New Quarantine procedure for ADFs 3/16/06
This is a quarantine procedure we at FnF have come up with, for keepers of African Dwarf Frogs.
It is especially important if you already have frogs, and you plan on getting more that you read this article fully. Your frogs life may depend upon it.
Why make a new special QT for ADFs?
We have been seeing a large increase in a disease in newly purchased ADFs that is a quick killer. We are working on an exact diagnosis and treatment right now, but suspect it is the Chytrid fungus
(pronounced "Kit-Rid") that is now affecting amphibians all over the world. The Fungal name is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and the disease name is Chytridiomycosis.
This fungus lives on a frogs skin, and is spread by an affected frog being in the same tank with healthy frogs. It is spread by fungal spores that pop off the sick frogs skin, and attach to healthy frogs skin, where it replicates.
Symptoms can vary from the ADF having tattery sheds or very bad looking skin, trying to climb out of the water, spazzing/thrashing at the surface, not eating, floating or hiding all the time, and finally death almost 100% of the time.
We dont think this fungus is transmittable to fish, only amphibian skin seems affected.
Personally, I recently rescued an ADF, did a short 3 week QT, and then put it in my tank with my other frogs.
Within 3 weeks, more than half my frogs were dead, all with the above symptoms, especially climbing out of water. I had kept my other frogs for over a year in extremely good heath until this event.
NOTE: any time you see your frogs doing any of these symptoms,
check water parameters immediately. Check for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate,
and PH, to be sure there is no water problems that could be the cause.
This is an image of the frog which transmitted the fungus into my tank,
her name was Pugley.
Notice how bad her skin looks. Dry and wrinkled, almost like she needs to shed, but never did.
The boy frog (Wimpy) amplexing on her died within a week,
proximity to the infected frog seems to have something to do with the ease of spore transmission, frog to frog.
QT Procedure:
So, in order to make sure we do not infect our frog tanks,
newly aquired frogs should be kept in Quarantine for at least 2 months, as this is the amount of time it takes to see symptoms, and usually death. I would much rather a new frog die in quarantine, as sad as that is, than to infect my healthy frogs home.
Be sure to use different aquatic tools for the QT as to not cross contaminate,
If you use the same baster for feeding all tanks, you could transfer the
spores to the healthy tank, and thus cause the fungus to spread to it.
Even if you do not own any frogs yet, and these are your first ADFs,
the QT procedure should still be a period of 2 months, if you keep any other aquatic life.
By introducing the fungus to a healthy tank, you could make your other aquatic critters carriers of the fungus, which has unforseen consequences.
So you didnt do the above QT, and now your frogs are starting to get sick,
Time is of the essence at this point. Please post in the Emergency Room of FnF as we can help. We can help diagnose whether or not your frogs symptoms match Chytridiomycosis, or another disease.
The main antifungal drug weve used with ADFs over the years, Maroxy, seems to do little to slow the mortality in ADFs showing symptoms of this fungus. It is possible that it works with healthy frogs that have shown no symptoms from an infected tank, but we just dont have enough information yet.
Maroxy seems to work well with most frog fungi, but once the above symptoms are present in our ADFs, we have not had much success.
The best idea so far is using
a treatment using Benzalkonium Chloride (see treatment below)
referencing a scientific study by Groff 1991, when the chemical Benzalkonium Chloride was used in baths to treat ADFs with similar symptoms.
FnF cannot guarantee that this a viable treatment,
and assumes no resposibility for any actions you may take.
We have had multiple successful treatments,
with my frogs surviving the treatment, the disease, and have remained healthy.
What if my frogs die from this, and I want new frogs?
If you will be introducing new frogs into a tank that has been infected, you should clean it and all tank accessories well. Throw away gravel.
This is known as Nuking
You use 10 to 1 water to bleach mix (20 to 1 for acrylic tanks) to kill any bacteria or fungi in the tank.
The trick to get the bleach out is rinse rinse rinse rinse with very hot water, and let it soak with a ton of dechlorinator.
I usually use about 10x to 20X the dechlorinator dosage to neutralize any bleach remaining in the tank.
If you smell any bleach after youre done, rinse and soak with more dechlor.
There is some reports of other techniques which supposedly kill the Chytrid fungal spores. We have no experience in this, but it is reported by scientists in published studies on Pubmed.com.
One technique is by completely drying tanks and tank accessories.
Supposedly, the fungal spores cannot survive drying.
We suggest after nuking your tank,
let all parts dry completely, as this should be another
line of defense in keeping the chytrid away from your now clean tank.
Another thing reported is that the spores will be killed by a temperature of 37deg Celsius (about 99 deg F) for the period of 4-5 hours.
Use these techniques at your own risk, as we have not tried them yet.
Where do we go from here?
We will continue to update this QT procedure as we learn more.
We have preserved some of my infected frogs in formalin for analysis, and will be getting necropsies done soon to determine the disease responsible for their death, then will come up with a treatment procedure if one is available.
If you have any questions about this QT procedure, please post
questions to the ADF board at FnF.
