What is an African Dwarf Frog (ADF)?
The African Dwarf Frog (ADF) is a small, fully aquatic frog that needs to live 100% of its lifetime in water. They are not amphibious like most other frogs that spend part of their time on land and therefore ADFs have no eyelids! The African Dwarf Frog belongs to the family Pipidae (tongueless) and are either Hymenochirus boettgeri or Hymenochirus curtipes. There is apparently very little difference between these two types and likely the only ones who really know are the frogs themselves. 😉 An ADF is categorized as Hymenchirus because the Latin translation of “hymen” is membrane and “chirus” is hand and the ADF has webbing between the toes of his hands (forefeet). It is very likely that the frogs that you will find in the fish stores are now a hybrid of H. boettgeri and H. curtipes as most suppliers are located in North America now.
