It looks like a frog
When you and I see an aquarium, most of us have no doubts as to who can live in it - fish, turtles ... But, what can you say if a sporean frog settles in the aquarium? We invite you to learn about the content of such exotic and unusual creatures in our new publication today ...
Description of spur frogs
The most affordable and demanded for breeding in an aquarium are spur-frogs. Their cost is quite affordable, but in terms of content, they are quite unpretentious and easy to breed. That is why, these creatures are most often led by lovers of the exotic in their aquarium.
Spur frogs have developed, strong muscular hind legs, on whose fingers you can see short, but sharp claws of black color, which are called spurs. It is from here that the name “sportive”, and it is not by chance that such frogs are called clawed. By the way, with the help of these claws in Nature, they are protected from predators that pose a threat to them, and keep the stems of plants to resist the water flow. The front paws of spur frogs are short, with long and thin fingers, while there are no membranes on them. On the sides of the frogs you can find the organs of touch in the form of a dotted line - the same can be found in fish. The head of the frogs is flat and small, the muzzle is round and short, the eyes are large and face up. The length of the body of an adult frog reaches 6-13 centimeters, while males are smaller than females. By the way
a clear sex difference between a male and a female - in the latter, 3 skin folds cover the anus.
There are 5 types of spur frogs, and depending on the belonging to a particular species, the appearance of these creatures may vary. However, common signs of Spur can be found in all.
Under the conditions of nature (by the way, specialists consider Africa as the homeland of the spurs), the sporean frogs live in bodies of water with non-flowing water and in temporary pools. When they dry up, the frogs are forced to go to the land, but without water they quickly die from drying out, and they cannot feed on land. It is quite another matter that aquatic habitats, where they are agile and nimble, can quickly swim away from the predator, if necessary. But, most of the time, the Spurs are spent, basking in the mud or silt, where they can bury almost completely.
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Sparrow Frog Aquarium
Sparrow Frog Aquarium
For the maintenance of spur frogs you need an aquarium, while if you contain one frog, then its volume must be at least 60 liters, but if you have a whole frog colony, then you must add 10 liters of volume to each individual. This is necessary so that the frogs feel comfortable in their home and they are not crowded. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to fill the aquarium to the very top with water - it must be filled to 0.5 or maximum to 2/3 of the volume. It must have a water filtration and aeration system installed, while at the same time, the aquarium should be closed with a perforated lid on top.
What is the cover for? Spur frogs can jump very high, and it doesn’t cost them to jump out of an aquarium. However, such an escape for the fugitive threatens death, since if it happens at night, then by morning the frog may already be dead from drying out and lack of moisture. So, your task is to take care not only of a comfortable aquarium, but also about the safety of your pet.
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Cleaning Aquarium
The water in the aquarium should be changed every 3-4 days, not forgetting to thoroughly wash the false substrate - as it is better to use coarse gravel or pebbles, its dimensions should be such that it does not fit in the mouth of the frog. The thickness of the substrate at the bottom of the aquarium should not be less than 4-6 ty centimeters.
For an aquarium, you can use ordinary defended tap water (you need to defend it for a few days), but make sure that there are no sudden temperature changes in the water - this can adversely affect the health of your frog.
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Special Habitat Conditions for the Spur Frog
In order for your spider frog to feel comfortable in an aquarium, you need to provide appropriate conditions for it. Regarding the temperature: it is a temperature of 21-25 degrees above zero Celsius during the daytime, and 17-21 degrees above zero Celsius at night. Lighting should be dim and top. Regarding the design of the aquarium, it can be shelters from stones, shards or snags.
We would not recommend planting live plants, except with a well-developed root system and with strong leaves and stems, since other frog plants will be dug out.
What to feed a spur frog
At home, the spiny frog can be fed with mealworms, meat, combined feeds for aquarium fish, dried gammarus, liver, bloodworms, tadpoles, fry and earthworms. However, we would not recommend the pipe maker to include frogs in the diet. Since it often causes food poisoning, and this is fraught with serious consequences for your pet and even his death.
With regard to the frequency of feeding, then adult frogs must be fed 2 times a week, and young ones can be fed in 2-3 days. However, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that these creatures are extremely voracious, and if you feed them every day - they will not mind, only then they will start having problems with weight, and the frog may begin to suffer from obesity, and this is very bad for her.
For feeding the young, if you are breeding spur frogs at home, you can use dry nettle powder, boiled in boiling water, you can give them dry milk, baker's yeast, lettuce leaves. When tadpoles have limbs, they can be transferred to live dust - daynite, cyclops, shallow bloodworm.
