I'm very sad today. I raised some Amazon milkfrog tadpoles who grew to be very lovely Amazon Milkfrogs. Today I lost one to the terrible chytrid fungus which is wiping out and extincting frog species all over the world. The fungus can be treated in captivity and I have my other frogs all getting hourly soaks in the Lamisil AT. I think the fungus got into my tank from contaminated fish water. I realized the pet stores all have African diving frogs and the water at stores is all connected. I know they have the UV lights, but with something as deadly as Chytrid, I don't think that can fix it. It could even be on the nets they use. Regardless, I have 3 frogs in quarantine tanks. One looks pretty good, one looks a little off and one looks not very good at all, one died this morning. I've been crying all day. Not just because of this one frog but because this is happening globally. 168 species have been extinct since this fungus broke out.
I remember when I was 17, I worked at a pet store and that was the first time I encountered it. I don't think anyone knew what it was then but in our stores frogs just kept dieing. I brought it to the attention of managers and anyone who would listen. I called it frog brain fungus, I thought it was a fungus but I thought it was in their brain, not their skin. There was no evidence of it though and who was I? I ended up loosing all of my pet frogs at home to this disease as well.
In 2000 I thought I would try a pet frog again. I found a young tomato frog. Within 2 months he was not eating, sitting in a strange position and looked ill. I had seen this before. I took him to the vet who charged me $300 to give him an injection in his leg and told me the moss I had in my cage was stressing him.
He had a brief recovery and then got ill again. I took him back to the vet for more shots but this time there was no recovery. I gave up frog keeping until I read about the chytrid. I finally had a name for the thing I noticed when I was a teenager working in a pet store. I also now know how to treat it. My one frog faded so fast.
It is so sad. I know the economy is tight but please if anyone has anything to give, frog conservation is a good cause. They are presently catching and captive breeding species on the verge of extinction until a cure or global treatment can be found.
http://www.amphibianark.org/donations.htm
I remember when I was 17, I worked at a pet store and that was the first time I encountered it. I don't think anyone knew what it was then but in our stores frogs just kept dieing. I brought it to the attention of managers and anyone who would listen. I called it frog brain fungus, I thought it was a fungus but I thought it was in their brain, not their skin. There was no evidence of it though and who was I? I ended up loosing all of my pet frogs at home to this disease as well.
In 2000 I thought I would try a pet frog again. I found a young tomato frog. Within 2 months he was not eating, sitting in a strange position and looked ill. I had seen this before. I took him to the vet who charged me $300 to give him an injection in his leg and told me the moss I had in my cage was stressing him.
He had a brief recovery and then got ill again. I took him back to the vet for more shots but this time there was no recovery. I gave up frog keeping until I read about the chytrid. I finally had a name for the thing I noticed when I was a teenager working in a pet store. I also now know how to treat it. My one frog faded so fast.
It is so sad. I know the economy is tight but please if anyone has anything to give, frog conservation is a good cause. They are presently catching and captive breeding species on the verge of extinction until a cure or global treatment can be found.
http://www.amphibianark.org/donations.htm
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
aldremech:
Happy Mother's Day 
wren:
I just got an issue of National Geographic that had a small article about this. There was a picture of a stream with about six froggies belly up. So sad.