Introducing "Jumpy"

We've now "killed" four frogs (the last three didn't last more than 24 hours apiece). But I am persistent. So over the weekend, we headed to the pet store, trying to decide whether we'd populate our 10-gallon tank with a few more fish or if we'd try one last frog. Ella decided we'd go with the frog.

By my best guess, the last four frogs all died of water quality issues. The first frog (a.k.a. frogalina) actually lived for two weeks. But she was placed in a tank that hadn't properly been cycled, and I'm guessing the accumulation of ammonia/nitrates (I don't know--these might be the same thing) are what killed her. The next three frogs all went into the 10-gallon and died within 24 hours. I suspect this was also a water issue, as that tank wasn't fully cycled. Now though, I am slowly becoming more knowledgable about fish-keeping. We're testing our water, and I know that the levels are on the money (except for the GH level, which skews high just because our water is very hard and Dean refuses to let me buy bottled water for the fish tanks!). The people at Petsmart say the GH levels don't matter. But I'm not sure the people who work at Petsmart are really fish experts.

Anyhow, Jumpy has now been alive for nearly a week. I've actually seen him *eat*, which is something I never saw the other four frogs do. Feeding him is a little tricky. He'll eat both bloodworms (boy, do those make a mess out of your tank!!) or frog/toad pellets. But the fish in our 10-gallon are voracious, and they tend to compete with the frog for food. Especially Molly (our dalmation molly), who will eat ANYTHING. I have to feed the other fish flakes at the same time I'm feeding Jumpy just to ensure that he actually gets some food. As far as behavior goes, Jumpy acts different than our other aquatic dwarf frogs (ADF) have. He doesn't spend nearly that much time up at the surface of the water (of course, it's quite likely the other frogs spent so much time near the surface because the water was toxic!). And I've never seen him do the infamous ADF "zen" position. I'll be honest: I'm paranoid he's going to die soon. If he's still alive when I get home, I'll post some photos. In the meantime, I've included a few photos of ADFs so you picture what Jumpy looks like.

And here's a link to information on ADFs, just in case you're interested.

Incidentally, around Ella's birthday we got two new fish for our six-gallon tank: bumblebee gobys. They're neat-looking fish, but they also only eat bloodworms, which is a pain in the butt and makes for a very messy tank.

I would love to get a really, really big tank (like a 50-gallon) so we can keep angels and the like. But we have no room right now unless we get rid of furniture (I won't lie--this is something I've actually considered!).