sick White's tree frog

[Charlotte Benedict]

Last week I bought two baby White's tree frogs, Ebb and Flow. Flow turned a dark brown color about the second day, and stopped eating and climbing, insisting to sit on the bottom of the cage. Ebb was fine. Yesterday, I separated Flow and Ebb because I started to be worried that there was something wrong with Flow, and I didn't want Ebb to be sick. I cleaned out the entire cage before I put Ebb back in, just to be sure. Flow died later that day. He wasn't able to move, and he was horribly bloated.

Today I went to check on Ebb. Instead of sitting in his usual fern bush, he was hiding on the ground. I tried to feed him a cricket, and he shied away from it, just as Flow had done. I am very very worried that now Ebb is sick.

The terrarium Ebb is in is a 18x18x24 Exo-Terra Terrarium, and has a constant humidity of about 50% and temp. of about 85 F. I will attach some pictures of Flow right before he died. Please please help, I am so worried I will lose Ebb too.

[GrifTheGreat]

Last week I bought two baby White's tree frogs, Ebb and Flow. Flow turned a dark brown color about the second day, and stopped eating and climbing, insisting to sit on the bottom of the cage. Ebb was fine. Yesterday, I separated Flow and Ebb because I started to be worried that there was something wrong with Flow, and I didn't want Ebb to be sick. I cleaned out the entire cage before I put Ebb back in, just to be sure. Flow died later that day. He wasn't able to move, and he was horribly bloated.

Today I went to check on Ebb. Instead of sitting in his usual fern bush, he was hiding on the ground. I tried to feed him a cricket, and he shied away from it, just as Flow had done. I am very very worried that now Ebb is sick.

The terrarium Ebb is in is a 18x18x24 Exo-Terra Terrarium, and has a constant humidity of about 50% and temp. of about 85 F. I will attach some pictures of Flow right before he died. Please please help, I am so worried I will lose Ebb too.

The humidity is too low it should be 70 to 80%. 85° isn't too bad, but I would try and lower it to around 80° To help keep humidity a little higher. Are you de-chlorinating your frogs water?

I would answer the questions in the sticky called (Trouble in the enclosure) It is posted at the top of this section of threads. It will help solve the whatever problem is affecting your frogs.

I am no expert and do not own White's Tree Frogs, but I believe I've answered part of the problem. Hopefully a owner of White's will chime in.

[InfinitysDaughter]

Grif is right. The humidity is way too low and the temps should be around 80 during the day and a bit lower at night. Answering the questions from that sticky will be a great help too. Below are two possible answers for you based on the limited information but from the pic and the info I feel are good possibilities.

Thats Flow in the pic right? Its not 100% but I think it could be the "lime green spots of doom". No, not the technical name. I wish I could find the thread that I first heard this term, it had the real illness's name, so I could make notes about the real illness. More or less its a type of infection or bacteria that attacks your frog and once you see the spots, its way too late. They say there isn't anything that can be done by that point and death is fairly swift once the spots appear. If the spots have not appeared on Ebb (or even if they have. you never know what a vet might pull out of there sleeve), seek a vet ASAP. It is treatable if caught early enough. Make sure its a vet that knows how to treat amphibians. If you dont have a vet that knows what there doing with these guys then maybe try to contact a local zoo. They would need to have a specialist if they have a reptile house and they might be willing to help you.

Its possible, seeing the moss substrate and you saying they didn't want to eat, it could have been a simple case of impaction. Its not as bad as the "green spots" but it is deadly. Impaction is when a frogs ingests something that can not be passed threw the digestive tracked and its basically a deadly form of constipation. Most moss's are notorious for causing this because not only do they not break down in the frogs system but they keep absorbing water even inside the frog and makes more of a block. A herp vet can prescribe something that can help the frog pass the obstruction (basically a froggy laxative) and if treated properly your frog will most likely make a full recovery.

