As you can see Rosco is now a full fledged frog. He is the smaller of the two. Both are doing well but I have since learned something about my little hoppers. They play DEAD!! When I first saw it I thought Rosco had injured himself. He was swimming around in a panic when I opened the tank to clean it next thing I knew he was floating belly up. It scared the crud out of me! I picked him up out of the water and laid him on the land part of the habitat. I watched him for a few minutes and first saw he was still breathing (WHEW). Then I saw him blink and his leg twitch. After a few minutes he got up and hopped behind one of the little plants. He has done it a couple times since and today when I was catching the frogs to clean their tank, Kermit did it too. I did a little research and found that they play dead to escape enemies. I don't know how well it works for that but it certainly makes them easier to catch when I need to clean out their home.
NOW! Did you know that the stench from Stagnant pond water will stick to you no matter how many times you wash your hands??
I found this out today. You see I seem to have created my very own stagnant pond here in my own home. In hindsight I should have realized this would happen but I really didn't think it out. How did I make my own stagnant pond. Well let me tell you it might make a good science fair project for someones kid (though I suggest you do it outside because once you disturb the water your whole house will smell.
I orders some duck weed for the frogs home. It gives them someplace in the water to hide and helps keep the crickets from drowning since they can walk right across the top of it. Now the smallest size I could order was a quarter pound of duck week. This is way too much for my little frog house and I put the rest into a little aquarium we had sitting around. You can see a picture below.
Now if you look in the upper left corner you will see a little filter. It wasn't there before I just put it in. Before the duck week covered the entire surface of the water to about an inch thick. The problem with this is no oxygen could get to the water and caused a build up of bacteria that thrives in an Anaerobic condition (a condition with no oxygen). This is of course what happens in stagnant ponds. Algae clogs the surface of the water letting now oxygen through. Now the smell doesn't escape till you disturb the plants on the water. I did that this morning when I went to get some for my nice clean frog habitat. My hands are still stinky and I've washed them 4 times already. It's going to be a long day!