As for water, the spore frogs do not tolerate chlorine and its compounds, therefore, during the replacement of water in the aquarium, do not forget to use special preparations to neutralize chlorine, otherwise your frogs will die.
Behavior of spur frogs
Albino Spur Frog
If you think that frogs are inferior creatures that are not capable of devotion and love, then you are wrong. In fact, they very quickly get used to their owner, and even they easily recognize him, they can respond to the name. But, in view of the fact that their habitat is water, then close tactile contact will have to be forgotten. In addition, these creatures are very nervous and impressionable, and severe stress can ruin your pets, so try not to hurt their delicate psyche, and better watch their life through the glass of the aquarium.
With regard to the possibility of keeping spur frogs with other animals - turtles, lizards or fish, we would not recommend you to do so. Compatibility and attraction between these creatures may not occur, and one fine morning you may miss one of your favorites.
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Breeding Spur frogs
At the very beginning of our publication, we wrote that these creatures easily and quickly multiply. It really is. Therefore, if you live a couple of frogs - a male and a female, very soon they will delight you with their offspring. But, you will need to help them. To do this, you will need to prepare the frogs, arrange them a period of rest before mating. This is achieved by lowering the temperature in the aquarium to 20-22 degrees above zero Celsius with its gradual increase to 25-27 degrees above zero Celsius, and an enhanced diet. For this period, it is better to plant frogs in a drawable aquarium made of Plexiglas, where you will use aquatic plants or synthetic threads as a substrate. The aquarium itself will need to be illuminated with diffused light. Do not forget also about filtration and aeration of water. When the mating of the frogs occurs and the female spawns, the parents themselves can be transplanted back to their former aquarium.
The incubation period for caviar is 2 days, at a temperature of 23-24 degrees above zero Celsius. At the same time, the rate of landing of larvae should not exceed 10 pieces per 1 liter of water. Within 4-5 days after the larvae hatch, they will start feeding. At the same time, it will be necessary to sort the tadpoles by their size; otherwise, if you do not do this, the facts of cannibalism among the more powerful individuals are not excluded. The timing of the complete metamorphosis from caviar to the appearance of a spur-like frog averages from 1 to 6 months, but much depends on the water temperature, housing conditions and feeding rations. It must be suitable for young.
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Health care for spur frogs
As a result of non-compliance with the rules of keeping these exotic pets, in particular, if the water in the aquarium is highly polluted and it is poor in oxygen content, frogs can become sick with an infectious disease. In the event that their diet is not properly formulated, they develop metabolic bone disease. And if the owner is overfeeding his pets - they may suffer from obesity. Therefore, it is very important to adhere to all recommendations regarding the diet and conditions of spurted frogs. This will be the main prevention of diseases of these creatures.
Video of Spur Frog
Today we talked about the peculiarities of keeping spur frogs at home, how to equip an aquarium for them, what to feed them ... We hope that our recommendations and tips on keeping such exotic pets will help you in caring for them.
If a frog already lives in your house, be sure to post a picture of it on the pages of our Vkontakte group and share with your readers your experience of keeping such an unusual pet.
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Breeding spur frogs
Spur frogs can live to be 15 years old, and become mature at 10-12 months. Breed these frogs can up to 4 times a year, to stimulate this process it will be enough to lower the temperature of the water in the aquarium by 5-8 degrees, and then increase it again. The process of mating and throwing eggs can take up to a day, after parents are seated.
After 1.5 to 5 days, tadpoles appear, which after two more days begin to feed. Tadpoles fed algal paste, plankton, as they get older, they switch to daphnia, cyclops and others. small crustaceans.
For 2 months, small frogs develop from eggs. At the same time, it is necessary to correctly calculate the volume of water in the aquarium, where there must be at least one liter of water for 3 tadpoles.
Filtration
In the aquarium with African spur frogs, filtration must be necessary, since they are very unclean and produce a lot of waste (by their ability to litter, they can be compared to goldfish), and at the same time they are very sensitive to water pollution.
Filters under the ground and airlift better not to use, because the frogs litter the aquarium 24 hours a day and 7 days a week - these filters simply will not withstand such a load. Mounted power filters that do not create a strong flow are best, and canister filters will be a very good choice. Both of these designs are not too expensive, but the filters will be your wonderful assistants in cleaning water from waste.
Water parameters
Water quality is of great importance for spur frogs, because their skin absorbs everything from the surrounding water, and an excess of ammonia or nitrite in the water can lead to poisoning. Therefore, in the aquarium it is imperative to make water changes of 25-30% once every 1-2 weeks. With regular water changes, all amphibians will remain healthy.
