# Entire Colony of Frogs Died



## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

I had a colony of 5 Truncatus. Their setup and parameters of the viv are the same as all the other frogs I keep, so I am unsure how the microclimate could cause their death. The frogs came from 2 differnet reputable breeders. Besides this all the frogs went through a quarantine period of 1-2 months and were very active, eating and healthy looking. The strange thing is the frogs would be eating fine and moving around and then one day they would begin to be sluggish and then die. At first I didn't notice this was going on, since the frogs seem to hide in the leaf litter, but then I went through the viv and only found 3. Shortly after another died. And then a couple weeks another. The last one to die lived 1 month longer than the others. The most noticable symptom between all the frogs was the lack of use of their back legs. All the frogs were fine for about 2 months before any of the problems began as far as I could tell.

My biggest concern is my other frogs being infected by whatever this is. Hopefully this was only localized, as far as I know no other frogs in any other vivs have been affected. 

Is their anyway to test for the problem with the body of the dead frog.

And I would assume that breaking that viv down and sterizling ASAP would be the best thing to do.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Thanks


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

Hey George,
sorry for your loss, contact a vet and run a necropsy on the frog and they determine what the cause was if was a bacterial or viral infection and weather or not is airborne. 

I have seen the back leg dragging thing before, that is usually to a lack of calcium in their system, not because they are not being supplemented right, but just because their body is not absorbing it.


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

Thanks Julio,The last frog is actually still alive as an hour ago when I left for work. He is in QT now and hopefully he will make it through the day. I gave him some metrinidazole just because I thought it would better than doing nothing at all even though I'm not sure if he'll make it.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

George,

I always tend to act in extremes if I have a tank that was set up where I lost a number of frogs in it - especially all of them. I throw everything out, tank, lid, etc.....just in case there was an issue with one of the items I put in there that leached into the tank - and poisoned the frogs. Or if there was a parasite or other nasty - I don't even want to take the chance of not getting it out of there with a through cleaning.

I know that is extreme - but we have a lot of frogs. I haven't had to do this is a REALLY long time (3-4 years), but when we first got started, any tank I lost frogs in was out to the curb. People loved it - they were always gone before trash day.

Aaron posted a really good post about the person with the 5 Terribilis that died so quickly - click here. Since your deaths were spread out over time this might not be the case, but it is a good read.

Entire tank die offs can be linked to a lot of different things: stress, environmental contamination, etc... often deaths caused by those happen quickly. Other reasons can be all the 'nasties' everyone talks about. 

People also sometimes have difficulties with Truncatus. I don't think that is because they are a hard frog, but they could be more sensitive than others.

Even though this is not the breeder's fault, I would contact both of them and discuss what happened. See if they can offer any insights. I would also think back an go through you tank cleaning, construction, materials used, where you got them, etc.... to see if we can see a pattern or potential issue. Write everything you can remember down & see if anything pops out. The legs sticking out kinda sounds like a calcium issue - but without a necropsy, etc... who knows. 

I have had a similar issue happen with some Zaparos - these guys have challenges all their own. But, there was a bully in the tank and he killed all the smaller frogs. So, that can also be the case, but I don't know if truncatus are known for that behavior.

Just some thoughts.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

One other thought. When the frogs died, did they decompose really quickly (turn to mush) or did they keep their form for a while?


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

Considering their were only 2 bodies out of the 5 found and I did look for them when I noticed they were dead I would say the decomposed fast. But until I breakdown the tank I do not know for sure if their are any remnants left behind. 

As far as materials in the tank they are all similar to other I use in all my toher tanks. The only thing I can think of is that a certain piece could have been contaminated like you said. 

One thing I negelected to ask, are Truncatus sensitive to high temps?


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## Rich Frye (Nov 25, 2007)

Sorry to hear of your losses.

Rich


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

The last frog was dead when I got home. 

I tore apart the tank and disposed of everything except the tank which I bleached and put out up in our storage space. If I decide to use it I'm going to clean it out a couple more times.


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

Be sure to sanitize everything you dispose of to prevent the risk of spreading pathogens to your local amphibians/environment.

How high temperature was it ?


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

Occasionly it would get to 82 but generally it was around 78


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

May have been a little hot if it stayed that hot for extended periods of time. I my memory serves me they seem to like it on the cooler side of things.


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