Suriname horned frog arriving next week, got ?'s

[braaandooon]

I am finally lucky enough to find a suriname horned frog, unfortunately its like 100 degrees here the rest of the week so i won't probably see it until the heat breaks, atleast it gives me sometime to make some adjustments to its enclosure and learn a little bit more about this species, i've found out quite a bit about this species by doing a little research online and reading the forums here, but i guess id like to learn more from members that keep these guys on this forum, i have experience with a cranwelli horned frog as i have been keeping one for a year now with no problems and i guess wondering if my green pacman setup would apply to the suriname horned frog i will soon be keeping, i keep my green pac man in a 10 gallon with a heater stuck to the side, and it watering hole is on the heated side, substrate is 2/3'ds eco earth and a third scottish moss, i keep the eco earth saturated with water and keep the scottish moss not so saturated, but fairly damp, under the substrate i have a two inch layer of peat and top soil mix, and under that i have a half inch of gravel for drainage, outside of the live scottish moss, i also keep live spiderplants in each corner, one covering its water source, and one covering the open corner of the setup, i also keep a nice piece of birds eye maple that i have boiled and baked, from what ive been told the plants, moss and wood are all safe, my green pacman has lived fine in these conditions, but if anyone else may have a different opinion i'm definatly open to them, the moss is not loose by the way its live and is rooted into the peat/soil mix, so i dont think impaction would be a problem, other than that my tank stays at around 84 during the day with a t-5 fluorescent light and after the light goes out for the night my tank drops down to about 76 degrees at night on the cool side of the tank, temps in the winter are a little cooler but not a major difference, humidity is also constantly over 80 percent, if anyone else has any advice or suggestions im defiantly open to them, these frogs are quite pricey and from what i collect a little more difficult to keep, on the good side im pretty sure this frog is captive bred, i could be wrong but its only the size of a golfball, and most wc's are usually at least 3 inches, anyways heres a pic of him and i'm sure i'll post some new pics of him in his new enclosure then that time comes, thanks for all of your time and hopefully if i might be doing something wrong in my enclosure you guys can give me some recommendations.

[John]

Firstly, that's too warm in my opinion - you run the risk of stressing the frog so much that it gets a disease. It may be alright but I wouldn't risk it. Now on to your specific questions:

i guess wondering if my green pacman setup would apply to the suriname horned frog i will soon be keeping,

In general they require the same conditions.

i keep my green pac man in a 10 gallon with a heater stuck to the side, and it watering hole is on the heated side, substrate is 2/3'ds eco earth and a third scottish moss,

I am not familiar with what you mean by Scottish moss. Do you have a picture? If it's like sphagnum, I would remove it - there are reports every now and then of pacman frogs dying from impaction due to swallowing long fiber moss.

i keep the eco earth saturated with water and keep the scottish moss not so saturated, but fairly damp, under the substrate i have a two inch layer of peat and top soil mix, and under that i have a half inch of gravel for drainage, outside of the live scottish moss, i also keep live spiderplants in each corner, one covering its water source, and one covering the open corner of the setup, i also keep a nice piece of birds eye maple that i have boiled and baked, from what ive been told the plants, moss and wood are all safe, my green pacman has lived fine in these conditions, but if anyone else may have a different opinion i'm definatly open to them,

Sounds great otherwise. And you've got a lovely frog there.

[braaandooon]

well i've always knew my temps were a little high, alot of it is from the t-5 lighting, and the fact that i keep my enclosures in my bedroom which is the warmest room in the house, by far, for some reason my central air doesnt do the trick in there, i'd like to keep my enclosures in my living room but i have three young kids that constantly harass my gulper catfish tank and would do the same with my frog enclosure, and also a bengal cat that is always on the hunt and constantly around the enclosaure when she is in my room, i like to keep my enclosures in my room to reduce stress, atleast my gulpers dont mind the constant attention, i was thinking maybe the suriname atleast would appreciate the higher temps, ive read on this forum they perfer higher temps than regular pacmans, but im sure this can be disputed, the scottish moss on the other i started applying after learning the dangers of impaction, my original setup contained frog moss, basically long loose moss that you see in every pet store, i did away with that after coming to this forum and went with mostly eco earth, basically got bored one day and did some research on animal friendly plants, my spiderplant wasnt doing well hanging in the corner of my living room , found out it was safe and put it in my terrarium and it has flurished , the moss i found at a local greenhouse , and the person there was real knowledgeable and recommended it to me as they keep other amphibians on it, this moss isn't long and stringy, its rooted nicely into my peat mix, and moss strands coming off the rooted structure are no longer than an inch, i was told impaction wouldnt be a problem because its not loose moss, and its not long and stringy heres a pic of the moss

[braaandooon]

raised my lighting off my tank a few inches and my daytime temp has dropped and stabilized around 81, i guess ill see how my cranwelli does with this adjustment, im sure he'll be fine, wondering if maybe i should switch from my glass top to a screen top, just worried if i go that route how much humidity i'll lose and how much extra misting i'll be doing, guess i have a few days to try some things out, still wondering about a good ambient temp for my suriname horned frog when it arrives and if they really do prefer a warmer climate

[pacsack]

That sure is a nice specimen I hope it all goes well. I cant help you with the temperature but in my experience glass vs screen for a higher humidity screen tops are absolutely terrible. I started out with screen tops from the pet store and found myself misting an extreme amount as well as re filling the water bowl 2 times daily! it was on the cold side and temps were only 78-81! What I recommend is going to home depot picking up some Plexiglas and putting some decently sized holes in it. The amount of wholes depends on the size of your terrarium start with 1 or 2 and monitor humidity levels and add more as needed. I found it to work great for me!

[braaandooon]

well i spent the weekend trying somthing different with my pac mans enclosure, i am still using the glass top, instead of using the plastic strip that fills in the void torwards the back of the tank, i took my screen top and cut a strip out to fill the void where the clear plastic stripping once was and i think i perfer this route, i havent had any problems with loss of humidity, and my tank is no longer a heat trap with temps in my terrarium now staying between 80 and 82 degrees, and im sure the extra air flow would have to be beneficial, my night temps are still about the same staying around 75 degrees on the cool side of the tank, outside of that i think im ready for my suriname horned frog and looks like it will be here wednesday, now that the heat is breaking around here, if anyone else has any advice on good temp for these guys, your advice will definatly be welcomed, and thank you everyone for the ideas and recommendations