Water For Frogs
All Water Is Not The Same - As children, we often captured tadpoles or small frogs in a jar. They would do fine for a time, and being concerned for their well being we would change the water out, giving them tap water. They would soon die. It seemed obvious that there must be something harmful in the tap water. With the next new batch of tadpoles, we would change the water, but this time using distilled water. Same result. We didn't realize it at the time, but we had witnessed a lesson on just how sensitive the frog is to any change in its environment.
If you plan to install an aquarium for frogs, or any other amphibian, you soon learn a few quick lessons about frog habitat. The freshwater that is found in lakes, and streams, even from the water tap, contains certain salts. These salts are not the Sodium Chloride found in abundance in the oceans, but are other salts, present in small amounts and include Calcium Chloride, Sodium Sulfate, and Calcium Carbonate to name three. These salts are present in ponds and wetlands which make up typical frog habitat, and if a frog is to survive in a new habitat, the level and type of salinity must be the same as is found in the natural setting.
Consider what happens if you place a saltwater plant in fresh water. It dies. The same thing can happen to a frog if placed in distilled water. What is happening is the lack of salinity will cause the frog's cells to swell and rupture, the same thing that happened to the plants. Tap water is different, in that it may contain chemicals not found in natural frog habitat, like chlorine and fluoride. The frog will absorb these chemicals through its skin. Spring water is better, and pond water, if clean, is best.
In addition to providing a pet frog with the right kind of water, having proper levels of salinity and no harmful chemicals or toxins, there are other things which must be done condition and maintain the frog's water. Water conditioner, available in freshwater pet stores, will remove harmful chemicals and add salts as may be needed. Once that is done, you can add gravel, vegetation, etc., to make the new frog habitat as natural as possible. Once you get it right, all you have to do is remember to keep the facility clean, but don't change all the water out at once and replace it with new water, or you may have a dead frog.
It is rather amazing to realize how ordinary a pond or swamp seems to be, but at the same time, how sensitive the frog is to any change in that environment. For the resident frog, the frog habitat really has to be kept fairly constant, and it takes very little disruption, whether caused by humans or not, to wipe out the resident population, even though from our perspective, nothing much seems to have changed.
Efforts To Preserve Frog Habitat - Scientists, and even some politicians have become alarmed at the recent decrease in frog population, and the disappearance of a number of species. Fortunately there are a number of efforts underway to halt, and hopefully reverse, this trend. Much is being done in several Central and South American countries where a majority of the species live, including some very exotic and unusual ones. Facilities have been set up to breed and isolate many species to protect them from fungus and environmental changes, while studies are underway to see what can be done to better preserve the frog's natural environment. In some places, development has been halted, or at least deferred, pending solutions on how to allow development to proceed while protecting frog habitat at the same time. If we are successful in protecting the frog, we will probably have greater success in protecting other species, those animals who also are affected by changes in their habitat but are not quite so sensitive to those changes as is the frog. By preserving quality frog habitat we are in one sense taking a very real step towards helping preserve our own.