Frog Feeding Tube

[ohwhen]

I don't know who out there besides me keeps an African Dwarf tank but I've maintained a 10 gallon with three frogs for a few years. I've primarily been hand feeding them defrosted frozen bloodworms and occasionally a high quality pellet. They are used to getting fed in the front right area of the tank and I recently decided to streamline the process and make a frog straw.

I made a new tank lid from multiwall polycarbonate, drilled a hole in it, and have run an acrylic tube down to where they're used to being fed. The inside diameter of the tube is 8mm so I don't think there's any danger of escape—at best they could stick their snout in it.

Instead of defrosting and hand feeding, now I can drop frozen worms in the tube. As they defrost, they drop to the feeding area. The frogs will notice the smell in the water before they drop and start to gather (three raps on the tank also signifies feeding time for them).

I wanted to share this in case anyone is looking for an easier way to feed their ADFs.

[mynameisnobody]

This is fairly common in the saltwater hobby. 

[ohwhen]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:51 PM, mynameisnobody said:

This is fairly common in the saltwater hobby. 

Okay. Perhaps it will help someone exclusively searching for ADF feeding ideas. When I researched years ago, I saw people recommend inserting a tube in the water but never saw any setups that integrated it in a way that was hands off (most the recommended feeding strategies involved a turkey baster which seems even more tedious than tweezers).

[mynameisnobody]

@ohwhen I didn’t say you shouldn’t document it. I did say it was common. 

[HelplessNewbie]

This is very elegant looking. Nice work!

I don't have frogs but bottom feeder fish that get outraced to the food. My plan is similar: to install 4 black pipes spaced evenly along the back wall of the tank. The top ends will be just at the rim of the tank.

Will go with black so the other fish won't see the food falling through. I tried clear pipe before as an experiment, but they simply followed the food down to the bottom end.

At feeding time, while the fast fish are distracted at surface feeding; I will randomly pick a pipe to drop food into. The hope is the fast fish cannot predict which pipe the food come from.

[Biotope Biologist]

Now you just need a button that they can press when they’re hungry! 
 

I really like how unobtrusive it is to the rest of the tank. Good job!

[ohwhen]

On 5/3/2024 at 6:18 PM, HelplessNewbie said:

This is very elegant looking. Nice work!

I don't have frogs but bottom feeder fish that get outraced to the food. My plan is similar: to install 4 black pipes spaced evenly along the back wall of the tank. The top ends will be just at the rim of the tank.

Will go with black so the other fish won't see the food falling through. I tried clear pipe before as an experiment, but they simply followed the food down to the bottom end.

At feeding time, while the fast fish are distracted at surface feeding; I will randomly pick a pipe to drop food into. The hope is the fast fish cannot predict which pipe the food come from.

I love this idea! Do you have snails in your tank? I was doing my water changes today and two snails had made their way up the tube to collect a little of the detritus leftover. Something to watch out for, especially if the tubes are black and you can't see inside them.

[HelplessNewbie]

@ohwhen Yes, I do! I am counting on the bladder snails and amano shrimp to clean up. The mystery snail is too big to enter.

[AtomicSunfish]

Neat idea! I’ve had ADFs in a 10g with bladder snails for years, too. Gotta have the snails to clean up after the messy frogs. Mine get frozen brine shrimp and blood worms, both of which they love, especially the brine shrimp (although I gather that’s not as nutritious). I’ve also offered ADF sinking pellets, but they don’t really like them; sometimes they’ll take them if offered along with the thawed invertebrates.

ADFs are very tricky to keep with fish, which usually outcompete them for food (in nature, amphibians typically go where fish cannot). I like the ADF-snail combo in a nice, shallow 10g. Maybe someday I’ll try a 20-long, which is the same height as a 10g (1 foot), but the same area as a 29g (20” x 10”).

I’ve learned the hard way to keep up the water quality, because if that deteriorates, the frogs get sick with bloat / dropsy and die. Looks like your technique is a good way to help prevent ammonification from uneaten food, so that’s great!

Edited May 5 by AtomicSunfish