African clawed frogs

[Oliverian]

Does anyone here currently keep any african clawed frogs? I've been reading up on them, and I'm looking to get a couple. If anyone has ever owned a pair... do they breed readily? I really enjoy hatching and raising tadpoles.
I have another question, too. The store I would get them from only carries albinos. Now, I think the answer to this is no, but I thought i'd just make sure. If albino's bred together, would there be any chance at all of producing normal offspring? I'm guessing no because it is a recessive gene and I don't think any normals would pop up out of nowhere but just making sure. I actually prefer the normal look over the albinos.

So, any help on this species would be great. I did a search and noticed a couple people were trying to sell theirs, but I live too far away from them to buy them. I guess I'll look around a bit for some normals, and if I can't find any, I'll go with the albinos.
-TammyR

[choriona]

If you breed two albinos, all you will end up with is albinos. I have been caring for their larger cousins (xenopus laevis) since april now, but don't know much about the breeding. I don't think it is very hard, as long as they are mature. We keep the males and females seperate until we are wanting to do a mating. You can tell the males from the females by the larger cloacal flaps on the females.
Hope this helps a bit.

[Oliverian]

Yea, thanks. That helps. I really want to check into getting some normals, as I find them much more attractive. I'm not talking about dwarf frogs, though. Or did you mean xenopus laevis is even larger than the regular african clawed frogs? Yea, I'm planning to get a pair. I hope my frog-sexing skills are good enough to actually get a pair instead of two the same sex. Judging by the pics though, it doesn't seem too hard. I just have to hope that the pet store frogs are mature enough.
-TammyR

[RachelS.]

I have one. Had for at least a year, one before that I had for 8 months and it went down the drain :(. I like her a lot... they're really neat little display animals and I always get compliments on how cute mine is. I'd like to buy more like it, the larger ones. They are real cool and fairly easy to take care of. I just keep my one in a 5 gallon tank filled with water and gravel at the bottom, plus a few rocks, a plant, and a snail... you can add more. I feed it the pellets you can buy at PetCo. I clean it out at least once a month or everytime I notice it getting a bit cloudy. But they're strictly for display... you don't wanna handle them. The oils on your skin can kill them, plus they're aquatic so they shouldn't be out of water.

[Oliverian]

Thanks Rachel. I think the SMALL ones are called 'dwarf african clawed frogs', while the larger ones, which I am planning on getting, are just plain 'african clawed frogs'

How did your frog manage to go down the drain? Did it escape?
:(
-TammyR

[RachelS.]

BTW, to tell male from female the females tend to be darker while the males take on a lighter more grey tone :)

[RachelS.]

oh yeah dwarf is the smaller version, duh ;). So my sexing skills are probably not gonna work for you :p.

While I was cleaning the little aquarium I put it in a cup and the frog tipped it over and just... went ... I was so upset :(

[Oliverian]

And the males are usually smaller right? I don't know if it applies to immature frogs, but for the adults I belive that the male is smaller. The female also has a cloacal extension. Do you know if this is visible in younger frogs, or is it only really obvious in adults?
-TammyR

[Oliverian]

Oh... bummer. Poor frog. That must have sucked...

Are the dwarfs a different species, or are they just a ...smallish mutation?
-TammyR

[eyespy]

African dwarf frogs are Hymenochirus boettgeri, and have no "claws" on their front legs. Those are the little guys, females rarely get to 2 inches long. They are just greenish-brown with no albinos available.

The African clawed frogs are Xenopus laevis, and those are the big ones who can get to nearly 6 inches for the female. And yes, girls get larger than boys.

[Oliverian]

Yep. Thanks eyespye. So does anyone know if you can sex them while they're still young? The ones i'm looking at now are about three and a half inches resting. If they stretched their legs out, they'd be longer.
-TammyR

[eyespy]

At that size they should be easily sexable. Just look for the little nubbin at the vent:

http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/uac/iacuc/xenopus/behave.shtml#sex

[Oliverian]

Bahaha! Nubbin? You made me fall off my chair. ;) That word brings back memories. :)
Thanks. That makes it easier, now that I know i'll be able to sex them properly. Hopefully I'll be getting them soon! (Probably after Christmas sometime) Now all I have to do is ask if they can get some normals in. That would be great.
-TammyR

[choriona]

You may want to make sure that the pet store frogs aren't Xenopus tropicalis. These are the smaller cousins. Check the link to see the difference of adult sizes. Usually it is the tropicalis version that is available in stores, as the laeves grow big and need very large tanks. Also, laeves take a few years to reach sexual maturity. If you type in either scientific name on any search engine, you should find a whole bunch of info on sexing, tadpole care, feeding....as these frogs are quite often used in embryological studies.

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/X_tropicalis/

[Oliverian]

I'm pretty sure they aren't the dwarfs. They are already about 3 inches, and the dwarves don't get that big, do they?
-TammyR

[eyespy]

You can get tropicalis in petshops? We can't get them at all here near Philly, even the research labs are on waiting lists for them. Sometimes it's nice to have a lot of universities nearby but they sure do hog the frogs, rats and mice.

[Oliverian]

That sucks. Yea, I'm sure they're the larger ones now. I did more research on the dwarfs, and these guys definitely aren't dwarfs. Thanks for all the help, guys.
-TammyR