First frog habitat (WTF)

[rosaphile]

Just thought I'd start a thread to track our progress with setting up a home for some White's tree frogs.

We went and did some shopping this afternoon. Also, the 10-gallon "nursery" tank I ordered from Wal-mart came today.

Neither Petsmart nor Petco (the only pet stores around here other than tropical fish specialists) had White's tree frogs. So I will be looking around online for a breeder to ship them to us, I guess, since I haven't found any locally. I'm assuming we'll be getting babies, hence the 10-gallon tank.

Here's an idea of the 10-gallon setup for babies:


Not sure why it's so small, sorry about that. (Any hints on how to make it larger? It's 800x600 on my computer.) Anyway - that is paper towels in the bottom (Trader Joe's, no chlorine bleach), with a water dish and some fake plants/branches. I'm waiting for a screen top that I ordered at the same time as the tank. I purchased a 5.5" Fluker's clamp lamp with a dimmer, and a 75W infrared bulb to put in it. I plan to place that directly on top of the screen on the right-hand side, and use the dimmer to regulate the temps. I have an AcuRite digital thermometer/hygrometer with probe (got it at Wal-mart) that I'll use to check temps in different areas of the tank. Any thoughts? Does this look like a good setup for baby Whites Tree Frog?

We went ahead and got the big terrarium at the same time, and we picked up egg crate, PVC pipe, window screening and silicone. It's the Zoo Med 18x18x24:


It didn't come with a background other than the poster thingy that was on it, which I currently have stuck to the back of the tank. I will probably go ahead and get some kind of cork background to put on the inside back. I don't know if you can see it but that is a good-sized fake driftwood log that I plan to put in there. We also got an Exo Terra Jungle Vine (small) and a pack of Fluker's Repti Vines, and I thought I'd wrap them together and run them up the sides and back of the terrarium:


I didn't look for any live plants at this point. I definitely want to use them, but I figure I will have plenty of time to get that set up before the frogs outgrow the little tank.

Petco had the Zoo Med 18-inch terrarium hood that I want, but it was $40 there and I can get it off Amazon for $22 plus about $6 shipping so I'll just order it. I plan to put the infrared bulb in one side and one of the GE Daylight 6500K CFs on the other side. I'm not sure if the infrared will work in that hood, though... ? We'll figure it out.

Tomorrow we'll start working on our egg crate false bottom. We'll post more photos as we progress.

[Badger]

Looking forward to future updates

[rosaphile]

Some progress this morning, no photos yet but not much to show in photos. Got the egg crate false bottom in more or less, just need to cut out a hole to insert the drain pipe once the silicone on that dries. (I used silicone to adhere eco earth to it to camouflage it.)

One snag I discovered was that the thermometer/hygrometer I got isn't going to work. I realized, looking again at the package, that it reads temp and humidity at the location of the device, but only temp at the location of the probe. So I'll return that one, but not sure what to get instead. I guess I'll go back over to Petsmart and see what I can find. I'm leery of the accuracy of these things but I guess it's not critical in this application....

[rosaphile]

So here is as far as I've gotten:

This is with the false bottom installed, eco earth, fake plants and branches. I plan to put black posterboard or something around the bottom to conceal the drainage space, hence the black rectangular blob I stuck in with Paint. I am ordering a fake rock background from Josh's Frogs and I hope to put in real plants soon. Probably a bromeliad (maybe installed to the background if I can figure out how), some sort of fern, a vine to hopefully climb up the background, and one or two other plants to give a variety of textures and sizes. Goodness knows I have never done anything like this before and I don't know what plants will look good and behave well, I imagine it will be trial and error to some extent. I only put one brick of eco earth in the bottom; I'm guessing I should probably do another if I'm going to be planting in it.

So.... once I get the light hood and the thermometer/hygrometer to make sure I can get the conditions right, does this look like a decent home for a Whites Tree Frog or two?

[rosaphile]

So, it's still all fake stuff, but here it is with the frogs moved in:



I temporarily put a sheet of black posterboard on the right-hand side.

I now have the Zoo Med terrarium hood with two daylight CFLs in it, and behind it is the 8.5" Flukers clamp lamp with dimmer with a 150W heat bulb in it. Because we heat with a wood stove, the temperature in the room where the vivarium is kept fluctuates a lot. Hopefully the dimmer will help me to keep it in a good temp range.

Edit: I should say, it's all fake except for the substrate - which is just Eco Earth with a few chunks of frog moss, and sea grape leaf litter.