Question about housing for Azureus

[Super Chris]

I've been looking at starting keeping frogs lately, and while setting up a terrarium for a green tree frog, I heard that azureus frogs are also not bad frogs for a beginner who's done enough research. (And it's coloring is my favorite of the dart frogs, anyway.) I am wondering whether a terrarium's footprint or height matters more for azureus. Although the tanks made by zoo-med and exo-terra are quite nice looking, but standard fish tanks are less expensive and if they are also better suited for the frogs needs then I can find no reason not to use that. If that is the case, then would a 10 gallon tank be suitable for an azureus? Any animal purchase would likely be at least three and a half months away, but the longer you give yourself to research, the better. *Finally, this is driving my crazy - how do I get line breaks to show up when I post? Big single paragraph blocks of text are not friendly to the eyes when reading.

[bshmerlie]

You're going to want a horizontal footprint. If youre only going to keep one a ten gallon would be fine. But you know eventually you're going to get two of them. A horizontal 20 gallon will be perfect.

[John]

On the line breaks - just press return/enter on your keyboard.

[Super Chris]

If I get two, then absolutely yes, 20 gallons; well, we'll see what I decide on, like I said, it's a few months away at the closest. Fairly important to know for sure that the footprint is more important than the height, though. As for hitting enter, I am - my post will look perfectly formatted in the reply box, but when I submit the forum is mashing it into a single paragraph. (For instance, I added a line break between the second and third sentences.) I'd think it's a problem with my browser, but I'm not having this issue elsewhere.

[John]

It's likely a combination problem between your browser and vbulletin 4 (our software). We're the only amphibian forum using it so it's unlikely you would have encountered the problem before. What browser are you using? If I know the combination to cause the problem, I may be able to find a solution. Thanks!

[nos187]

Horizontal is the way to go! And I would recommend starting off with the 20gallon. For the extra $15-20 you get twice the space! Plus that much more room for plants and decorations for your frog. They are pretty big frogs and will appreciate all the extra floorspace given. If you decide to get a second frog there will be enough space for him too.

A lot of people are trying to get away from the 10gallon for dart frogs. Trying to move the hobby forward if you will.. i highly recommend a 20gallon+

Cant wait to see the build!

-Kevin

[Super Chris]

The browser I'm using is Firefox 5.0. It potentially could be the newer version of vBulletin, the other forum I visit regularly uses version 3.5.4 and doesn't have this issue. As for housing, I know that they're lousy swimmers so I don't want any water features, but just how wet should the substrate be? The one store around here that sells them has the substrate wet enough that in a couple places shallow puddles form (shallow as in ~1-2 mm deep). If I do this I'm planning on using the leftover coconut substrate from setting up my tree-frog terrarium. Most of it is ground fine enough that it looks like dirt, and the rest should work as a leaf-litter substitute.

[John]

vBulletin 4 has a lot of neat features (over all I really like it), but because of bugs, particularly when it was new, they should have called it vTrainwreck. I've heard a number of people criticize the editor they use in this version. So I suggest you go into your preferences and try changing the editor option.

If you use a false bottom (be it LECA/hydroton or some other false bottom) that allows excess water to drain from the substrate, you never have to worry about how wet the substrate is. Just mist on a regular basis and keep the ventilation to a minimum.