RETF - Water area or not

[MJI]

Hi all,

Planning a RETF viv, and purely from an animal perspective, would RETFs benefit from having open water in the viv (apart from the water bowl, I mean)

My original plans were to keep it simple, and have only a drainage layer, but the animals must come first, so am happy to change plans and maybe have a false bottom - just want to do what's best for them.

Any experiences I can learn and benefit from?

Thanks in advance,

[John]

They will not enter the water and as frogs go they are not good swimmers. The only reason they like water is to lay their eggs in plants that have water below them.

[MJI]

Thanks, John

[Kurt]

I have seen them enter the water when mine were placed in the rain chamber. The female swam under the platform in the tank, which is at the surface of the water, the water being at least 6 inches deep. She spend some time under there, but eventually she came out. So I would n't worry about any accidental drownings with them or any other treefrog for that matter. An example, gray treefrogs are very skilled swimmers. Saw one swim to the bottom of my pool, then come up when the coast was clear.

That being said, a water bowl will suffice with your frogs.

[bshmerlie]

I agree with Kurt, I have a pretty good size water area in my enclosure. It is not very deep but I hear them splashing about all night long. I've seen them bounce in and bounce out as if its a game and I think they like it. Mine water area is very shallow as I said so I'm not sure if they would swim underneath or not but they do seem to enjoy having a water section in the tank. With that being said, I just had a water bowl in my smaller tank and they did just fine. So is it necessary...probably not. But it is fun to watch them play in the water.