Skinny Xenopus   9/21/11
Hello,
<Hello,>
I have 4 ACF's (2 male and 2 female) that are all 4 - 4 1/2 years old, housed in a 30 gallon tank. (I realize this may be a bit small for them, that they should be in at least 40 gallons).
<Indeed, but shouldn't be an immediate cause of problems.>
They have been housed the same for at least 3 1/2 years, with 2 filtration systems and a water heater that is set to 75º.
<Sounds good, but do let them cool down in the winter a bit. 72 F/22 C is about right for the winter months. This replicates the subtropical seasons a bit better, and ensures overall better health. But again, unlikely to be a serious cause of problems.>
They are fed both ReptoMin pellets and freeze-dried blood worms about 2 - 3 times a week (read other places that we are not supposed to feed every day/every other day?).
<I'm not too stringent on this aspect. Yes, daily feeding is unnecessary, but at the same time, daily feeding won't cause problems if the water quality is good. The main thing is you have clean water (0 nitrite and 0 ammonia) and frogs that are neither skinny nor fat, but gently rounded about the abdomen.>
We recently started feeding, as a treat, frozen cubes of shrimp. (Not sure what brand...bought at Petco. Tiny shrimp frozen into cubes). We have also fed earthworms as a treat once every few months or so. Their tank is also bedded with small gravel rocks (the colored type). I know from reading about these frogs that these types of rocks are not recommended, but we had never had any problems with them before, so we never removed them.
<Again, rocks are unlikely to cause problems if they're smooth. Jagged rocks are a serious risk, as is sharp gravel. Rounded gravel might annoy the frogs because they can't dig, but shouldn't cause problems. Occasionally frogs swallow gravel, and that is serious, but it's a rare problem. Smooth silica sand is the ideal.>
We also treat the water with Amquel Plus.
<Good.>
A few weeks ago, we noticed that one of our males was getting unusually skinny. He had lost all of the black coloring on his arms/fingers, and looked to be very emaciated. His veins also appeared to be a much brighter red and more visible than the veins on the other 3. We observed all 4 ACF's when we fed them, and this particular frog seemed to be so lethargic that he either refused to or could not swim to the top to feed.
<This sounds like a bacterial infection. "Red Leg" is particularly common. See here for ideas on treatment:
http://www.xenopus.com/disease.htm
>
We tried doing a water change and tried to feed more of the frozen shrimp cubes (once thawed, they would sink to the bottom) in order to give him a fair chance to eat. It seemed like he was hungry and searching for the food, but most of the time he appeared to be lost. He would just keep swimming side to side, but never up. (He would go up for air every once in a while, but would never stay to eat). We decided to remove him from the larger tank and quarantine him. The others are eating just fine and do not appear to be acting strangely. They also appear normal physically, except for our biggest female (please see last picture attached - skin discoloration: might be hard to see. Her skin has always been somewhat yellow compared to the others. Picture is trying to show lighter/whiter spots on her skin. Look between eyes and on her back, closer to the left arm.)
Thinking our quarantined frog had some sort of bacterial infection, we began treating the water with Pimafix (made by API, described as an Antifungal Fish Remedy...bottle indicates it also treats internal and external bacterial infections.) I bought this to try only after speaking to somebody at Petco. This did not seem to help any.
<Pimafix won't help here. At best, this medication is a preventative, like the sort of thing you'd add to a cut or graze to prevent infection. It's a fairly mild medication and doesn't do anything to treat bacterial infections once established in the fish or frog.>
In the quarantine tank, he seems to be eating okay. He is now going to the top to eat. In addition to pellets and blood worms, we have also been feeding earth worms more often (not in the same feeding), trying to bulk up his diet in order to put some more weight back on him? He now has the black marks on his fingers/arms again, but is still extremely thin. He has been in this quarantine tank for approximately 2 weeks, and we do not notice any poop in his tank. With the amount that we have been feeding and watching him consume, if he was not pooping, I would assume that he would be bloated, as if he were blocked. When he has not eaten, he appears really thin around the waist/stomach area. His legs also still look very thin (like you can see his bones more).
I cannot seem to find any useful information on ACF's getting thin while still eating plenty. I have attached several pictures (best I could take at the moment). The lone frog is the skinny one that I am emailing about. I have also included several pictures of the other 3, to give you an idea of how big the others are. The pictures of the lone frog are about 15-20 minutes after a feeding of blood worms. I would assume that if he had swallowed a gravel rock and was impacted, that he would be getting bloated more and more after each meal? If you think this is because of a swallowed rock, are there any ways that I can help him pass it? If you think this is more of an internal infection, can you recommend any treatments? Any advice or suggestions that you could give would be more than appreciated.
Thanks,
Rachel
<Do note that Red Leg is easier to prevent than cure. Xenopus are hardy, and can live 20 years. But they have their limits, any a combination of stress factors including physical damage can make them vulnerable to Red Leg. Hope this helps. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Skinny Xenopus 9/22/11
Neale,
Thank you for the quick reply.
<You're most welcome.>
I plan on picking up some Maroxy 2 this evening/tomorrow.
Just a couple of side notes: I emailed you guys a couple of years ago with a picture of my from with ammonia burns/septicemia. (The homepage picture for Xenopus Disease). After a dose of Maroxy 2, an added filtration system, and proper water changes, he healed up just fine and is doing well!
<Always good to hear a positive outcome.>
Also, I was reading your Xenopus Reproduction section and noticed that you didn't have any pictures up. It also sounds like most people don't have any idea what the frogs will look like when mating. I just wanted to send you a couple of pictures that you could add to your site if you wish. Like I said, we have 2 males and 2 females. All 4 were going at it in these pics.
<Please do send those along! Would be happy to add them to whichever article they'd fit best it!>
Again, thanks for your help.
Rachel
<Best wishes, Neale.>
Re: Skinny Xenopus
Hi Neale,
<Rachel,>
I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction. I believe we have jacked up our tank cycle. I have two tanks setup. The first is the 30 gallon that all 4 ACF's reside in. The other is a 5 gallon quarantine tank.
(This tank was never properly cycled...trying to do that now).
The 30 gallon tank is showing 0 Ammonia and Nitrites, somewhere between 30-40 Nitrates, and the pH level, no matter what I do, continues to plummet to 6.0 (possibly lower).
<Does sound as if the aquarium lacks carbonate hardness. Use a carbonate hardness test kit (sometimes called a KH test kit and more or less equivalent to an alkalinity test kit). Carbonate hardness measures the amount of carbonate and bicarbonate in the water, and it's these that prevent pH drops. Alkalinity isn't quite the same thing -- water can be alkaline because of things other than carbonate or bicarbonate -- but again, the higher the alkalinity, the more the water resists pH drops. In your case, you're after a moderately high carbonate hardness or alkalinity.>
I have even tried pH 7.5 (API) to raise the pH level, but it never holds.
<Often don't. These buffers tend to assume you already have reasonably high levels of carbonate hardness. E.g., in a Rift Valley aquarium, you've got a coral sand substrate and Rift Valley salt mix in the water.>
I used the recommended dose for the 30 gallon and it raised the pH from 6.0 (or whatever is was at prior, possibly in the 5's) to approximately 7.0.
Now, 3 days later, I am closer to 6.4 and dropping. From what I have read, and from the local pet store owners I have spoken with, Nitrates and pH go hand in hand.
<No, they don't. Nitrate can form nitric acid in water, and yes, this lowers pH. But in most aquaria this effect is trivial. The major sources of pH drop are accumulation of organic acids from the biological filter and general decay of organic material including plants within the tank. CO2 from livestock will also lower pH.>
The higher Nitrates rise, the more unstable and acidic your pH can be. I know that when a tank is properly cycled, Ammonia and Nitrites will drop to 0 while Nitrates will start to rise. With weekly and routine water changes, you should be able to keep Nitrates in check.
The 5 gallon tank had housed the sickly frog, with a carbon filter. When we began treating with Maracyn 2, we removed the filter and did not replace.
The only filter cartridge in the filter system now is the black filter that came with the system. I do not have any rocks or livestock in this tank at this time. I assumed (and probably incorrectly), that the bacteria that had grown on the black filter would be sufficient to cycle this tank. We removed about 75-80% of the water that was treated with Maracyn 2 and replaced with Amquel Plus conditioned water. After this, Ammonia and Nitrites were reading 0.25, Nitrates were 5ppm, and pH was approximately 7.4. Now, 3 days later, Ammonia and Nitrites are closer to 0.50, Nitrates have remained constant at 5ppm, but pH has plummeted to 6.0 (possibly lower).
pH straight out of our tap is above 8.0. From what I have heard, from online and from pet store owners, Amquel Plus can lower pH SOME, but not by this much. Do you have any ideas? Are you guys available to speak with over the phone? I am getting mixed messages from the local pet stores. Some say to add Nitrate reducing chemicals and pH stabilizers while others say to do a 10% water change once a day for a week to lower Nitrates and stabilize pH.
<Start reading here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwh2oquality.htm
Have a look at the Rift Valley salt mix, and make up new water using that, but to begin with, only use HALF the dosage recommended, since you don't need water as hard as Rift Valley cichlids. Another thing is to draw the water from the tap and let it sit overnight, and ideally 24 hours, so that any dissolved gases can evaporate. Some tap water is chemically unstable.
In the morning add 50% the recommended dose of Epsom salt, baking soda and marine aquarium salt mix, stir well, and then do your water change. (As you'll notice, you're using fractions of teaspoons of each chemical, so this is a really cheap way to buffer water.) Do this for the next week, changing 20% of the water in the aquarium each day. By the end of the week you should find the aquarium is very much more stable, and you should have water chemistry around about 10 degrees dH, 5-10 degrees KH, and about pH 7.5. Perfect for your frogs!>
At this point in time, I do not have a "safe" place for my frogs to live in if I have to cycle their tanks from scratch. I cannot seem to find any consistent information for cycling with livestock, or if this is even possible. Any suggestions or ideas you have would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rachel
<Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Skinny Xenopus   10/21/11
Hi Neale,
<Rachel,>
Just wanted to follow-up with you guys. I have attached a series of pictures. The first 4 are from when I first emailed you guys about my frog looking emaciated, refusing to eat, and while he was behaving as if he was lethargic (around Sept. 20, 2011). You had responded that this sounded like red leg. I began treating with Maracyn Two. (Treated for the full week and had removed the carbon filter during that period). After the full week of treatment, we replaced the carbon filter to end treatment. At that time, he was only willing to eat night crawlers.
A few days after the first round of Maracyn Two treatment, he took a turn for the worst. His toes/feet were tightly clamped. He started getting open sores on his "knees" and the webbing between his toes became infected and began to rot off. I read a little more into red leg and found that in the later stages, these frogs can start to develop open sores and their limbs will rot off. I also read that once it gets to this point, there is almost nothing you can do for the frog, that it is already terminal. Sure enough, his toes started to slowly rot away, down to the bone until the bones snapped off. Not willing to accept the fact that our frog was probably past the point of saving, we tried a full week of very aggressive antibiotic treatment. Once again, we removed the carbon filter and we began dosing with Maracyn Two AND Maracyn TC (Packages said both treat the same things expect that TC also treats septicemia). The packages for these medications say to dose once daily for a full week. We were dosing every twelve hours with each. (Basically quadrupling the recommended dosage - pet store owner suggested that he doses his fish/frogs with medicine every twelve hours when they are sick - he mentioned that after 12 hours, the frog/fish has absorbed everything they can from that dose). The next 4 pictures show his condition while treating with these two medications. (Maracyn Two causes the water to turn cloudy while the Maracyn TC turns the water orange).
While treating, the fuzziness on his toes went away (webbing completely disappeared), his toes were less red, and his sores actually started to heal. During this time, he also started to eat frozen blood worms in addition to night crawlers. And then we made a terrible decision....
