Tank mates for my Fire-Bellies?

[tearsmith]

I am going to start a viv build soon and I will want to add more herps than just my two fire-bellies. Are there other herps that can go with them? I am wanting to keep the build horizontal so I was thinking of ground frogs like pacmans or something. If not, can I go vertical and add tree frogs or darts?

Also, I wanted to add color to the water without the complication of little fish and pumps. Can I put a beta in there?

[Niels D]

Never put a pacman with another specie. You won't have any bombina's left. I'm not fond of mixing species. It delivers a lot of stress to most of the animals and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. The following link mostly describes accidents involving caudatians, but none the less:

Caudata Culture Articles - Species Mixing Disasters

[JeffX]

Do not mix any species. It's just a disaster waiting to happen.

[John]

This is very sound advice. Mixing amphibians usually reduces the health and lifespan of all concerned.

[tearsmith]

Thank you all. I guess more than one vivarium never hurt anyone, right? Of course, my roommate may disagree. Hee Hee.

[BG]

I would think that the fish might die down the road. Eaten or die from the toxins. The pacman would eat the Fbt, and maybe die from toxins. The tree frogs who knows. so at the end you will have a ETS,empty tank syndrome.lol

[TheRealJovA]

A koi fish or feeder fish. Koi fish survived for like 8 months will feeder fish survived 3z


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[Heatheranne]

I would like to say if you're going to add fish, it would have to be very resilient ones. Firebelly toads secrete a toxin which can build up in the water. It is not recommended to add gold fish or other pond like fish due to their history of carrying parasites. They also produce a lot of waste.

Mixing frog species is never recommended. They secrete different toxins based on their species. This is to protect them in the wild. Our enclosures are much smaller than in their natural habitats where they can move to another location if feeling threatened or at risk. This is not possible in terrariums and vivariums. Toxin exposure over time even in small amounts and stresses may occur, leading to further illness, cessation of eating, territorial issues of both terrarium areas and food, and sometimes death may occur. It's never really worth it in the long run.

If desiring more than one species I would recommend adding another tank .

[kh2odragon]

i had a fire belly untill a couple years ago but i keept it with feeded gold fish(bout 1inch and 15cents each) and i keept it with chinese fire belly newts witch are nativly found together and live well together .

[TheRealJovA]

i had a fire belly untill a couple years ago but i keept it with feeded gold fish(bout 1inch and 15cents each) and i keept it with chinese fire belly newts witch are nativly found together and live well together .

I'm surprised my Feeder fish survived ! They are so delicate . Last time I had one , it died but when I put it with a frog, it survived


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[TheRealJovA]

Don't the FBT's in the wild live with fishes or other animals. It's amazing how you can't find any type of fish to mix them with. There is barely any information about FBTs in the wild . I wouldn't really like to know what type of animals come from same region as FBT.


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[MantisMan]

Don't the FBT's in the wild live with fishes or other animals. It's amazing how you can't find any type of fish to mix them with. There is barely any information about FBTs in the wild . I wouldn't really like to know what type of animals come from same region as FBT.


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this is exactly the issue. how often does a pet store sell another animal that can be found in the same place as a firebelly? I kept a green treefrog with 2 firebellies once and they all did fine, but they had plenty of space and I kept the water bowl clean and I separated them at feeding time. the only other time I've had anything living with firebellies is when snail eggs would up on plants from petsmart and snails invaded my firebelly tadpole tank. firebellies do just fine with each other though and you really can never have too many firebellies. I have 30 of them! lol

[TheRealJovA]

this is exactly the issue. how often does a pet store sell another animal that can be found in the same place as a firebelly? I kept a green treefrog with 2 firebellies once and they all did fine, but they had plenty of space and I kept the water bowl clean and I separated them at feeding time. the only other time I've had anything living with firebellies is when snail eggs would up on plants from petsmart and snails invaded my firebelly tadpole tank. firebellies do just fine with each other though and you really can never have too many firebellies. I have 30 of them! lol

My lord ! 30 FBT ! Dang ! Lol Did you Breed them? And By the way you cannot find any information about their "Wildlife" online. It's as if people are keeping FBT's real life a secret . I'm probably going to have to go to japan an observe FBT's in the wild myself . Lol


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[MantisMan]

My lord ! 30 FBT ! Dang ! Lol Did you Breed them? And By the way you cannot find any information about their "Wildlife" online. It's as if people are keeping FBT's real life a secret . I'm probably going to have to go to japan an observe FBT's in the wild myself . Lol


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i did breed them
26 r toadlets
they are found in deciduous forests in east asia south of korea

[Larry Wardog]

The comments at the beginning of this thread are not as accurate as they claim to be. There can be many benefits to having mixed species setups.

Fish in a paludarium for Whites Tree Frogs or others would not have any effect on the frogs because you would have to change the water anyway. Also some fish will eat things out of the frogs poop that even though is disgusting the fish get added nutrients from crickets and such. Millipedes and Snails benefit their inhabitants because they eat poop, decaying plant matter and I know the Millipedes eat mold up to some point. The Millipedes can clean the setup if bioactive and they can do a better job at us finding poop that may be hidden to us.



If you keep some frogs and toads together depending on a few variables like native environment, size, temp and humidity requirements among other variables it can work out with little problems. Same species setups have problems as well with competition for food, social hierarchies and stress. In an article from Frank Indiviglio he talks about toads and wood frogs how they can be kept together with ease because of the variables between both species being favorable. This can be the case with tree frogs and toads native to the US as well.

Southeastern Five Lined Skinks and some costal tree frogs like the Squirrel Tree Frog have a unique relationship as the Skinks sleep the tree frogs can eat and as the tree frogs sleep the Skinks can eat so they won't see each other.

This was very taboo but over the past few years has become more acceptable due to keepers doing more research and asking good questions. Also there have been more positive stories that have come from keepers with these setups. Keeping mixed species setups is something that has been evolving and been a growing trend with keeping herps now especially more then ever. It's good to see the hobby progressing and branching out.

As for your question about the toads you might want to put that in the toad subforum!

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