I have two ADFs in a community tank and they have never attacked any of the fish in there . The ADFs keep themselves to themselves, hiding under rocks/ornaments/up by the filter a lot of the time but they do venture out exploring the tank for food several times a day - and they swim (awkwardly) up to the top to gulp down some air. You don't want to have them in a tank that is too high - around 12 - 15inches max because they tire very quickly when trying to swim to the top.
They also get to understand when it is feeding time and quickly appear as soon as the tank lid is lifted! You can also train them to come out when you tap
very gently with your fingernail in a corner of the tank a couple of times. Mine do this and go directly to where my finger is pointing as they have learnt that it means food!
As far as substrate goes - gravel is perfectly fine providing it's the smooth, rounded type, not too small particles either as these can be accidentally ingested when the frog is gulping at food. Same goes with sand. I have heard that they can swallow sand when they are trying to gulp at bloodworms etc. Not sure if they are able to spit the sand back out - I don't have sand substrate so can't advise on that.
Yes, as mentioned by someone already, feeding them can be problematic to begin with. You have to find out a way of getting food to them - and a lot of this depends on the frogs themselves and how eager they are to get food. Some ADFs just sit at the bottom waiting for food to appear in front of their mouth LOL
whereas others actually swim up to the top and try to catch the food as it's dropped into the tank.
Mine are of the lazy-itus breed LOL - I soon learnt that I had to find a way of getting the bloodworms down to the gravel asap before the fish ate them all because the ADFs just won't rush for anything.
The way I do it now is, after defrosting the bloodworms in a little tank water, I get another cup of tank water, and with tweezers add several pinches of bloodworms. Swirl it around and then pour it into the tank right above where the frogs are sitting. The bloodworms are forced quickly down to substrate level with the force of the water. At the same time, I add a pinch of food at the other side of the tank to distract the fish away (well, as many as possible) from the ADFs food.
Sometimes the ADFs are so slow at gulping for the food (it can be right under their nose and yet it takes them ages before they notice it!) that the fish soon notice it and polish most of it off. You have to be very persistent and have lots of patience.
Make sure you see them eat several pieces of bloodworm or other foods before giving up for the night!
They will eat prawn, brine shrimp and daphnia (I use the new sachet-types in jelly as that sinks really quickly and is easy for the ADFs to see and lunge at), live or frozen bloodworms - and they will nibble at algae wafers and peas. I've even fed them flake food a few times when I've run out of the other stuff (again, swish it around in a cup of tank water and pour it quickly above them).
I keep meaning to try the turkey baster method but I keep forgetting to buy one!
Regards - Athena
