# P. terribilis wasting syndrome



## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

I have had 4 P. terribilis for 2+ years. They were about 3 years old and had been healthy in an 80 gallon bow tank with water-fall, false bottom, etc. until this summer. They began to get skinny and malformed, especially this one, and eventually died. All but one seemed to be eating fairly well even as they just wasted and died. I have 10 other species of darts, about 50 frogs all together, some of which I have had for over 5 years with no health problems. They are all fed dusted fruit flies (Dendrocare or Tree Frog dust by T. Rex) and some field plankton in season. The latter is uncontaminated by insecticides or herbicides. I have never experienced any disease of wasting with any of the other frogs. My well water is pure, free from metals or contaminants (by recent extensive State analysis) and untreated. Misting is bottled artesian well water. The waterways contain some tannins from oak leaves. 

The only thing I can think of is that we had an especially hot summer and this tank in particular was difficult to keep below 85 degrees at certain parts of the day due to its location. I did not notice the wasting process until it had cooled down. Could excess heat have triggered this phenomenon? 

The frog in the photo seemed to have deformed hind limbs in particular. While they all "worked," they did not coordinate together, but splayed in different directions. 

Any ideas would be welcome.


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## fishy332003 (Feb 15, 2004)

i have problem with the summer heat.the heat had kill my group of mint terribilis in this extreme hot summer.they don't seem active when it's get above 85F.


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## frogmeing (Sep 23, 2005)

I've never kept terribilis, but I was raising a group of tincs in the same tank and a similar thing happened to them. They all seemed to just be withering away, it began with one so I took him out, took him to a vet, he got a hefty dose of panucur and seemed to start gaining the weight back, but then after about a month started losing it again.
Meanwhile the rest of the group that was in the tank with him started showing the same symptoms, they were gradually eating less, and not being all that coordinated when they hopped, they would not hunt but would only eat the flies that came across their path. Does that sound similar to your situation? 
So I took them all in and the vet said that it was some type of internal parasite(he did'nt tell me what it was) but gave me some liquid panacur to take home with me. 3 drops in the mouth every other day for 3 days.
As of right now they have all gained the weight back completely except one that was extremely thin. He is on the road to recovery at the moment. 
I'm not sure if it was the same thing that is happening to yours but hopefully this helped. By the way, have you come to any conclusions on what the problem was with yours?


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

Seems pretty hot.


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## aneides (Apr 12, 2005)

It really sounds like you had some parasites in your tank. If you treated the animals but didn't tear down the tank the parasite eggs were still in there. They can last for over a year. A heavy infestation of frogs in a closed system creates a positive feedback loop of increasing parasites. 

Sometimes you can get away with not tearing down the tank but treating the frogs in quarantine and bleaching everything in the viv is the safest bet for the frogs.

Aneides


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## frogmeing (Sep 23, 2005)

*p terribilis wasting away*

Well I ended up tearing down the entire tank, buying all new plants and mosses and baked all the wood. Now i have them separated into pairs and so far so good.


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