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My ADF is acting strange... Now it's getting hard to feed him. O.k, I usually feed the fish in one part of the tank, and then feed the ADF somewhere else, so the food can float down unhindered and the frog can eat it in peace. but now when he sees the fish swarming to the food, he does this slow stroking up to it, and lounges at the flake food! I thought they didn't like it. But then, by the time he floats down again, one guppy or aanother has found his food, and now the frog is only getting half of his usual food serving, so I stomp when they get close, the fish dart away, and the fron is temprarily safe. But WHY has he developed that behavior?!?

If pets are so stupid, how did they weasel free room and board out of us?

Its instinctive behaviour. ADF's primarily hunt by vibration,second smell, and lastly sight. it could be that the activity at feeding time is starting him off behaving compulsively towards any potential source of food. He isnt that smart and only has a limited amount of logic. He probably doesnt realise that his efforts are self-defeating. It is up to you therefore to cater for him, you will probably be unable to influence his decisions and so you must adapt to his behaviour.

Competitive feeding is a common problem with keeping adf's in community. For his long term survival you may have to keep him in a species tank.

ps, stomping will disturb the fish and the frog just as much as tapping on the glass would. Dont do it. I suppose you could drop in a small tank seperator for feeding times, but thats about it. The major thing that people forget about ADF's is that they avoid fish wherever possible in nature, unless of course they are actively hunting tiny fry. They prefer solitude, theyre not even that fond of their own species until spawning times. They are much better in species tanks. They prefer water which is calm or has a minimal consistant flow so they can calibrate themselves to movement. This is why although they will take dead food when they must, they do much better on live foods with no fish in the immediate vicinity to confuse their sensory skills for detecting movement. They stalk their prey slowly, and their skills are no match for a fish in clear water. A community tank is simply too busy and has to much motion for most ADF's to be happy.

I've had nothing but problems keeping ADF with community fish. The frog I have is now in his own separate tank. He just couldn't eat fast enough to compete. I tried just about everything to deliver his bloodworms right in front of his face, and well, I think I must have the world's stupidest frog b/c he can have a worm dangling right in front of him and he'll miss it. Then whoosh, in comes a fish and the worm is gone. I noticed too, that he began lunging at everything (in hopes of finding something to eat I guess), even my poor otocinclus. So he's alone now.

The only way I had any luck was to use a dropper and squirt the food just to the very end. Then the frogs would snap it off the end. Mine never came to the top for food. The problem with that was in anything bigger than about a 10g finding and reaching the frogs amongst decorations was a bit difficult. Even in the 5g I occasionally missed feeding one because he was hiding behind the driftwood, in the clump of apongeton, or behind the filter intake. They also do better on frozen food such as bloodworms and I also fed mine frozen squid. I only rarely gave them sinking pellets when I was in a hurry and never have fed that tank flakes.