We stopped treatment after a week. We were concerned with the cloudy/orange state of the water for longer than a week, especially since we were dosing him 4x the recommended dose. We replaced the carbon filter to stop the treatment. He was still eating at this point. We were (and still are) feeding him once a day with the frozen blood worms. He was willing and able to eat a whole cube. We figured as long as he was now eating and pooping regularly, that maybe we were headed in a good direction. But then his sores started to get worse, and he developed more. (One behind each arm and one on his back side). His toes also began to rot away more rapidly. During this period is when we noticed bare bone exposed/snapped off on his toes.
The next 2 pictures show this condition.
Kicking ourselves in the rear for stopping the double treatment with the Maracyn medications, we went back to the pet store to get more of each.
While there, they recommended we try KanaPlex (made by Seachem - active ingredient is Kanamycin). This medication says to dose once every 2 days, for a maximum of 3 doses. Again, we went with the more aggressive route.
Instead of every other day, we are treating with this medication once a day. We are also not going to stop treatment until his wounds are healed and he looks to be back to normal. We are on day 5 of this treatment and everything seems to be getting MUCH better. He has developed new webbing between his toes and it looks like he might be regenerating skin/meat on his toes with exposed bones. His sores also seem to be healing. During this entire period, he had also became so skinny that he lost his "fat packs", the large humps that these frogs use as energy storage around each kidney.
With daily feeding and a daily dose of this medication, he has "refilled" one pack and is working on the other.
With all of that being said, I do have a question or two.
1) Do you know at what point overdosing with any of these medications might become an issue? They seem to be working and not harming at this point, but is there a time limit that these doses might be good for? Will they eventually begin to do more harm than good? Also, have you had any experience with successful treatment of red leg once it gets to the point of rotting limbs off? From what I have read, a lot of websites recommend to euthanize once it gets to this stage.
<It's crucial to finish off all courses of antibiotics. Not only for your own use in a given situation, but because incomplete usage of antibiotics is one of the major reasons why so many dangerous bacteria have become antibiotic-resistant. Now, in general, they rarely cause harm to animals, so you can use them as often as you want. The only likely danger is to filter bacteria, but if the filter bacteria are okay, or you're able to keep the water clean in other ways (e.g., through use of Zeolite or very regular water changes) then this won't be a major worry. And yes, I agree:
once the bones are visible in the thigh or shins, it's time to euthanise.
The odd lost toe isn't a big deal if the frog isn't otherwise in trouble; amphibians may even regrow lost toes. But if Red Leg is happening, and the main part of the leg is infected, so much so the leg is clearly gangrenous, it's time to painlessly destroy the frog. I'm not an expert on euthanising frogs though. However, the RSPCA (the British equivalent of the ASPCA in the US, publish a document on Xenopus welfare that includes information on euthanasia.
http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232712646624&mode=prd
In a nutshell, they recommend MS-222, which may involve talking to a vet or animal rescue. A fish anesthetic like Clove Oil might work, but because frogs breathe air, and can hold their breath quite a long time, this isn't something I'd recommend unless you understand what you're aiming to do and how you'd prevent the frog from breathing.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/euthanasia.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755021
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919187/
Benzocaine has also been used to kill frogs humanely, and may be worth considering. Benzocaine can be purchased from drugstores.
http://www.wec.ufl.edu/extension/wildlife_info/frogstoads/osteopilus_septentrionalis.php
>
2) This frog is still quarantined from my other 3 ACF's. I know that this disease is HIGHLY contagious. Our sick frog was housed in the main tank with the other three for a long time while he was emaciated and lethargic, before quarantined and started treatment. The others have not shown any signs, except for two days ago. I noticed that while they were stationed at the bottom of their tank, (presumably sleeping/resting), all three had clamped toes/feet. None of them are looking red, I cannot see their veins as I could with the sickly one, and they are all still very well rounded and eating normal. As soon as I turn their light on, or disturb their tank in some other way, they "awaken" and they spread their toes like normal. I don't think I ever would have noticed their feet had I not been caring for this sick one. Should I start treating their tank with the normal recommended dosage incase they have the early stages of red leg? Or is it normal for these frogs to have clamped toes while they are sleeping?
