A pet for my classroom!

[Linz_1987]

Grrr this is really annoying me. Ivebeen trying to think of the breed of frog/toad we had at college but Icant think of it!

Anyway, I think you should get this frog/toad for your classroom asthey are so cute. But they eat live maggots:vomit:At college we had a tank full of live maggots and whenit came to feeding time we had to crush their heads with tweezers andfeed them to the froggies/toadies.

...But they are cute little things.

 

[parsnipandtoffee]

Errr squshing maggots sounds quite horrible, but I'm sure that there will be plenty of volunteers to help me!

I think frogs or fish will be the best option. Problem is now that I have so many ideas I want one of everything!

 

[Flopsy]

Oh wait I have another idea!! In second grade myteacher had little turtles and newts. They were socool! And easy to feed. I've never seen any again since thatclass and wish I have, they are awesome! And turtles were a nice touchand they can be in the same tank with the newts.

 

[Linz_1987]

OMG i want a turtle so badly!! They are so CUTE!!!!!

only trouble as having one as a class pet, they hibernate all winterdont they? so they wont have a class pet all winter lol.

 

[Flopsy]

:rollseyes:...maybe. lol I don't remember theones we had hibernating. Maybe cause its Floirda and maybebecause we were busy with the awesome newts. lol Yeah I usedto want a little turtle so0o bad... then I got a rabbit. lol

 

[Krissa]

naturestee wrote:

That would be really cool for a scienceclassroom! I think they also have kits for African ClawedFrogs, which are about the size of my hand when they're full grown.

My two African Clawed Frogs came from a kit like that, they are veryeasy to care for and they don't need live food like some frogs do (theyneed to see movement to eat). They are fully aquatic. I feedmine a mix of fish flakes, dried shrimp, dried blood worms, and bigfish pellets. They even eat earthworms out of my hand. Mineare about 10inches long. But if you get them, make sure you have a verysecure lid, they will jump out of the tank! Watch the area around thefilter for holes they can get out of.

 

[parsnipandtoffee]

If I get frogs or turtles or something similarhow much space do they need and how much water? I need to be able tomove the tank really so I can take it home in the holidays or maybeeven move it if I'm out of school for a day!

 

[Krissa]

I have my African Clawed frogs in a 29 gallonaquarium, thats a bit too large to transport back and forth and they doneed a lot of room because they get big. They use every inch of theircurrent aquarium.I started them out in a 5 gallon though, itstaken them about 3 years to get to their current size. Soon when wemove they are stepping up to a 40 gallon .

I have had luck transporting frogs from one location to another, muchmore luck than with fish. If you had one tank at school and one athome, you could buy a small plastic carrier with small holes in thelid, put some water from the school tank in it and take them home(heading straight home of course). But that can be expensive having twolarge aquariums. The Dwarf Clawed frogs would require less space.

On another note, they do not require constant care like a rodent would.They can be left over the weekend, as long as the tank heater works andkeeps the tank around 76F. I feed mine every 3 days and they are plump.They scavenge on the bottom of the tank so they scoop up the food theymissed at the feeding. I was feeding them every day, but they didn'teat all the food, I've found three days to be a good interval for them.They also make automatic fish feeders you can use for the frogs if youwill be gone for a week, I've used them while I was on vacation andthey work great. I would not trust it for more than a week just incasesomething got stuck though. As long as the airconditioning or the heatis working they can stay at school in their tank.

 

[parsnipandtoffee]

I asked my new boss and he said 'You can have whatever animal you want, just let us know and we'll pay for it. Great!!!

I'm going to have a look at different options and tank sizes over the next few weeks!!

 

[naturestee]

My African dwarf frogs used to be in a 5 gallontank. They're in the 10 gallon now because I got sick oftaking care of 4 tanks! They're only 2 inches long as adults,so they don't need a whole lot of space. I kept 2 frogs andthree male guppies in the 5 gallon (well planted) and they did justfine. I don't know if the plants made a difference or not,but I never had algae problems like I did in my 10 gallon (alsoplanted). Tanks under 20 gallons can have unpredictablechanges in water chemistry. Every few months something wouldget seriously out of whack in the 10 gallon. So I've gotteninto the habit of keeping it well under-stocked so the swings aren't asoften or as bad. All it has now is the two frogs and anotocinclus, and I might add a female betta.

My frogs mainly eat these soft sinking pellets that are made forthem. Depending on the store, they're found either by thefish food or the reptile food. Supposedly too much dried foodis bad for them because it damages their intestines. They'resupposed to be scavangers but I haven't seen them scavange verymuch. They're pretty lazy, but they're so cute when they'rehanging out in funny positions or floating at the top so they don'thave to move to breathe.

 

[Krissa]

naturestee wrote:

Tanks under 20 gallons can have unpredictablechanges in water chemistry.

:yeahthatWhenever I sold fish tanks at the pet store I worked at I always triedto get people to buy the largest tank they had room for. It is just somuch easier to care for a large tank, I hated my 5gallon and I'm lovingmy 29 gallon. Less cleaning less worry etc . . . And since the schoolwill pay for it the possibilites are endless :yes: