# Frogs & Toads > Aquatic Clawed Frogs >  Why do my African dwarf frogs keep dying?

## T3RR1B1L15

Hi. As you know, a while ago I bought two African dwarf frogs. One of them was bloated and died; I kept the other quarrantined for several days and bought six more from another aquarium store. They all were inactive and a while ago started dying off. It seems to happen about once to twice a week. There is absolutely no sign of illness- they'll be swimming around, then sink to the bottom and die. I'm down to four now.
I'm currently installing a filter, and have been feeding them frozen bloodworms.
I have no idea what is happening and it's extremely frustrating to see them dying without any indication of illness or injury. 
What is happening to them?!?

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## xxianxx

If adf are wc they appear to be very prone to dying with few symptoms, sorry dont know why, it is a recognized problem in the UK and the reason why many pet shops dont stock them.

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## SailAwayAK

New here to Frog Forums but not to the ACF and ADF world. There could be a variety of reasons for the ADF frogs to die. Local retailers here have had many issues over the years with how well the frogs do. Often I have found it to be good ol' Chytrid Fungus. I would suggest reading up on it and how you can prevent it spreading through your tanks. Many times the frog can seem totally fine and then *poof* you have sick frogs. I have found in our arrivals that we may have a live rate fo 50% of the frogs that we bring into the store. Once we began treating them upon arrival that success rate has gone up to nearly 90%. I don't know of another retailer where we are that actually treats and quarantines these frogs upon delivery to the store. Before I was there that never happened either. I do it as a volunteer to the shop. At first they were in disbelief. Now they find it is worth the 10 day treatment time I take with the arrivals.

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## Terry

> I don't know of another retailer where we are that actually treats and quarantines these frogs upon delivery to the store. Before I was there that never happened either. I do it as a volunteer to the shop. At first they were in disbelief. Now they find it is worth the 10 day treatment time I take with the arrivals.


Great idea! Unfortunately, many pet stores do not care for the ACFs and ADFs properly. One of the biggest problems I hear from the aquatic frog community is bloating.

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## SailAwayAK

Bloat is another issue entirely! Yikes. I had my own first battle with it last week. Never have I freaked out so much! I have been keeping these frogs in my classrooms and at home for over 5 years. I was flipping. I had mistakenly over fed the poor girls and Piggy, as I call her, is a great hunter and just porked out on the other frogs food. Luckily, it was easier to cope with than in my fish tanks. A little bath in some epsom salts and 3 days later she was fine.

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## Terry

Bloat seems to be the most common problem affecting ACFs (at least on this forum). BTW, there are two kinds of bloat, hard and soft. Hard bloat usually settles in the legs while soft bloat is what I like to call the "Michelin-man syndrome". They have different origins and need to be treated differently. Salt baths are highly recommended. Soft bloat is caused by a osmotic imbalance (edema or water-holding) and hard bloat is a bacterial infection that attacks the kidneys and usually fatal. I have been keping ACFs for a couple of decades and never had diseased frogs.

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## SailAwayAK

I have seen some aspirations done on some of those poor frogs. They were in dire need of it, that's for sure. Luckily I only had bloat from pigging out. I did do an epsom bath and I swear it did help. Luckily I haven't had bacterial issues with any of our frogs. *knock on wood*

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## FrogLover2009

I would use these as reference:

Can I keep other aquatic life with my ACF?


African Clawed Frog Housing and Feeding


African Clawed Frog Disease and Injury


Disease & Illness

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## Hobbes

> Bloat is another issue entirely! Yikes. I had my own first battle with it last week. Never have I freaked out so much! I have been keeping these frogs in my classrooms and at home for over 5 years. I was flipping. I had mistakenly over fed the poor girls and Piggy, as I call her, is a great hunter and just porked out on the other frogs food. Luckily, it was easier to cope with than in my fish tanks. A little bath in some epsom salts and 3 days later she was fine.


I know I'm late into this thread, but have raised ADF's for years with relative success.  I've had experience with Chytrid and kidney-related bloat.  My latest froggie population is comprised of two males and two females.  The older male (approx. 1.5 yrs) has started to slowly inflate.  None of the other frogs exhibits any sign of bloating.  My water chemistry is generally perfect and I do add a trace of aquarium salt when I do tank changes.

My question is this:  Salt is potentially fatal to aquatic frogs.  What is the appropriate ratio/mixture of epsom salts to use to formulate a bath for an ADF?  How long or generally what is the process of treating a frog with a salt bath?

Thank you all for all of your help!

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## stirstick

> My question is this:  Salt is potentially fatal to aquatic frogs.  What is the appropriate ratio/mixture of epsom salts to use to formulate a bath for an ADF?  How long or generally what is the process of treating a frog with a salt bath?
> 
> Thank you all for all of your help!


Same question, what would be the ratio and exactly what type of salt?

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