Southern toad

[Poly]

a basic uv light for the tank its a 29 gal fish aqarium it has graval but has been coverd with dirt from where i got her at i got a filters water pond with a larg rock waterfall on the other end making the lan water ratio 3/1 3 parts land 1 part water

when my cam is charged ill post pics

A UV light is not required with amphibians. If you want a light, use a "Repti-Glo 2.0" CFL bulb or similar 2.0 bulb, this is all you need, otherwise most other bulbs arn't good for the toad.

Yes, make sure you cover the gravel, with at the very least 3" of substrate.

The ratio of land to water sounds good, but how deep is the water? Southern toads are not like FBT's, there abilty to swim in comparison is poor, all it needs, is again, a maximum of 1 toad's depth of water. If you have deep water, it could easily drown.

Looking foward to the photos!

~Royce

[frogmandan]

well i think ill need to add rocks to the water end becase the filter its acully just deep enough to use the filter and aDD a lil bit more sand to the cage for digging in too about 1 more inch

[frogmandan]

pics of progress with tank so far (i will add rocks to water to make it more shallow and sand to land to give a lil more digging space)



sand added 1 more inch to add on top of that (rocks or under shallow water)

depth of sand ontop of rock pebble and gravle



water and waterfal section block gose back pritty far. not(like i said ill be addingrocks or blocks to make water a lil more shallow

i also whould like to know what king of plants fake/real? if real which kind for this lil guy

[Wormwood]

My advice would be to get a clear plastic tub about four inches high and section off half of the tank with this, put the water fall in it. Fill it up with rocks so the pump intake in covered and so the toad can climb out easily. I've never had a toad drown on me in 3-4 inches of water, not even southern/texas toads. As long as you provide a way out they will find it.

I make this suggestion because Toads often like dry soil and will often advoid sopping wet sand/soil (which is what yours will probally be since the water runs under the entire tank).

[Poly]

It looks alright, but you difinatly need to give it more substrate, and more of an area to burrow. Also, I'd recommend going to your local pet store and 1. buying it a "Coco-hut" (it's a hallowed out coco-nut half shell that works great for a hiding place for them) 2. replacing the sand with coco-fibre/eco earth, as in that set-up with so much water & humidity, the sand will be stuck to the toad almost all the time.

You definitely need to add more rocks to the bottom, it's far to deep for that toad.

If I may offer you a suggestion;

The terrarium set-up you have now is okay, but for it to be 100% suitable for your toad, it will require many changes.

If you plan on keeping the toad, and you want it to be happy and healthy, I'd take the time (maximum if you have all the materials, 1 hour) and clean out the tank, remove all the aquarium gravel, glass stones, etc, add fresh substrate to the entire tank (no water section this time, just a water bowl), give it at least 4 hiding places, add some live plants (most vines such as ivy or creeping fig work well as ground cover, then some taller leafy plants can be purchased at most chain stores), and give it an appropriate sized water dish.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the water section you have, but toads arn't normally found by large flowing bodies of water, so this could be stressing it, toads do not "swim" like a bullfrog or FBT would, they simply sit in water to absorb it through their skin (they also to prefer calm water), it's their way of "drinking", and a water section takes up a lot of space and I know you said it was a 3:1 ratio, but that water section looks to be close to 50% (if not more) of the tank, so a large water section, with flowing water, is not necessarily benifical/needed to/for the toad.

To completly re-arrange your aquarium/terrarium you'd be looking at less that 20$ (10$ for substarte, 4$ max for two coco-huts and 5$ for a water dish), and once done, the toad would then be in an enviroment closer to it's natural habitat.

May I also ask, why did this toad need to be rescued? In most cases, they don't have to be rescued unless they are injured, if it's fine, again, why did it need rescuing?

If you do not want to care for it, you can release it back into the wild now, and it will survive, but if you keep it, THEN decide to release it, it will die because it has become used to the temperate range of indoors, being fed, etc.

Just some suggestions,

~Royce

P.S. If you do decide to rearrange it's terrarium, and plant live plants, make sure, before you plant them, throughly rinse off the entire plant, right down to it's bare roots so there are no pesticides/fertilizers left (if there were any on it, better be safe than sorry!) on the plant that could harm your toad.

[frogmandan]

he was lemping when i found him...bairly hoping at all the vet said he should do fine and was most likly due to dehidration or a big fall of some sort

anyway i want to keep him i love frogs /toads and i will change the substrate in the cage and such
then post pics of it then

i asked the ?'s because i have never had this kind before so thanks for the help with this

[Poly]

Oh, well, congrats on the rescue! Toads make great pets!

As I spend quite a bit of time on this website, I try to answer new threads in the toad section, because as it stands, the only amphibian I know well right now, is the toad!

~Royce

[frogmandan]

ok so first step of new encloser is complete i still need to get moss ,coco covering plus planst for it but this is a good start







this is a hide house for him its sturdy although i will be getting a few others