LOVE JBOT
This is a quarantine procedure we at FnF have come up with, for keepers of African Dwarf Frogs.
It is especially important if you already have frogs, and you plan on getting more that you read this article fully. Your frogs life may depend upon it.
Why make a new special QT for ADFs?
We have been seeing a large increase in a disease in newly purchased ADFs that is a quick killer. We are working on an exact diagnosis and treatment right now, but suspect it is the Chytrid fungus
(pronounced "Kit-Rid") that is now affecting amphibians all over the world. The Fungal name is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and the disease name is Chytridiomycosis.
This fungus lives on a frogs skin, and is spread by an affected frog being in the same tank with healthy frogs. It is spread by fungal spores that pop off the sick frogs skin, and attach to healthy frogs skin, where it replicates.
Symptoms can vary from the ADF having tattery sheds or very bad looking skin, trying to climb out of the water, spazzing/thrashing at the surface, not eating, floating or hiding all the time, and finally death almost 100% of the time.
We dont think this fungus is transmittable to fish, only amphibian skin seems affected.
Personally, I recently rescued an ADF, did a short 3 week QT, and then put it in my tank with my other frogs.
Within 3 weeks, more than half my frogs were dead, all with the above symptoms, especially climbing out of water. I had kept my other frogs for over a year in extremely good heath until this event.
NOTE: any time you see your frogs doing any of these symptoms,
check water parameters immediately. Check for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate,
and PH, to be sure there is no water problems that could be the cause.
This is an image of the frog which transmitted the fungus into my tank,
her name was Pugley.
Notice how bad her skin looks. Dry and wrinkled, almost like she needs to shed, but never did.
The boy frog (Wimpy) amplexing on her died within a week,
proximity to the infected frog seems to have something to do with the ease of spore transmission, frog to frog.
QT Procedure:
So, in order to make sure we do not infect our frog tanks,
newly aquired frogs should be kept in Quarantine for at least 2 months, as this is the amount of time it takes to see symptoms, and usually death. I would much rather a new frog die in quarantine, as sad as that is, than to infect my healthy frogs home.
Be sure to use different aquatic tools for the QT as to not cross contaminate,
If you use the same baster for feeding all tanks, you could transfer the
spores to the healthy tank, and thus cause the fungus to spread to it.
Even if you do not own any frogs yet, and these are your first ADFs,
the QT procedure should still be a period of 2 months, if you keep any other aquatic life.
By introducing the fungus to a healthy tank, you could make your other aquatic critters carriers of the fungus, which has unforseen consequences.
So you didnt do the above QT, and now your frogs are starting to get sick,
Time is of the essence at this point. Please post in the Emergency Room of FnF as we can help. We can help diagnose whether or not your frogs symptoms match Chytridiomycosis, or another disease.
The main antifungal drug weve used with ADFs over the years, Maroxy, seems to do little to slow the mortality in ADFs showing symptoms of this fungus. It is possible that it works with healthy frogs that have shown no symptoms from an infected tank, but we just dont have enough information yet.
Maroxy seems to work well with most frog fungi, but once the above symptoms are present in our ADFs, we have not had much success.
The best idea so far is using
a treatment using Benzalkonium Chloride (see treatment below)
referencing a scientific study by Groff 1991, when the chemical Benzalkonium Chloride was used in baths to treat ADFs with similar symptoms.
FnF cannot guarantee that this a viable treatment,
and assumes no resposibility for any actions you may take.
We have had multiple successful treatments,
with my frogs surviving the treatment, the disease, and have remained healthy.
What if my frogs die from this, and I want new frogs?
If you will be introducing new frogs into a tank that has been infected, you should clean it and all tank accessories well. Throw away gravel.
This is known as Nuking
You use 10 to 1 water to bleach mix (20 to 1 for acrylic tanks) to kill any bacteria or fungi in the tank.
The trick to get the bleach out is rinse rinse rinse rinse with very hot water, and let it soak with a ton of dechlorinator.
I usually use about 10x to 20X the dechlorinator dosage to neutralize any bleach remaining in the tank.
If you smell any bleach after youre done, rinse and soak with more dechlor.
There is some reports of other techniques which supposedly kill the Chytrid fungal spores. We have no experience in this, but it is reported by scientists in published studies on Pubmed.com.
One technique is by completely drying tanks and tank accessories.
Supposedly, the fungal spores cannot survive drying.
We suggest after nuking your tank,
let all parts dry completely, as this should be another
line of defense in keeping the chytrid away from your now clean tank.
Another thing reported is that the spores will be killed by a temperature of 37deg Celsius (about 99 deg F) for the period of 4-5 hours.
Use these techniques at your own risk, as we have not tried them yet.
Where do we go from here?
We will continue to update this QT procedure as we learn more.
We have preserved some of my infected frogs in formalin for analysis, and will be getting necropsies done soon to determine the disease responsible for their death, then will come up with a treatment procedure if one is available.
If you have any questions about this QT procedure, please post
questions to the ADF board at FnF.
LOVE JBOT
