FlippersandFins.net Frog Fight Article

Male African Dwarf Frog Aggression

by todley

Anyone who has more than one ADF has probably seen a fight over a tasty bloodworm! During the hunt for food, anything that moves is fair game to an ADF's limited close range vision, so another frog's flipper or a froggy butt might get nipped or an arm might disappear temporarily into another frog's mouth before it's spit or pulled out. An ADF's mottos is, "If it moves, try to eat it!" One of the funniest things that I've seen is when these tongueless creatures (pipidae) are working a big juicy bloodworm in and out of it's mouth with it's front flippers to get it just right to swallow, and another frog near sees or senses those movements and moves in to grab the other end of the worm. A frog on each end of a worm is hilarious to watch as they're very serious about it and the spoils of these battles go to the victor, male or female.

But, when the lights go low and love is in the air, the call of the male ADF starts to buzz though the quiet of the night to let females know who and where he is. It also advises other males in the area that they better watch out, he's looking for love and he's ready to fight over it!

Having two males in the same tank with two females creates it's own set of circumstances when Mother Nature decides the time has come to do what comes naturally. I've been most fortunate to be able to witness and learn much about these delightful little frogs and their mating habits, as well as their pre-mating habits, when the macho inclination inherent in the mature males takes over.

When the male ADF is about 4 to 6 months old, their little skinny arms start to develop "he-man Popeye" styled forearms and the little white spot under their forearms may change coloration or size determining a readiness to mate. Freds spots are the pinkish tones and sometimes a red spot appears in the center of them, while Flop's are barely different colors but are way more pronounced in size. They also begin to sing; not necessarily the croak, ribbit or Johnny Mathis love songs that you might expect to hear, but more like a buzzing sound. Apparently, all male frogs don't sing, but perhaps it's at such a low frequency that they've just not easily heard. Many folks think that an ADF's singing is the hum of the refrigerator or the tank's filter and don't realize it's their frog advertising his identity and location.

My males developed at different rates. Flop, the one with a spastic attitude who by day bumbles over rocks and literally spazzes out trying to dig through the tank glass matured in this regard long before Fred. He becomes a different frog when he feels the time to mate is at hand. At this time, he's much smoother in his movements in the water, swooping around in long leaps and landing in a confrontational stance stomping his hind flippers up and down; chin pointed upwards, arms and legs firmly planted and supporting his body up to look big, tall and tough. With his poor vision and grumpy disposition, he tries to stare down anything that moves; a shrimp, the oto's tail, the end of a plant leaf, a plant root waving in the current and, especially Fred. He also begins to sing loud and long.

Listen here to the sound of Frog Songs and Aggression.

Fred has a much more quiet and peaceful personality and was slower in developing the arms, singing style and ability and even the desire to be confrontational. For weeks, Flop would taunt Fred and push at him with his snout or chest without much success for a good all out knock 'em down, drag 'em out fight. Fred would just wander away and before long Flop was in his face again but Fred wasn't into fighting at that time. Not fighting didn't mean no mating though and often as Flop would be swaggering about the tank and singing, Fred would quietly grab a female and away they'd go. Of course you know this didn't set well with You Know Who! ;) He'd follow them around literally stomping all four of his flippers up and down still trying to challenge Fred who was already too busy to be bothered.

As a couple months passed this way, Fred's arms filled out fuller and he became more assertive in his own right and that's when the actual all out flipperty-cuffs began as Fred will now assume the aggressor's role as often as Flop does.

My frogs don't like the lights on for too long in the evening and will find cover until I turn them out. I use back lighting in the later part of the evening, so I can still see what goes on in the tank but not send them scurrying away to hide. As soon as the lights go low, and if there is any indication of 'that certain feeling', Flop starts singing. Before long, he's changed from a Stumblebum into what I refer to as his Lounge Lizard Routine. It doesn't take him long to find Fred and very soon the singing changes into the short zzzIT, zzIT, zzIT, coming from quiet old Fred who is no longer ready to turn and wander away. They now face off at each other with their chins up, standing as tall as they can on all four arms and legs and begin to butt each other with their chests.

They do a few chest butts and wander off for a bit and then start all over again.

After three or fours warm ups of this, they really get into it! One will finally grab hold of the other and they turn into a mass of arms, legs and flippers, whirling in the water. I often see or hear them splashing at the surface during one of these squabbles. They'll battle anywhere; on the bottom or up in the leaves, wherever one finds the other.

Whoever has the best of a particular foray hangs onto the other as they slowly sink to the bottom and they stay there for a while with one pinning the other down, like wrestlers do. The tables are often turned as to who the victor is from battle to battle.

After a few seconds or so, the bottom one wriggles free and they head off in different directions for awhile. It's not too long though before they meet up and it starts all over again!

There have been no injuries that I am aware of and I have taken the time to watch them closely after these battles. I was concerned at first after seeing how fast and how serious they were about these matches and I'm really glad that they don't have teeth! There could very well be trauma incidents if they bump into ornaments or pieces of wood in the tanks while whirling through the water so I do keep a close eye on their activities in this regard. They don't appear to use the claws on their hind flippers as weapons during these battles, thank goodness, as they are too busy using these flippers for stability, balance and movement in the water.

Apparently, there doesn't need to be females available for males to become aggressive towards each other as others have reported their tank of males only get into a few battle royales too.

Both of my females continue hunting nearby in hopes of attracting the males attentions if they too are in the mood, but the males pay absolutely no attention to them for a couple hours or more. If the females aren't in the mood, they find places to hide out and stay well away from the action. The guys are more interested in fighting each other than courting the ladies. I've watched the females follow them around the tank, stopping nearby with nose down and hiney slightly raised, only to be ignored as the grappling continues. I've often seen a female actually crawl under one of the males involved in a squirmish, again only to be ignored but this doesn't seem to deter her as she will continue to make the effort to be available over and over again.

The males have spent upwards of 2 to 4 hours in an evening carrying on like this before finally one of them tires of it all and finally starts to pursue the females who have been flaunting themselves nearby. Sometimes, the females then become fickle and play hard to get but the determination of the males is not to be ignored and it isn't long before one of the males has the lady of his choice, or the one he was able to catch, in his grasp.

Once the couple is in the embrace of amplexus, the singing of that particular male ceases. But, if the other male hasn't given up the inclination to fight, he will continue to sing and often will follow the happy couple around hopefully creating distractions or trying to dislodge the already busy male. These efforts seldom seem to work.

More often than not though, once the battles are over, there are two couples amplecting as I head off to my own slumbers and I usually wake to find them all busy hunting eggs for breakfast, but that's another story!