<I would assume all frogs are infected and treat with antibiotics. If nothing else, you'll prevent any spread of infection, even if the frogs are healthy now.>
P.S. I have also attached a couple of pictures of the other 3 frogs. You can see that they look MUCH healthier than this sick one.
Thanks,
Rachel
<Hope this helps, Neale.>

Sick African Clawed, please help   5/6/11
Hi there,
I have had my ACF Gus, for almost 10 years now. He has never been ill in his life with me, until I noticed some worrying things over the last few days. Gus has always been on a diet of ReptoMin, and maybe once a week frozen bloodworms. Gus lives in a 55 Gallon tank, with no fish of any kind. He lives alone, with lots of fake plants and hiding places. He is a very spoiled frog! He has a waterfall filter that I run a few times a week. I do regular water changes as well. I decided to do a full tank draining last weekend to redecorate his space. I put him in his bucket until cleaning was done, and returned him to his home. Oh, and just to add, it is tap water, and I always put tap water conditioner in with every water change. Later that night I noticed he was curled up in a ball sort of , legs tucked in. I didn't think much of it because sometimes he sleeps this way, but he did not do his usual night singing, and did not eat his bloodworms that night.
The next day I noticed he was shedding excessively, and has not stopped since. The webbing in between both back feet is also torn, and red around the tears. He also has some small white spots that appear cottony, and a few small red spots as well. For the last 4 days I have kept him in a 5 Gallon sort of hospital tank, changing the water every day, and doing a diluted Pedialyte bath once a day. He has been eating for the last 2 days, very well actually. But he is still sluggish, and his still shedding like crazy. Any ideas?? I love him very much and I want to get him the proper treatment. People have told me everything from Lamisil, to aquarium salts, to tetracycline and I am not sure where to begin! Here are some pics of recent days.
Ally
<Hello Ally. Your Xenopus is a good age, so broadly, I'd imagine you're providing good care and that this infection is one of those things that happen even in the best run aquaria. But with that said, do double check the filter is working properly, and remember, it should be running 24/7, 365 days a week. Each time you switch the filter off some of the bacteria die, and when the filter is off, there's nothing removing ammonia. I mention this because young Xenopus may well be hardier than older specimens, and just like people, as Xenopus get older, they become more sensitive to disease as their immune system starts to weaken a bit. In any event, check the aquarium has good water quality -- zero ammonia and zero nitrite -- and also check your water chemistry is appropriate -- hard, neutral to basic water is better than soft or acidic water. Medicate as per Finrot in fish. Your local reptile/amphibian pet shop should be able to advise here, but if all else fails, a broad spectrum antibiotic should help. Injected antibiotics from your vet have the best chance of helping, while antibiotics the frog can eat work almost as well. Antibiotics added to water are the least reliable because of issues to do with dosing. Remove carbon from the filter because that will remove medication. Red Leg is a distinctive health problem with these frogs for which treatment is difficult, and unlikely without help from your vet. There are some useful photos here: http://www.xlaevis.com/diseases.html
Cheers, Neale.>

Sick frog part 2  5/8/11
Hi there,
I had written you about my frog Gus. Well I have confirmed now it is indeed some sort of fungus. He has stopped shedding, but now he has white little cotton ball things all over him. How do I fix this?? Please help thanks! I bought aquarium salt and tetra fungus guard..are these safe and please advise on the dosages thanks!
<Methylene Blue is available at aquarium shops and is particularly safe and effective, which is why it is used for treating baby fish and even fish eggs. It is known to be safe with frogs. Look for medications that contain just this chemical, such as Kordon Methylene Blue and Interpet Methylene Blue. Use as directed, paying particular attention to concentration, water changes, and the removal of carbon from the filter (if used). Other antifungal medications may work, but I'm not familiar with their safety or otherwise when used on frogs. Cheers, Neale.>