My Personal Little Froggie Zoo

African Clawed Frogs Xenopus laevis - I have been sharing my home with several of these bizarre creatures for years now.    I currently have two adult frogs - an albino male (Pink Frog) and a wild-colored female (Big Mama).    Both of these animals are at least 4 years old.  They are housed in a 30 gallon long aquarium with an external Eheim cannister filter.   The filter sits on the floor and water is sucked down and through it by a powerful pump.    The biological filter effectively removes frog waste from the water, so it stays nice and clean.  I just have to clean the filter once a month or so.    These two breed regularly but I have not had much success in raising their tadpoles yet.       

Chinese Fire-Bellied Toad Bombina orientalis - Currently, I have just one, a little male I rescued from SuperPetz at Christmas.   He was in a tank with several larger frogs and looked like he'd not eaten recently - very thin.   I put him in a quarantine cage and fattened him up.  He's now about twice as big and 3 times as wide!   I named him "Skeeter" because he likes to swim around on the surface of the water like the insects we called "water skeeters" as a child (I have no idea what those really are).   I can't say I've had a lot of luck with these little guys.   3 years ago I bought 4 firebellies.   2 died within a month of some mysterious ailment.   The third died 6 months later in a nasty accident (got caught in the filter intake).    Up until recently, the fourth toad, a large female I'd named "ToadBeaste" had been thriving in her river tank.    But on April 9th, 2000 I found her lying dead on the floor of her tank.   She was swollen up with air like a little froggie beach-ball.   I still haven't figured out what killed her.   Whatever it was, it came on very fast.   I had hoped to unite Skeeter and Toadbeaste when Skeeter got a little bigger, but I guess he will have to remain a bachelor-frog...

White's Tree Frog Litoria caerulea - Well, I'd tried hard to resist these little guys, but when our local petstore got some amazingly HEALTHY froglets in, I couldn't resist.    So now I have 3 half-grown guys, as yet nameless.   They are all in quarantine cages now, but I have plans to build them a fancy high-rise terrarium.   I'll post pictures of that when I get it put together.

Leopard Frogs Rana pipiens - My sister gave me something called "Surf Frogs" for Christmas.   The cage itself is a horrible, tiny cramped plastic bubble, which claims to be capable of supporting two adult leopard frogs.    The water level at max could only be about 3/4" deep, so I have my doubts.   Anyway, the kit came with an order form for cheap tadpoles from a California frog farm, so I sent it in.   The form claimed the the tadpoles would not be shipped in cold weather, so I was rather horrified to find the package sitting in my mailbox on a day in mid-February when the temperature was well below freezing.    I opened the package expecting to find tad-cicles, but fortunately, the water they were in was not icy.   After warming for several hours, the tads started to move around.   They came with little buds for hind legs, but  I've had them for a few months now (April) and they still haven't morphed.    Now I am wondering if I am doing something wrong...