[Tut] How to feed frogs to bottom dwellers

[Spiritofthesoul]

Ok I've decided to post this tutorial up for people with the same problem as me and because I am having the worst case of Insomnia.

*DISCLAIMER*
If you are a frog lover, STOP! Do not read any further as the content may seem offensive to you. You have been warned!



Storyline

We all know that sinking pellets is the greatest food for bottom dwellers such as polypterus and stingray. However I believe that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. So I decided to include variety to my fish's diet, mainly live feeders. I choose frogs as they are much less of a disease-package as fish feeders. So I happily paid the LFS for a bag of frogs and went home to feed my fishes.


Problems

As soon as I got home and added the frogs into the tank, I realise that it is not going to work out.

1. I have a tall (2.5') tank
2. Feeder frogs always venture on the surface
3. My fishes are too used to sinking pellets (told ya) and refuses to do surface feeding

End up, only the most active fish (Senegal Bichir) munched on the frogs. So I did some brainstorming and thought of a simple solution.


What you need

1. A tank for keeping those feeders (I'm sure most of you have one)
2. Forceps (You can get them at LFS, under planting tools)
3. Guts (Frog lovers, last warning, leave now)

Solution

I couldn't possibly net my fish up to the surface and make them do surface feeding. So the only way was to deliver the frogs down to them. How?
2 problems I have to tackle. Buoyancy of the frog and the frog's natural instinct to stay at the surface.

To do that, first I have to kill the frog, and then somehow remove the air in the stomach to prevent the carcass from floating in the tank
(kind of beat the purpose of killing the frog).

To kill the frog in the most humane way possible, I took the forceps and gently grab the frog. Then I dealt a swift (and fatal) blow to the head of the frog by smacking it into a hard object (In this case, the side of my 5g feeder tank). To remove the air from carcass (warning for those with weak stomach), I apply pressure on top the stomach using the forceps. This would remove most of the air from the carcass.

Afterwards, just drop the carcass into the water and watch as it sinks down to the bottom of the tank, and into the mouth of your fishes.
I hope this tutorial help those who are keeping bottom dwellers who refuse to do surface feeding and want to add some live variety to their diet.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

My Forceps (Murderer's weapon)

Upsized it for ease of positioning drop location in tall tank

Applying pressure on the carcass

Carcass sink to the bottom

Results

 

[lix.ma14]

spirit, i won't really recommend feeders to ur precious polys. The live feeders will trigger some natural hunting instinct of hunting and killing that my effect ur poly's aggresiveness. If you feed ur poly live food, expect ur polys to have torn fins , and bit mark or even deaths ( a bit exaggerated). feeder aren't the way to ive them a completely balanced diet (even though they are frogs not fish). i used to feed my baby bichir some feeder guppies so they became very aggesive and they began to fight. I feed my polys, pellets, brine shrimp, hikiri algea pellets and market shrimp to keep them in top shape. It seemed that us polys are already big, fat and healthy with pellets so what the point of feeding them other foods????????? good luck.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

^ do note that the feeders are already dead. IMO, they trigger just as much hunting instincts as when I drop pellets.
The purpose of frog is to add some variety. I'm feeding them only pellets and krill. This may be unhealthy for the long run
(No kid get healthy from eating Mcdonald happy meal for the rest of their life)

 

[lix.ma14]

There's no point of stopping you the only thing i should recommend you is that a bit of algea pellets can be pretty good for ur poly's diet. it stops bloating. feeds once every one or two weeks.
PS nice gundam collection LOL.

 

[Joe M]

As long as your feeding a healthy pellet, the McDonald's analogy is a really bad one. Humans also generally require a much more varried diet than a fish would. A massivore pellet is better for a fish than most of the crap humans eat every day is for us.

And I think your under-estimating the disease carrying capability of frogs. You'd be surprised. What made you come to the conclusion that frogs are not disease ridden? They are generally raised in dirty water in farms, or if they're wild caught and, well I don't think it's needed to detail the potential parasites you could be passing to your fish from a wild caught animal.

I don't care to stop you, but I don't think its a good idea. I would at least consider freezing them after you kill them to try to kill any of the parasites. Or just finad a better alternative all together, and there are many.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

I did quarantine them

Good point on freezing, I might try that.