Froggie and Frogette...A Love Story.

During my second year of teaching, I ordered a tadpole from Grow a Frog.  We were sent a tadpole and my class named him Froggie.  After Froggie had turned into a "froglet" I ordered him a new fancy home.  With the new home, came a friend.  We named the friend Frogette, but sectioned them off from each other in their home because Frogette was much bigger and I was afraid that she would eat our little Froggie!  Eventually, they both moved into these two larger tanks and stayed in them for some time.

When I first ventured into the frogs, I figured that we would just let them go at some point and be done with them.  However, I was wrong!  The frogs were African Water Frogs and literally would not survive out in the wild.  I did not have the heart to give them to a family not knowing if they would be taken care of, therefore they became my official class pets.  My kids have always loved having them and they even made the move up to Chicago with me.


Over the summer and during the fall, David and I noticed how we were having to clean their tanks (they were still living separately) more frequently and it was getting grosser and smellier very quickly!  Therefore, I decided to splurge and get them better tanks with a good filter!  I went to an aquarium store and talked to someone who told me he knew all about frogs.  He said to get them one 15 gallon tank and put them together.  I knew that I had a male and female and he said that would be no problem.  He also said that they were big enough that they wouldn't eat each other and they would like the company.


I trusted him and bought the one tank still nervous about what would happen.  David and I went to school on a Sunday and set everything up.  We nervously put the two frogs in together and within an instant we saw this...

It goes without saying that I was obviously freaking out.  I was not going to be the one that introduced mating to my first grade students!  The two did not separate by the morning on Monday, so colleagues helped me to cover the tank so that the class could not see what was going on.  I told the kids that the aquarium workers told me that the frogs needed to "get to know each other" and I could not take the cover off until they were ready.  Unfortunately, this "getting to know each other" was not stopping!  It went on and on and on and after over a week I was totally fed up!  

Randomly one morning Froggie decided to take a break and get off Frogette.  By this point, I was pretty sure he was dead because he was not eating and lost weight!  One of my co-workers quickly scooped him out and banished him to his old home!  He was not too happy but luckily survived.  I ordered the two frogs a separator for the tank and they now live like this...

I am positive that Frogette is happy but am not so sure about Froggie.  He will just have to survive though!  Oh frog love...

Mrs. Barnett : )