my african dwarf frog died unexpectedly and suddenly after putting a rubber ornament bought from large pet chain. overnight he seemed to shed his skin. i carried out water checks and all was spot on so i was wondering if maybe the ornament coud have poisoned him. after he died i was emptying tank and as i had just bought ornament i thought i would immerse it in boiling water to sterilise so i could put it in other tank, however the water turned blueish and there was strong fumes coming from it. if this is the case i am very angry. i loved him and obviously very upset. i'm new to the forum and would appreciate any advice.

Hi denise78, welcome to FK

The decor you but from fish shops is usually quite safe so it's far more likely to be for other reasons.

Firstly, can you post your water readings for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as it's best to rule these out first?

Frogs don't really do well in fish tanks with fish. They are slower to get the food and often starve FK normally recommend a frog only species tank set up only to avoid this.

Frogs are also tropical. What temp is the tank at?

There is a good care sheet here: http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... esheet.php?caresheetID=96

thanks for replying violet,

the temp was at 75f and he was in the tank by himself. i have my goldfish in a biorb 30. i cant remember the readings my head is getting confused with it all as i am setting up a new 120l tropical tank (just arrived this morniing) and i have been up late reading lots of info from this site!!! there is some fantastic info here. i have also replaced frodo (adf) tank with a bigger one which i began cycling last week after his death to prepare it for another adf. i will test water and get back to you.

i had one fan tailed goldy who lived for 8 years and i am now very suprised at this as i had no idea at the time about ph, nitriate, nitrate etc and only discovered this when i started resaerch on tropical. my biorb now homes a black moor and a fancy goldy and they are doing fine and appear happy and healthy. i have a 6in1 water testing strip kit but from info here i understand they are not completely accurate, perhaps you could recommend some tests to me.

i think i will end up picking a lot of brains on this site as i want to do everything correctly and have beautiful healthy fish.

thank you again for replying

denise

I'm always a bit sceptical about the dip tests. Many posts here seem show them as being inaccurate on plenty of occasions, but they are cheap but don’t read ammonia, the most important of all.

High ammonia can cause skin and scales to peel or an excess slime coat which can look similar, which is what you may have seen.

The API Freshwater Test Kit contains over 800 tests and is very reliable and comes in at around £20 on Ebay.

True you need the GH/KH test on top but at only an additional £7 or so and a few years of tests, in the long run you are quids in.

Here they are on eBay for comparison purposes:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_tr ... _sacat=See-All-Categories

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=ap ... rksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

i am going to go on e bay right now and buy those tests.
thanks again

denise

I know you came on here asking about your frog but i noticed that you said you had a goldfish and a blackmoor in a 30litre biorb. You may or may not know but this is way too small for those fish and the wrong sort of tank. You need a tank that is way bigger than that to house your fish properly and to give them a long healthy life.