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Thread: Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

  1. #1
    Malice
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    Default Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

    Hello,

    I am a relatively new red eyed tree frog owner, and I have a question about their eating habits in a group. I have four red eyed tree frogs in the following setup:

    18x18x24 exo terra aquarium
    Well decorated with lots of fake broad leaf plants, vines, other plants for hiding
    ECO-Earth substrate
    Side mounted heating pad exo terra rainforest medium - 78C during the day and around 70C at night
    Zoomed Repti Fogger - around 80% humidity
    UVB canopy light for daytime
    Two water dishes
    Distilled water used in all water related operations (cleaning, drinking, humidity)

    History: I purchased two frogs, and two months later I bought two more frogs and upgraded their setup to the above. Three of the frogs are generally around the same size of about 2". The fourth frog is about 2.5" and is a very agressive eater. We will call that frog, Frog X. As soon as I turn the light out at night, and place the crickets in shortly thereafter, Frog X comes down immediately and starts to devour everything in sight. Meanwhile the other three frogs are awake but have not moved from their respective sleeping areas. Since I obviously cannot watch them all night, I do not know if Frog X is eating all of the crickets, or if the other three frogs are getting enough to eat. This is concerning, because I believe Frog X is like the ring leader and just runs the show in my aquarium and other frogs may not be thriving. I have read that red eyed tree frogs do compete for food, and they should be grouped together if they are the same size. I have a separate tank that I used to house two red eyed tree frogs. I am looking for some advice from individuals with groups of red eyed tree frogs, and my questions are:

    Should I separate Frog X by putting it in my separate tank until the other frogs are larger?
    How often and how much should I be feeding a group of four frogs?
    Frog X almost seems like it is getting fat, which may be another concern, should I separate and then feed it less?

    I can take photos if they will assist. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

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  3. #2
    Poly
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    Default Re: Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

    Hello Malice and Welcome to the Forum!

    Great to hear of more Canadains keeping Red-Eyed Leaf Frogs, as they are getting hard to find in Canada.

    The only issue with your set-up is the side mounted heat pad, you will want a bottom mounted heat pad to warm the substarte and let the heat rise, if you keep the heat pad on the side of the tank, there is a chance one of the frogs will sleep on the glass where the heat pad is, and burn it's self. Very important to move it. Other than that, great set-up!

    Though I do not own Red-Eyed Leaf Frog's, I believe I may be able to help here;

    Frog X sounds like a large female, and I would doubt that he/she is eating all of the crickets, a good amount to feed is 4-5 crickets per frog, every other day. Feeding this many crickets will ensure each frog is eating an adaquate amount. Something you can try is, take a small, shallow ceramic of glass bowl, and put 5-8 crickets in it, the crickets will scurry around in the bowl trying to escape, but will be unable due to not being able to aquire traction to jump on glass. I do this for most of my frogs, and they will come to the edge of the bowl and pick off the crickets one by one.

    I wouldn't worry about Frog X, he/she seems like a happy, Red-Eyed Leaf Frog with a good appetite, and the difference of size between 2" STV and 2.5" is not enough to cause any sort of worry.

    ~Royce

  4. #3
    100+ Post Member ViperJr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

    Quote Originally Posted by Poly View Post
    The only issue with your set-up is the side mounted heat pad, you will want a bottom mounted heat pad to warm the substarte and let the heat rise, if you keep the heat pad on the side of the tank, there is a chance one of the frogs will sleep on the glass where the heat pad is, and burn it's self. Very important to move it. Other than that, great set-up!
    That's some unusual advice you are giving Royce. Side mounted UTH's are commonly used in tree frog tanks, and advice are often given to use this specific setup to heat tree frog terrariums (if you do a search on the forum, you'll find tons of threads where this specific advice are given by experienced tree frog owners). Even though I personally prefer using light as a heat source, I there's nothing wrong with using UTH's on one side of the tank. This even have some advantages over lamps. The thing is, a UTH beneath the tank will do close to zero good in a tree frog tank. The substrate might become a little bit warmer, but it will not raise the ambient temperature one bit. Especially since this terrarium is a vertical one. Lastly (if I remember correctly), the exo-terra UTH is a very low wattage one.
    To sum it up, you do not want to move the UTH to under the tank, because it will not raise the temperature. Side mounted UTH is commonly used.

    Now, about the feeding... I would not be too concerned yet. You could add more feeding bowls, so you have a total of, say two or three, and then put crickets in all three of them. This will hopefully allow the other frogs to eat even if the food-hogger sits in one of the bowls. I would not worry about obesity either, unless it becomes extremely large and shows sign of being ill. Red eyes seems to regulate the food-intake very nicely, and therefore very seldomly suffers of obesity, unlike some other tree frogs (White's tree frog being a prime example).

    Lastly, welcome to the forum and I hope your frogs will live a long and healthy life in you care!

  5. #4
    Malice
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    Default Re: Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

    I began with an under tank heater, and like you said it literally did not raise the temperature even a little bit. It really just dried out the substrate and that is it. It was not until I did more research via forums and youtube that it was suggested to me to try a side mounted heating pad. This completely solved my heat problem, and with my recent repti fogger pickup my ideal enviromental conditions have been met. I am going to try the food bowl idea, as I like to experiment with different things. Here is a picture of three of the frogs during my recent cleaning, the fourth frog jumped away before I could get all of the in a quick picture. As you can probably guess, frog X as it at the top. Thanks for the advice and the warm welcome.
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  6. #5
    100+ Post Member ViperJr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Four Red Eyed Tree frog food competition

    Quote Originally Posted by Malice View Post
    I began with an under tank heater, and like you said it literally did not raise the temperature even a little bit. It really just dried out the substrate and that is it. It was not until I did more research via forums and youtube that it was suggested to me to try a side mounted heating pad. This completely solved my heat problem, and with my recent repti fogger pickup my ideal enviromental conditions have been met. I am going to try the food bowl idea, as I like to experiment with different things. Here is a picture of three of the frogs during my recent cleaning, the fourth frog jumped away before I could get all of the in a quick picture. As you can probably guess, frog X as it at the top. Thanks for the advice and the warm welcome.
    I am no expert, but it sure looks like one female (the big one) and two males. What concerns me is the light-green coloration on the bottommost frog. Once again, I am no expert, but according to other threads here, that might be a clear indicator of a bacterial infection.You should get that checked up as soon as possible. I might be a natural thing, but then again, it might not.

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