Male Betta And African Dwarf Frogs

[SamDev]

I have had my Betta for about 10 months now and he was in a tank on his own so I decided to get him some friends. On Saturday I got two African Dwarf Frogs and I have noticed him flaring at them and chasing them around, I also saw one of the frogs go for him when he was trying to steal their food!

Will they get used to each other and is it just a temporary territory thing?

Oh and the tank is 19L.

I really hope they can get along they have such cute characters!

 

[Questions?]

they will not get alon sorry

 

[SamDev]

Aww no! Hate taking fish/frogs back to the shop and knowing they will be put back in the boring small tanks!

 

[buzzfrog]

i have seen them get along before,depends on fish, guess yours isnt compatable. I used to have a 10gallon with male and 5 dwarf frogs, worked fine, live plants and a few places for frogs to hide

i have seen them get along before,depends on fish, guess yours isnt compatable. I used to have a 10gallon with male and 5 dwarf frogs, worked fine, live plants and a few places for frogs to hide

 

[phoenixgsd]

my kids want a frog but i have a male betta so have said no, allbeit a nice placid one, but, the tank is 300l and well planted, do you think this would be ok or not worth the risk

 

[MooKretzelMan]

Response to SamDev: As others have said, it really depends on the personality of the fish and the frogs. Another idea that you can try would be to add more plants and hiding spots to see if they may get along. It may help to clear the situation up, because they would each feel more like they had their own area.

Response to phoenixgsd: Do you have a 300l (about 80 gallons) or a 30l (about 8 gallons) tank? Also, are there any other fish inside the tank with the betta? If your tank is 80 gallons, I would not worry too much about the betta and the frog fighting, because that is such a large tank. Even the 8 gallon tank would probably work. If your betta is fairly placid and your tank is well-planted and has plenty of hiding spots, I would think that it would most likely work out well.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Sometimes the frogs catch the bettas at night when they are sleeping.

 

[dannybgoode]

Sometimes the frogs catch the bettas at night when they are sleeping.

Sounds like a scary story mummy Bettas tell their babies!

Cheers

Danny B

 

[phoenixgsd]

Sometimes the frogs catch the bettas at night when they are sleeping.

my betta sleeps in a nook of a peice of bogwood, rather sweet actually when he reverses himself into bed

in response to mookretzelman, yes it is a very large tank,

 

[SamDev]

Thank you for your replies! I have got them more hiding spaces an going to get more plants. I think my frogs get the bettas fins confused and think they are worms! Ill see how it goes

 

[Essjay]

That's what happened with my betta and frogs a couple of years ago; the frogs mistook the betta for food. I had to separate them when I saw a frog being towed around the tank - it had bitten on to the betta's tail and he was trying to get rid of it. I assumed the frogs could smell food in the water, saw movement and lunged for it in the way they do when feeding. This was in a 25 litre tank, a bit bigger than yours.

 

[r.w.girard]

Maybe people are confusing African Dwarf Frogs with African Clawed Frogs, which get much larger. African Dwarf Frogs should never get big enough to eat a betta ... and should be fine.

 

[Essjay]

Dwarf frogs may not be able to eat a betta but they can still nip their fins. The problem is that dwarf frogs are almost blind and if they can smell food and see movement, the frogs' instinct is to lunge for it. If the movement happens to be a betta's fins rather than a worm, they'll still try to eat it. Being so small, they won't be able to eat it of course but they can still inflict damage.
And after a few episodes of being nipped by the frogs my betta took to stalking the frogs and flaring at them from about an inch away. The frogs completely ignored the betta when he did this and it was only a matter of time before the betta bit their eyes or legs. I separated them before anything like this could happen, but that didn't stop my betta getting finrot in his tail where the frogs had nipped it.

 

[SamDev]

They are definitely dwarfs and not clawed. My betta keeps putting his fins in front of the frogs which makes them go for him, he also flares at them. They have got better and he doesn't seem to be flaring much anymore he just follows them. I'm taking them back to the shop today, think my betta is getting stressed. Andy ideas of a nice calm tank mate to go with my betta? Or will he be aggressive to them too?

 

[nikkifro8994]

If he's been alone for 10 months, I'd let him stay by himself. Lots of bettas are territorial. When you add new fish, the betta feels threatened and has to protect his territory from the intruders. If they are going to be community fish, I recommend adding them last so they don't have any claimed territory to protect.