This unique little guy is Zechs the frog. He was an African Claw Frog. We enjoyed his company for about 14 years before he died. I miss a great many things about him including his cricket-like underwater song. The males of this type of frog sing to attract a mate, In the wild they do this in the spring when the rains come but if you have one in an aquarium, they will sing after you've changed the water. The change in the water temperature makes they assume it's spring.
We got Zech when his former owner decided to give him away after Zech committed a murder. He killed the female frog in his tank by kicking her with those strong, swimming legs. These little guys are not exactly social even with their own kind. We kept Zech in a tank alone because we didn't want him killing anyone else and he didn't seem to mind being on his own.
I used to see african Claw Frogs in pet shops now and again but since they are illegal in several states due to the damage they can do to the natural wildlife if released into streams, I haven't seen any in a while.
In spite of his killer instincts and tendency to eat anything that moved in his tank, I miss the little guy. He was a very entertaining family member while he was with us.
This is not his tank, this is just the container we put him into while cleaning his tank. He photographed better in this though.
Here he is in his tank with some of the stones and gravel he enjoyed tossing around. If you'll notice, his little front fingers
are black. When he was ready to mate, his fingers and front legs turned dark and then later, that would peal off into the water.
The first time it happened, it scared us half to death. We knew NOTHING about this type of frog before we got him and
we learned as we went along. We thought he was sick or injured until we found info on the internet about him.
And, one last photo of him pushing off the side of his holding container. Here you can see the detail in his large feet.
