Clawed frogs or platannas (Xenopus) are popular aquarium inhabitants. They are totally aquatic animals and leave the water only for curiosity or when the water body dries out. Nevertheless the tank has to be absolutely safely covered, for a trip in the dry living room can cause the death of the animal.
Most often Xenopus laevis is offered. This is the largest species of the genus and can reach the size of a man´s hand. Frogs of that size are able to eat pretty big fish. However, there are also smaller species. One of them is Xenopus muelleri. This species becomes 7-8 cm long (males stay about 20% smaller) and has a nice, spotted pattern.
X. muelleri has an enormous range in tropical and subtropical Africa. Our specimens, however, are European bred. Like in all species of Xenopus the tadpoles are filtrating and look rather like small catfishes than like the tadpoles of our native frogs.
For our customers: X. muelleri has code 192903 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Lexicon: Xenopus: from ancient Greek, means “with a strange foot”, referring to the three sharp clawes on the hind foot. laevis: Latin, means “smooth, shining”. muelleri: dedication name.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
PS: Colin Dunlop from Scotland told us it might be possible that our frog belongs to a subspecies of X. laevis rather than to X. muelleri due to the fact that in X. muelleri even in younger specimens the tentacles below the eye should be much longer than in our specimens. We thank Colin for this and will stay on the ball.
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Nachzucht / bred |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 2-3 |