In general, spur frogs are rather hardy and able to live in water of any pH (mostly 6.5-7.5). They prefer cool water with a temperature of 21-23 degrees Celsius. In heating, smooth spur frogs need only when the temperature drops below 20 degrees.
Lighting for aquarium frogs can be any, they carry light of any type. If in an aquarium live plants, then you need to choose the lighting for them. Turn off the light at night.
African spur frogs can and should be fed a wide variety of dishes. Frogs (up to a year) should be given food daily, adults should be fed every 2-3 days.
Spur frogs can be fed with specially developed feeds for this species in pellets, live guppies and shrimps, frozen foods (worms, bloodworms, pipemaker, artemia, shrimps, beef heart, fish fillets), dry, freeze-dried foods (shrimp, strawberry, worms, bloodworms, gammarus), live food, such as earthworms and crickets, pelleted food to improve color.
general characteristics
The sportive frog is the owner of a fairly strong body, especially the hind legs, on which small short claws (spurs) flaunt. Thanks to the spurs, the frog got its name. There are membranes between the fingers. Africa is the native land of frogs, the locals calmly consume these amphibians for food, the animal is not poisonous. The head of a spur frog is small, the eyes are located at the top of the head. Incidentally, this amphibian has poor eyesight, and the upper eyelid is atrophied. Due to its strength and claws, the frog is able to defend itself from predators and hunt itself.
Forelegs are small, without membranes. Frogs quite easily differ by gender. Males are much smaller than females. Also, males do not have egg-deposit, similar to a small process. The body length of an adult individual can reach 13 centimeters. There are about five species in the world, so the color and size of an amphibian may differ slightly. In its natural habitat, the spore frog is found in ponds with stagnant water. May temporarily settle in stagnant pools. This kind of frogs can not be long without water. It feeds and hunts amphibians in the water.
Terms and content
The spur frog, the maintenance and care of which is fairly simple, still requires adherence to certain rules and care. First of all, for a comfortable stay of an exotic pet at home you will need an aquarium of 60 liters or more. If the frog is planned not one, then about ten liters of volume is calculated for each individual. These amphibians simply need comfort and personal space. Water must be filtered, these creatures may die if the aquarium is filled with water from the tap. Chlorine contained in such water is very harmful for frogs. It is better to use one that has been settled for several days. In the aquarium, filtration is definitely needed, African frogs do not differ in cleanliness and constantly produce waste. The bottom can be decorated with a substrate or with a primer, but only small, since frogs can eat it.
River sand may also be suitable. Plants in the aquarium is better to choose artificial. Because of claws, a frog can easily injure living plants, and you will waste time. We must not forget that for a comfortable stay of a spur-winged frog, she necessarily needs shelter, so it is better to set the background for the aquarium and give the amphibian a sense of security. It can be chosen in the store to your taste and placed at the bottom of the aquarium. Lighting can be any, frogs are absolutely unpretentious in this regard. Aquarium is best closed with a lid. The fact is that these clever creatures jump high and can leave a new habitat at any moment.
What feeds on the frog
Aquarium spur frogs are unpretentious in the diet. They can be fed with meat, fish food, liver, fry, meal worms, moths and even earthworms. But this should not be done too often. Ideally, these exotic creatures feed twice a week. These amphibians do not refuse to eat, but they are obese, so you need to take good care of the health of the frog.
For feeding broods usually use powdered milk, lettuce leaves. If you follow all the rules of feeding, you can avoid many of the problems that the spider frog sometimes experiences. How much these individuals live is completely dependent on the care of such exotic creatures. Frog can live up to 15 years or more.
Spurs frogs: features and behavior
Oddly enough, these amazing creatures may experience the most tender feelings for their owner. They are able to recognize their owner and even get bored. Also these creatures get used to the voice of the owner and can respond to their name.
The frog spur is quite emotional, it must be protected from any stress. Нужно забыть о постоянном тактильном контакте с амфибией, в противном случае она может и обидеться. Лучше просто наблюдать за любимцем со стороны. Лягушка также не любит соседства с другими жителями аквариума, поэтому о рыбках и ящерицах можно забыть. Лучше использовать искусственные декорации.
Здоровье шпорцевой лягушки
Прежде чем заводить это удивительное создание, нужно приучить себя к постоянному выполнению правил по уходу. If you do not monitor the condition of the water in the aquarium and leave it dirty, the frogs can become seriously ill and catch the infection. You also need to pay attention to the oxygen content in the aquarium. If the amphibian owner makes the wrong diet, bone disease or obesity may occur. Despite the strictness of the rules, this amphibian is easy to clean, unlike other exotic creatures. If you follow all the recommendations, this unusual pet can please its owner for many years.
