New pacman, new member

[ZachP]

I decided to join this forum mostly because of my new pacman frog I'm pretty new to frogs but have always kept other animals of all sorts so I know to always do research first. This is just to post pictures, if i can get a good one, of my new pacman plus I'll probably have some questions along the way. I'm hoping to learn a lot about frogs here! I'll try to post a picture in a minute

[ZachP]

And here's his/her enclosure as of right now. Keep in mind I got this 2 days ago and it will be better looking once the pet store is open after new years!

[GrifTheGreat]

Very nice Ceratophrys cranwelli.

Best thing you can do right now is cover 3 sides of the enclosure with some sort of natural or dark background. This will make the frog feel more secure. Also add a fake plant or two to give the frog some cover. Alway keep stress as low as possible. These two step to take I've provided will go to miles on reducing stress levels. Also always provide enough substrate so that the frog can completely cover itself if it desires to.

Whenever you want to know something feel free to ask. There are several experienced keepers and breeders on the forum.

[Heatheranne]

Nice pacman . Be sure to get a good hygrometer to monitor his humidity, and a good thermometer.

[Lija]

Nice pacman . Be sure to get a good hygrometer to monitor his humidity, and a good thermometer.

or just get hydrotherm + a fogger and forget forever about measuring humidity and temps Grif is right, a few fake plants and covering 3 sides will do a lot, you can cover for now with anything and later do it all pretty


beautiful frog you got here, congratulations! and welcome to the forum!

[ornate510]

Nice pacman and welcome!

[ZachP]

Its inside of a cabinet in a far corner of my room so the sides are pretty much covered up. But i was wondering could i put like cork or tree bark background without it bugging the frog in anyway? Maybe on the sides too. And the substrate is just under 3'" deep and the frog is still a baby so he has more then enough to cover himself. I do have a hygrometer and thermometer, you can barely see it in the pic but its kind of blocked by the trim on the tank. I was wondering if its a reliable brand or type of hygrometer though just because i've never used it. Its just the zoo med one with both hygrometer and thermometer built in one. I'm going for a really cool natural look here so i was wondering if there are any good live plants i could get? I heard they will just uproot them but maybe if i made the substrate a little deeper i could put plants in little pots with plenty of substrate on top so it wont bother the frog. Any thoughts?

[ZachP]

Oh ya, and I will be getting some fake plants for now. Unfortunately the pet store is closed today

[DVirginiana]

I'd say don't bother with putting live plants in unless you have experience doing planted terrariums. They make things harder to clean and with a pac you have to do a lot of extra maintenance to deal with their tendency to burrow and uproot them. I saw a list of frog-safe plants somewhere before if you still want to do it... Might have been on this forum. I'll see if I can find it.

Being closed in doesn't bother these frogs. In fact, babies especially feel safer when their space is kind of small. As long as one side of the tank is uncovered, that's fine.

[Lija]

Its inside of a cabinet in a far corner of my room so the sides are pretty much covered up. But i was wondering could i put like cork or tree bark background without it bugging the frog in anyway? Maybe on the sides too. And the substrate is just under 3'" deep and the frog is still a baby so he has more then enough to cover himself. I do have a hygrometer and thermometer, you can barely see it in the pic but its kind of blocked by the trim on the tank. I was wondering if its a reliable brand or type of hygrometer though just because i've never used it. Its just the zoo med one with both hygrometer and thermometer built in one. I'm going for a really cool natural look here so i was wondering if there are any good live plants i could get? I heard they will just uproot them but maybe if i made the substrate a little deeper i could put plants in little pots with plenty of substrate on top so it wont bother the frog. Any thoughts?

as DV said don't bother with live plants, even if they don't uproot them they produce too much waste for any live plant to survive, you can hang live plants though say in magnitural pots

as far as thermometers/hydrometers go, i found fluckers combo is better then the rest, but now when i have everything on hydrotherms it seems that fluckers combo is off too, less then other gauges, but still off. I'm true believer in hydrotherm now

cork bark is good, just make sure it doesn't mold.

[GrifTheGreat]

You need to move your gauges. They need to be dead center of the back wall, but down 1" to 1.5" above the substrate. Gauges must always be where the frog lives. So you get an accurate reading.

[ZachP]

Ok so I'll probably just pass on the live plants then, sounds like more trouble then its worth. After i get paid i want to get a fogger with hygrotherm controller.

You need to move your gauges. They need to be dead center of the back wall, but down 1" to 1.5" above the substrate. Gauges must always be where the frog lives. So you get an accurate reading.

Ok thank you for the information, ill do that right now. See this is the reason i joined a forum, its little things like this that i easily miss when skimming through the internet for info.

[ZachP]

Oh ya and I think ill get cork bark for the back and sides tomorrow. I'll just have to check it often to make sure its not molding. Any other info or tips? Btw thank you everyone for being so helpful! I appreciate it

[Lija]

After i get paid i want to get a fogger with hygrotherm controller.

and you will never want to go back to regular gauges again
by the way you can make a fogger out of ultrasonic humidifier, save some $ and the thing will work better, at least you could use tap water for it vs distilled

what other info you're looking for?

[DeeDub]

Welcome to the forum!

Not to disagree with everyone, but I use live pathos for all my frog cages. I just put them along the sides and my frogs don't uproot them too bad. When I change the substrate I just pull em up and replant. Pathos are real hearty plants.

[Lija]

Deedub, i have pothos in one of the tanks too, it is in magnitural pot high up on the side, my female waxy almost killed it, so had to put it somewhere

Zach would you post pics when you're done? we LOVE pics here

[ZachP]

and you will never want to go back to regular gauges again
by the way you can make a fogger out of ultrasonic humidifier, save some $ and the thing will work better, at least you could use tap water for it vs distilled

what other info you're looking for?

I'll have to look into making it out of a humidifier then sounds awesome. Just any tips on making the cage look good and anyway i can make the frog thrive

[ZachP]

I think my grandma has a pothos plant at her house. Maybe I'll try cloning it and putting some in, that way if the frog destroys its not much of a loss.

Zach would you post pics when you're done? we LOVE pics here

I'll try to have some pictures up soon! Im waiting for my brother to get back from out of town so i can use his camera lol my cellphone camera isn't the best

[ZachP]

Oh ya and by the way my frog is finally out when i woke up this morning The night i got him he almost completely buried himself and this is the first time he's come out. Now he's burrowed a little into the substrate but his head and a little of his body are still sticking out. I tried feeding him a cricket with tongs but still wouldn't take it so I'll just let him be for now

[Lija]

Just any tips on making the cage look good and anyway i can make the frog thrive

it seems your froggy is already happy
i would get paper background, like the one for fish tanks, but with pic suitable for frogs, and cover 3 sides from outside, i just like it better this way, crickets have a bad habit of getting up on cork or foam background and out of frog reach, so unless frog is tong fed, that is very annoying. and paper is cheaper too.
then i would get some naturalistic stuff- cork hide or just piece, fake plants ( i love ones from Michaels, cheap and pretty ), may be a piece of wood to make it nice, you can do pothos if you want, but whatever you do keep in mind you need to take all substrate out and exchange it with new one every month, and when they bigger they tend to rearrange everything lol that is why i like to have whatever i can hanging