Asian Floating Frogs

Description:

These are really cute little guys who recently started showing up in pet stores all over the place. The distributor apparently doesn't give a lot of information accompanying the frogs. I only have seen one, and it looks a lot like the African Clawed Frog, without the claws and quite dark, except that it has a light brownish stripe coming down the center of its back.

Habitat:

These guys need a half and half tank...with a lot of water to float on and a clear and easy way for them to crawl out (via plastic plants, sticks, or whatever....as long as they can easily get out of the water for a time.) The folks at the local pet store had them in a half and half tank setup with the Viquarium Kit setup (see Housing Your Pet Frog section for more information on this subject.
(see the Frog Doctor for details on illness prevention.)

Diet:

insects, namely, bought crickets dowsed in a vitamin supplement. See the Dealing with Crickets for the Squeamish Pet Owner section for more info.

Habits:

These frogs behave much as their name implies...spending a large amount of time floating at the top of water. Occasionally they will hop onto the land mass and move about as well. They are unpredictable night "croakers." Feel free to write to me if you have any info on these guys that folks might enjoy...
Information on the longevity of frogs is available in the Weird Frog Facts section.

Miscellaneous Facts:

Indonesian floating frogs are commonly known as "Asian" floating frogs. They are commonly breed domestically now within the US.
The pet store down the street where I finally found these guys had them in an aquarium with some hermit crabs. I am actually not entirely certain how good a combination this really is... [Generally, the golden rule is don't mix species unless you are absolutely positive that they will do ok together...even if you see a mixture of critters living together at the pet store you can't be certain since these are usually temporary and short term "relationships" (as the frogs get sold pretty quickly).]
There's a company called Dolphin International which is apparently one of the biggest frog distributors out there...and I'm told these frogs are being circulated without much more information on them than this. That probably explains why so many folks are now writing to me asking about this frog... *sigh.*
On that note, if ANYONE out there has any information on this little guy that they can send me it would be much appreciated.

Photo coutesy of Frank Bambang Yuwono (Check out his website for more cool frog photos!)

For more information, check out:

• Rice Paddy Frogs (Occidozyga Lima) has a really great page on this, even though the info is still "spotty", but the best part is there's a bunch more pictures here too.
• issue #10.5 (released sometime around November 1999) of Vivarium Magazine has an article in it "Care of Floating Frogs: How to design planted vivaria for keeping these popular amphibians along with photos of miniature set-ups. Includes information on aquatic plants, lighting and filtration." (Haven't seen this article myself...but I do know there is one there...)