What is killing this Dwarf Frog? [O]

[RAWfish]

My 8yr old son has had two dwarf frogs since August. When we first got them they came in a tiny plastic cube about 5"x5" which had nothing but gravel and a little bamboo plant or something in it. He feeds them 2x per week and they lived just fine like that for a long time. However, the water often got very nasty and it was only humane to provide better living conditions for them.

At the end of December (just over 1 month ago) we got a 2.5g minibow tank with one of those built-in filters for them. Within the past week or so one of the frogs has developed some whitish patches that now appear to be some type of fuzzy fungus or other disease. Unfortunately that frog is just about to die and today we moved it back into the plastic cube with just a little water so it can have an easier time of things. It has almost no energy to move and probably won't be able to get to the surface for air. I suspect it will be dead by morning.

I tried taking a few pics, but with the little point and shoot camera it was difficult to get it to focus properly and get a good image through the plastic cube. You can see the whitish areas behind its head, on its back, and the worst fuzzy patch on almost his entire right rear leg.

What is this stuff? Why did it happen? And what can I do to make sure the other one doesn't get it? FWIW, I'm betting that the water quality in the new tank isn't all that great, but it has to be better than what it survived in for a long time in the cube. Is this "disease" or fungus a result of the water quality or something else?? I have no idea what it is.

One final question.. should I just move the remaining frog into our "real" fish tank (26g community tank) where the water quality is excellent, or just work on improving the 2.5g tank's water quality? The healthy frog shows no signs of this problem.

Any help would be appreciated as I feel terrible that this has happened to one of his frogs.

EDIT: BTW, this isn't multing skin. They've done that before and this is a fuzz... not pealing or shedding skin.

 

[RAWfish]

I mean molting, not "multing".

Update... the poor frog showed no more signs of movement about an hour ago, so it's now in the freezer awaiting back yard burial tomorrow.

I also did about a 66% water change in the frog tank. There's clearly an algae bloom or something else going on in it... the water is rather cloudy, but not consistently so... it's more like white "smoke" blowing around, sort of subtle, but visible. I suppose the tank could be cycling, but it still doesn't make sense that the water quality in this tank would be any worse than what they survived through in that puny 4"x4" cube. Yes, it's 4x4, not 5x5.

 

[RAWfish]

Did some searching and discovered the Chytrid fungus, but I can't really tell if that's what it is or not. I'm suspecting that it is not considering that we've had these frogs for so long and it just now got sick, but who knows. As with many diseases and illnesses the water quality probably was the biggest factor.

 

[ioananv]

Did you measure the ammonia and nitrite levels in the tank? My understanding is that tanks less than 5g cannot be properly cycled, so I would keep a close eye on it (and do frequent water changes). I agree with you that the cause of death was a fungus infection due to pure water quality.

Also, new tanks that are cycling have ammonia and nitrites spikes, and this is what probably caused the sudden death.

I made the same mistake of buying a little cube of death for my son this Christmas. Luckily, I noticed that something was wrong. I recently rehomed them in a 6g cycled tank (did a frogless cycling). I hope they are not permanetly damaged by their previous conditions. I can tell you from my own experience that ammonia levels climb to dangerous levels in only one day, in a 2g tank .

I think you can move the remaining frog in the community tank, assuming you don't have aggressive fish.

 

[RAWfish]

Did you measure the ammonia and nitrite levels in the tank? My understanding is that tanks less than 5g cannot be properly cycled, so I would keep a close eye on it (and do frequent water changes). I agree with you that the cause of death was a fungus infection due to pure water quality.

Also, new tanks that are cycling have ammonia and nitrites spikes, and this is what probably caused the sudden death.

I made the same mistake of buying a little cube of death for my son this Christmas. Luckily, I noticed that something was wrong. I recently rehomed them in a 6g cycled tank (did a frogless cycling). I hope they are not permanetly damaged by their previous conditions. I can tell you from my own experience that ammonia levels climb to dangerous levels in only one day, in a 2g tank .

I think you can move the remaining frog in the community tank, assuming you don't have aggressive fish.

Thanks for the reply. What has me scratching my head is that these frogs lived for 5 months in that tiny 4x4 cube with very little maintenance... it must have been like cesspool water, and that a cycling 2.5g could possibly be worse enough to cause this fungus and death. Maybe it wasn't worse... but perhaps the switch from bad to good water (for a few weeks) and then declining back to poor caused too much stress. I've been doing water changes and it looks to be clearing up. I'm afraid to test the water yet

I think my fundamental mistake was not treating them like fish when it comes to maintenance and stress etc. Lesson learned.

 

[ioananv]

I thought about it, too. I think that if you keep feeding them only twice a week, and only one pellet each (basicaly, feeding them just enough to not starve to death) they don't produce too much waste. In the cube's gravel there is a colony of nitrifying bacteria that can eliminate part of the ammonia and nitrites. But it does not mean that those levels are zero. I think I measured the ammonia at one point in the little cube and it was 0.5ppm. The frogs will live with this level for a while, but they die a slow death.

I discovered at some point that they need different food, so I dumped a cube of frozen bloodworms in their cube. You can imagine what happened. I had to do a full water change and wash the gravel, and from that moment on I couldn't control the ammonia levels even with two full water changes per day.

Mine are juveniles by the way, and I read that they need to be fed once a day. Poor froggies, imagine what they must have been through...