# Frogs & Toads > Aquatic Clawed Frogs >  Bloated Albino African Clawed Frog

## Jace

I recently brought home from work a small Albino African Clawed frog that I named Tater.  She (I am assuming) has been bloated for some time, though she is eating and pooping like normal.  However, we have her brother at work still, and though they started off the same size, he is about 3 times larger than her.  Though she is eating and eliminating like normal, her lack of growth is a concern and I am wondering if an internal parasite could be the culprit and what I can do about it-or if I should just let her be and see how it goes?  She is also missing some of the tell-tale black claws on her back toes-will she get these back or are they lost for good?

I used to have three regular African Clawed frogs years ago, but I am no longer familar with them.  What is the best food I can offer her and the best tank set up? Thanks for any help and advice on her condition and care.

Jace.

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## Tony

With her being in the condition she is I would think run an environment as clean as possible. Bare bottom setup with a couple of hiding places for her comfort. Get her on a good prepared diet like Reptomin and use mysis and store bought earth worms as an occasional treat. 
I am not too familiar with disease so I can't help you much there. The claws will grow back though as long as the actual "foot/toes" are not damaged.
Can you discribe her current setup and diet? Any idea how old she is?

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## Jace

She was in our store for approximately six months and has only grown a fraction from her arrival size.  She was not always bloated tho-that has only occured in the last two weeks.  Right now, she is in a five gallon hospital tank, bare bottom, with one plant and one other decoration to provide shelter.  I have a small underwater filter going and a heater that keeps the water at about 71-73 degrees.  She is quite active, responding to stimulus and is eagerly shovelling food into her mouth.  I do not have access to frog pellets that I have read about on other threads, but her diet consisters of brine shrimp, crickets (that I feed her with tweezers), bloodworms and krill.  I have taken a couple of pictures of her, but I have yet to quite figure out how to post them with the new Forum design (I'm a bit computer challenged let's say!!).  Once I do, I will show her and her setup and maybe advice can be given on how to improve in any way needed.  Thanks for your reply!

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## Jen

If her bloat is only recent then I suspect it is the cause of her environment.    Is it a hard bloat where she is looks like a balloon filling with air and is stuck floating at the surface or a soft bloat where her body wiggles around like a giant water balloon and she can maintain her balance and rest on the bottom of the tank?   Hard bloat is fatal, soft bloat can be treated to a manageable level. 

If you upload all of your photos to photobucket, then paste the IMG tag (the fourth code they give you) right into this text area then the pictures will upload on frog forum

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## Tony

I am going to throw my anti-bloodworm rant in here too. I am sure a lot, if not most people will disagree but... I have never heard of a frog getting bloat that has never been fed bloodworms. And every frog that someone says has bloat has been fed bloodworms at some time or other. This includes some dwarf frogs of my own years ago. I never fed bloodworms and decided to add them to my rotation. Within weeks of adding them to the rotation 3 of my 5 frogs developed bloat. I have read mixed reports of bloodworms supposedly harboring a bacteria and have also heard speculations that the barbs/hooks on the worms' mouth my be the culprit. I don't know for sure or if I am just paranoid, but my stance is no bloodworms of any kind ever.
You should also insure that any frozen food you feed is completely thawed before feeding. I usually thaw mine in a small bowl with some tank water.

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## Jace

Tater is always on the bottom of the tank; the bloat has never caused her to float to the top and be unable to get back down.  Is that what you mean by soft bloat?  I will definitely monitor her to see any changes in her ability to move around.

I have heard of the bloodworm thing before.  I have to admit, my African Clawed frogs from years ago were given a heavy diet of bloodworms.  Though it took a few years, one by one, they slowly became bloated and passed on.  I was told then it was diet related.  However, I have hit every single other petstore in my area and cannot find a pelleted food specifically for frogs.  I do have at my store, however, a predatory sinking pellet that is made from fish meal, krill, shrimp meal etc.  Would this be an adequate substitute for her?  Would it hurt her to try it?  What about smaller feeder fish, such as guppies and white clouds?  She is not big enough to handle the earthworms I can get for my bullfrogs, and I want to offer her a wide variety as I can to ensure she either improves or at least remains the same with no ill side effects.  I wasn't expecting to grow as fond of her as I have and I want to see her thrive.  Thanks again!

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## Jen

Look in the reptile section and look for Reptomin, HBH frog and tadpole bites, or Zoomed frog bites.     You can also try cutting up the earth worms. 

Do not feed any type of feeder fish - they are not nutritionally balanced and the risk of disease is so great combined with lack of nutrition makes it just entirely not worth it. 

Again, does her skin look like it is inflating with air and is hard or does it wiggle and jiggle around like a water balloon?

You are going to have to start doing salt baths to help relieve the pressure in her body.
Use a separate container, not her tank.  Tupperware works great for this.
Use the portion of 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salt to every gallon of water that is in your bath container.   Temp match it to her tank.   Let her sit in here for one hour once the salt is dissolved.   Then return her to her tank and discard all the bath water.   You want to do this once a day. It is usually for a few weeks until the bloating starts dissipating.   If hard bloat, the bloat won't dissipate and you are just trying to keep your frog comfortable until it passes, but with soft bloat it will reduce the amount of bloating for a while, but soft bloat usually stays with your frog for life and will be a routine of salt baths every couple of months to keep them comfortable.

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## Jace

I will have to watch her for a bit and see if she is jiggly or not.  And I will try and take some decent pictures and post them.  I will definitely try the salt baths tho, and see if that helps her or not.  Will she begin to grow at all, or is she going to stay stunted and small?

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## Tony

I would think if stunted the frog will still grow, but very slowly and never reach it's potential.

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## Jace

Hmmm...well that was not the answer I was hoping for, but truthful nonetheless.  I have not had a chance to do the salt baths yet, but the bloating has gone down.  I did remove bloodworms from her diet and am feeding her frozen brine shrimp and cut up earth worms (gross I might add) as the main staple.  Hopefully this proper protein will allow her to start growing some.  Still trying to get decent pictures of her.

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## Tony

If you think cutting worms up for her is brutal you should try cutting them into newt bite sizes. Glad you got her on some real food and the bloat is going away. Is the brine spirulina enriched? That is the way to go if you must feed brine. What part of BC are you in that you can't find Reptomin? I have in my rotation a floating turtle pellet made by HBH. I actually like the ingredients way more than Reptomin. The pellets are small enough for my froglettes to eat them as well. Perhaps some kind of turtle pellets is available there?

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## Jace

I live in Kamloops.  We have tried bringing in Reptomin at work, but so far nothing.  I am going to push for it again, but I am not holding out any hope.  We do have the floating turtle pellets tho-I can use those?  The brine shrimp is enriched.  Taters' bloating is completely gone.  She looks completely normal except for the fact that I know she is a lot smaller than she should be for her age.  I am hoping a high protein diet of earthworms will change that.  I have become the queen of cutting earthworms, though I hope she reaches a size where I can stop doing that!!  My next goal is to get her to grow, even a little.  I am going to get some floating turtle pellets and see if she will accept those, tho she has gotten spoiled being hand fed earthworms.  Thanks for all the advice, Tony.  I really appreciate it!!

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## Tony

I forgot to mention that I have seen Reptomin at Walmart as well. They also carry a generic brand "Wardly" I think it is called that is in a stick form and seems to be very similar. I used it when I had turtles as part of my rotation.

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