "bump" on their rear that indicates to me that they are all female???? Anyway, here's my question..... Of the two light colored frogs, one will grab the other and give it a bear hug ~ head to head. I have seen them do this three times now and I have to flick the tank to get them to quit. The one doing the squeezing holds on really tight just behind the other one's front legs. One time the frog that was being squeezed looked like it was being suffocated because it's arm was twitching. Once they are free from each other, they act fine. For the most part, they all get along with each other and really don't even interact with the darker frog. I'm just wondering if anyone here has ever heard of these frogs ever showing any sign of aggression .... if the darker frog is a male, are they fighting over it? Should I try to get another male?

Thanks in advance for your replies

 

[McG]

I've heard that is what ADF's do.

 

[Nutfarm]

I've never heard of aggressive frogs (african dwarfs). You could be dealing with a fight for dominance, however, I haven't heared of that happening before either.

I'd suggest anger management theropy for the aggressor and abuse counceling for the victim.

Actually, I won't worry about it. Especially if they're just recently introduced to eachoter, they're probably just getting to know one another.

 

[Lotus]

Are you sure you don't have an African clawed frog in there with ADFs?

 

[Balloon Fish]

"Breeding and tadpoles:
When the weather gets warm, they get very ...cuddly. The male clasps the back of the female and hangs on. When the male grabs the female around her midsection, it's called amplecting. The female tends to do a dance like swishing of her flippers at this time. They can swim around like that for hours. When they actually mate, they swim around in loops in the tank, so it looks like they are doing circus acts. Once in a blue moon the eggs they lay will hatch...(you can usually tell that the eggs aren't going to survive if they look cloudy or milky- this means that they have gotten some air exposure and won't be able to hatch.) "

this paragraph was from http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/mypets/dwarfs.html, this website is about adf's anyways i remember seeing a pic with the frogs hugging but don't remember where it was but i hope this helps

 

[Balloon Fish]

ok i found the pic http://www.fishpondinfo.com/frog4.htm, go down a little its in the middle of the website

 

[dirtbikindame]

Thanks for all the replies! I doubt this is mating because the one doing the hugging is hugging the wrong end. I'm not sure what they are doing but it looks like the one getting hugged could die if left that way too long??????

 

[Balloon Fish]

lol well i wish my frogs were like that i got 2 of them and ones a female and ones a male but they've never even noticed each other :/ all they've done is lay on top of each other for a minute then kick of and swim away

 

[LadySarah]

I had two african dwarf frogs. But the first one, a small male died about a week ago. The other a larger male died on saturday. My tank is a ten gallon that is less than a month old so I think that they may have gotten ammonia poisoning. Well actually the second one looks like he got dropsy. But anyhow, they were never aggresive towards each other despite the size difference. Infact the big one was about twice the size of the other one. Also, they were introduced at different times. They actually were like little buddies they would hang out near each other without attacking each other and would sleep next to each other. So your problem is a new one to me. But I would think that if they are about the same size it is probably a fight for the Alpha position in the tank.

 

[Balloon Fish]

all males and female dwarf frogs get along real great thats why its good to have about 3 or more frogs in a tank because they like each other's company

 

[FrogLady]

Solution

We recently baught another Africna Dwarf frog, and our previous frog was aggressive with the new frog. Our old frog swam behind the new frog and squeezed, like a bear hug, the new frog and a big air bubble came out of the new frogs mouth. He ultimately was holding the new frog down so he was unable to come to the top and get air. We had so seperate them from fighting with a butter knife, disconnecting them and bringing them to the top for air.

Reason: The reason this is happening is because the old frog feels as though the new frog is intruding on his territory, much like other animals, and is willing to fight and even eliminate the new frog (threat).


Solution: What we have done is we emptied out almost all of the water (we left about 2" of water above the primary base rocks) and took out all of the plants and decorative rocks. The fighting stopped and we will clean the tank and return the water the next day with what they think is a whole new environment and the feelins of intrusion will be gone.

 

[Kiara1125]

FrogLady, please note that this thread is over 8 years old. Please don't bring up old threads, even if you have a solution. The possibility of these people seeing it now (after such a long time) are slim.