FROG FARMING, A COMPLICATED DISCIPLINE THAT OFFERS NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR AQUACULTURE

T here is an increasing demand for supplying the culinary markets of frogs. S everal farming attempts  have been made  on  the comestible green wat er frog: Pelophylax saharicus to verify its performance and its suitability as an exploitable new resource in Tunisia. The question of adaptation to inert food is the most complex w hen talking about frog farming in captivity. In fact,  adult frogs eat exclusively moving live preys in natural conditions. In this study, we tried several methods  to make inert food more attractive. Some frog-farmers mix  the diet  with  live fly larvae, which they reduce progressively until the frogs accept voluntary the inert food.  The work reported here examined the effects  of this progressive adaptation on performances of the North African green water frog reared in captivity.  The results show that a fter two months of feeding  juvenile frogs with fodder granules plus live domestic fly larvae, it is possible to eliminate the larvae completely from the frogs’ diet.