Hello Im a beginer and need some advice

[mips]

I just set up a tank for Fire Belly Toads and have a couple of issues. 1 one has just disapeared, hes not in the tank or the house as far as i can find and believe me I have moved every peice of furniture and searched. He was there yesterday morning and gone last night. The screen lid was in place and i moved all the stones and gravel and cant find him. Any ideas?

Secondly I am at a loss on how to feed these guys without the crickets drowning, do I need some sort of cricket bowl? The pet store said that they feed crickets 1 day and feeder fish the next, well they ate crickets yesterday and I still have 6 feeder fish from Saturday which I have now bought fish food as DH is now routing for the fish!

Thirdly, is the filter ok how it is?

I have 2 now froggies and 6 minow feeder fish which they have not eaten in a 20 x 11 tank 10 gallon?
Any advice at all would be wonderful.

[Jace]

Congrats on the new additions. And a very colourful setup you have. Let's see if I can help with your questions. First, FBTs are known escape artists. Even if the lid looks secure, if there is a way out, a toad will find it. I had an issue where toads were escaping by climbing up my filter cord and squeezing thru a hole I thought was too small. It wasn't. Luckily, I usually found them in time to prevent deaths (they usually ended up in the dogs water bowl not far away). So, if you have any cords going up and out of the tank, seal them off as best you can. I would leave out a bowl of water and check it every few hours and hopefully your little toad will show up for a soak if it did manage to get out. Second, I always used a feeding bucket to feed my brood. I would physically remove them to an icecream bucket with a lid, dump in crickets and watch as they hoovered them down. That way, I was sure all them were eating and I didn't have dead crickets floating in my water and clogging my filter. The few times I introduced feeder minnows into my tank, my frogs ignored them, so I eventually stopped offering them. I've heard of toads eating fish, but I was always worried about what fish diseases could be passed on to my toads so I decided to stick with crickets and the occassional mealworms as the main food source. My oldest toad was almost 9 before she passed on and they didn't seem to mind my way of doing things. Hope this helps. Good luck and enjoy them.

[Firebelly love]

First of all, welcome to the forum! Secondly, in the pictures you posted it looks like there is a small space where the cord to the filter leads to the outlet, in the past I've had toads escape out the same way. Duct tape seems to be a pretty good solution. Hope you find the escape artist toad. P.S I've heard they never go for feeder fish. Crickets are the best, I try to sneak in a few mealworms as well.

[Lacibeth]

My cope's grey tree frog squished himself out through a 1/8" slot in his feeder bin when I had my back turned to wash his water bowls. Fortunately he headed straight for the top of the cricket critter keeper. Apparently, he was still hungry.