ADF comp.   7/10/07
I am just getting started at keeping fish. I was wondering if a ADF was good for a ten gallon tank. The fish in the tank are 6 small catfish and a algae eater. Also how do I know if it is a male or female. Alex Jackson
<What are the catfish? Corydoras? They should be fine with an African Dwarf Frog, assuming the frog gets enough to eat. I personally wouldn't mix them though. Frogs deserve their own aquarium and rarely, if ever, do as well kept in fish tanks. No idea what an "algae eater" is. If you mean Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, the "Chinese algae eater" that isn't from China and doesn't eat much algae, then no, you can't mix that with anything. It is one of the worst-tempered fish in the hobby, as well as being far too large (around 30 cm long) for a 10 gallon tank. If on the other hand you mean some sort of Pleco, likely Pterygoplichthys spp., then while it will probably ignore the frog, it is FAR too big (40 cm long) for a 10 gallon tank. Hope this helps, Neale.>

Albino African frog question... Rationale for requiring proper English   – 05/07/07
all it says is to fix my english. my english is fine thank you. thanks for all the help
<Hello Heather, as a former schoolteacher, I'm going to bite... The problem with your message is the poor grammar (e.g., "cant" instead of "can't"); the absence of capital letters (e.g., "i" instead of "i"); and the use of non-words (e.g., "wanna" instead of "want to"). Now, while you may not be bothered by this, in no way is it proper English. Ergo, anyone who wants to answer your question will have to read and re-read the thing to understand precisely what you mean. Needless to say, since none of us here are paid to answer these questions, and we get dozens every day, we're going to spend time answering questions that are easy to read and easy to understand. Yours is neither. Hence it gets dumped on the 'return to sender' pile. Now, for what it's worth, the leopard puffers are killing off your fish and frogs, and they will continue to do so until there are only the two puffers left, and then the biggest one will kill the smallest one. Incidentally, your "leopard puffers" could be a number of different fish but most probably Tetraodon fluviatilis or Tetraodon nigriventris if they are some combination of green and yellow, or else Tetraodon palembangensis is more red/brown. Tetraodon fluviatilis and Tetraodon nigriventris grow to about 15 cm and need brackish water conditions (around 50% seawater) whereas Tetraodon palembangensis is even bigger but is at least a true freshwater species. Regardless, totally and utterly incompatible with the fishes/frogs you have, and ultimately needing a very large (for two specimens, 50 gallons+), well maintained aquarium. Cheers, Neale>

Re: albino African frog question... Rationale for requiring proper English   – 05/07/07
honestly if i knew i was going to graded i would've cared alittle more about my punctuation and capitalization. i just wanted to know why my frogs died but thanks for being an ass. sorry if the lack of capitals bother you i'm sure you'll get over it.
<Hello again, Heather. Presentation is everything. If you haven't learned that yet, then it's about time. Sloppy writing suggests a sloppy mind, and I'm sure you don't want people to think about you in those terms. By the way, feel free to say "thank you" to me for spending fifteen minutes of my time figuring out the problems with your aquarium and offering advice to remedy the situation. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the one here looking like some sort of diminutive equine. <<Heeee! RMF>> Sincerely, Neale>

Re: African frog Q  – 05/08/07
Hello Robert,
Surely that should be "Heeee HAAWWW"?
Cheers, Neale
<You're really cracking me up Neale! B!>

Mollies & Dwarf frogs compatible?   3/8/07
The African Dwarf frogs are cute. Before I consider a purchase, just a quick question - I have about 20 mollies and noticed they enjoy chasing & playing with each other. I am concerned wondering if mollies (and a few bottom feeders as Corydoras in the tank) will be nice to the frogs, e.g.. will not nip their little webbed feet when floating on the top?
I want to make sure I never mix any incompatible species and wondering what your opinions are.
Thank you so very much for your time!
SK
<Generally these three groups/species do get along fine... though I would like to state that neither Corydoras genus catfishes nor ADFs "like" salt/s in their water... and many folks use such with Mollienesia species. Bob Fenner>

Re: Mollies & Dwarf frogs compatible?  – 03/09/07
I may try a couple of the dwarf frogs. In my tank I have never added salts.
<Good>
All but two of the Mollienesia fish I have were born in that very tank.
<Ahh, the best means of acquisition>
No salts added, though the dip stick reads as me having very hard water - I use the aqua safe dechlorinating products.  Does hard water, aqua salts, and a brackish environment correlate in any way?
<Yes... the harder the water, the more total dissolved solids... many of which are salts (ionic combinations of metals and non-metals...)... so much concentration of these solids in a given volume of water is what brackish is. Bob Fenner>