← African Dwarf Frog care guide
What do African dwarf frogs eat?
The short answer
African dwarf frogs are fully aquatic, tiny, and have poor eyesight, finding food largely by smell and touch. That combination means they lose out badly to faster tankmates. Most African dwarf frogs that die in community aquariums starve rather than sicken.
Feeding schedule by age
| Life stage | Diet balance | How often | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juvenile | Live/frozen micro-foods | Daily | Very small |
| Adult | Frozen bloodworms, sinking pellets | Every 1-2 days | Target-fed |
| Community tank | Target-feed individually | Each feeding | Otherwise they go hungry |
What to feed
| Food | Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen bloodworms | Staple | Well accepted and easy to target-feed |
| Frozen brine shrimp and daphnia | Staple | Good variety |
| Sinking carnivore pellets | Staple | Formulated for bottom feeders |
| Blackworms | Treat | Highly attractive |
| Feeding dish | Equipment | Keeps food in one findable place |
What never to feed
Items in this table are either outright toxic or cause predictable long-term harm. This is the part of the page worth reading twice.
| Do not feed | Why |
|---|---|
| Floating flake food | Never reaches a bottom-dwelling frog. |
| Relying on community feeding | Fish out-compete them; starvation is the usual outcome. |
| Overfeeding into a small tank | Uneaten food fouls water fast. |
| Deep tanks with no easy surface access | They breathe air and must reach the surface. |
| Confusing them with African clawed frogs | Different species, much larger, and predatory. |
Where good sources disagree
Care sheets do not all say the same thing, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. These are the real points of difference between the sources cited at the foot of this page, and what we think the safe reading is.
Whether they can be kept in community tanks at all.
Many keepers do, successfully, provided the frogs are target-fed. Others recommend species-only setups precisely because feeding competition is so reliably a problem. Both positions agree that feeding a dwarf frog by scattering food into a community tank does not work.
What most african dwarf frog feeding advice gets wrong
They starve quietly in community tanks.
African dwarf frogs are slow, nearly blind by fish standards, and find food by smell. In a tank with fish, the food is gone before the frog arrives. Keepers report the frog 'wasting away for no reason' when the cause is simply that it never got any meals. Target-feeding with a pipette or a dedicated dish solves it.
They are not African clawed frogs.
The two are confused constantly in shops. African clawed frogs grow much larger, are strongly predatory, and will eat tankmates including dwarf frogs. Check for four webbed feet and a small adult size; a clawed frog has front feet without webbing.
Common questions
What do African dwarf frogs eat?
Sinking foods: frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and daphnia, plus sinking carnivore pellets. They are bottom dwellers with poor eyesight, so floating flake food is of no use to them and food needs to reach where they are.
Why is my African dwarf frog not eating?
In a community tank, usually because fish are reaching the food first. These frogs are slow and find food by smell, so they lose food races reliably. Target-feed them with a pipette or a dedicated feeding dish.
How often should I feed African dwarf frogs?
Every one to two days, in small amounts. Uneaten food fouls a small aquarium quickly, so portion control matters for water quality as much as for the frogs.
Are African dwarf frogs the same as African clawed frogs?
No, and they are frequently confused in shops. African clawed frogs grow much larger and are predatory, eating tankmates including dwarf frogs. Dwarf frogs have four webbed feet and stay small.