[Charlotte Benedict]

Thank you both! That really helped. I didn't know the humidity needed to be so high. I took out the moss and replaced it with a coconut fiber substrate, and I also got a humidifier for the tank. I think what killed Flow was most likely the "green spots." Ebb seems to be doing better than he was, and he ate three crickets happily. He is now his normal light jade color. I am going to keep watching him though, to make sure he doesn't have the green spots. If they were in the same tank, do you think that it is inevitable that Ebb will get the spots? I wanted to get another baby White's soon, but not if Ebb is sick. I am a first time frog owner, is there any other advice for taking care of baby White's? Thanks again!

Here is a picture of Ebb.

[Charlotte Benedict]

this is a picture of the tank setup...and a picture of Ebb, taking a bath in his new bowl.

[InfinitysDaughter]

Have you cleaned the tank since the first died? I would clean it with a 10% bleach solution (9 parts water to 1 part bleach) then rinse it REALLY well with declorinated water (the declorinator helps neutralize any remaining bleach residue). If you have drift wood (sorry, i cant tell whats real wood and whats fake XD) and it was in there when Flow was in there might be best to toss it. Some say you can clean it with the same bleach solution then soak it in declorinated water but in my opinion wood soaks up water then releases it slowly and can still have some residual bleach in it which can be very harmful to your frogs. Anything fake or stone can be cleaned the same way the tank is (let fabric plants soak in the declorinated water for a good 12-24 hours, at least overnight, to make sure the bleach is all out).

I think the set up is awesome! I think Ebb may have dodged a bullet if hes eating and acting normal now. You are finding poop right? I'd keep a close eye on him but I think the stress of loosing his tank mate and probably being shuffled around caused him to not want to eat. There usually bottomless pits. If he again stops eating and becomes lethargic then a call to a herp vet would be a good idea but he looks pretty good to me.

And omgosh! I never realized that baby whites could be so itty bitty! I got my girl in February (or there abouts) and she was already a good inch and a half long and filled my hand. Yours is so cute and tiny! I dont have any info on raising baby whites but I'd assume if you follow the care guide at the top of the forum then your in good shape.

[Charlotte Benedict]

Alright, I have cleaned EVERYTHING, given the people who sent me a sick frog a piece of my mind, and got Ebb a new friend. Thank you so much for all of your help! And thanks for the comment about my setup... I was worried as a first time frog owner that I was going overboard!

So I got Ebb a new friend, a slightly bigger juvenile that I named Jupiter (naming another frog Flow seemed too much of an impersonal, replacement thing). Right after I put Jupiter in, Ebb started to lighten up a little bit, and eventually I walked in and the two were scrunched up right beside each other! I think you were right about Ebb being lonely. I can't wait until mine get to be a couple inches long! I am worried though because Ebb is a dark blue... not a droopy, melancholy brown, so it might just be the conditions. How high is the humidity and the temp. in yours? My temp. is 85, that is as low as I can get it, and the humidity is about 65%. And by the way, thank you so much for helping me with the solution for cleaning the tank and diagnosing Flow. It really helped.

[matt palm]

id reccomend adding some more foliage such as a bromeliad or pothos i added a few and i noticed within 15 min both whites were green and that night the male(jet) was calling and my humidity is about 60% but i bought a zoo med reptifogger and it should be here soon and my temp is at about 83

[Charlotte Benedict]

id reccomend adding some more foliage such as a bromeliad or pothos i added a few and i noticed within 15 min both whites were green and that night the male(jet) was calling and my humidity is about 60% but i bought a zoo med reptifogger and it should be here soon and my temp is at about 83

I have wanted to get some more plants... are yours real? The fake ones at petsmart looked awful, and I haven't been able to find plants that aren't toxic. They look great. I just added the Zoo Med Repti Fogger to my terrarium and it works great, I have to keep it on a low setting! It brings the temp up slightly... but that is because it is blowing steam. I didn't know that White's could change color based on their surroundings... thanks for the advice!

[matt palm]

I have 2 fake plants in there one is hanging and ive noticed they love to lay on the leaves that hold water in

[DonLisk]

Nothing better than a bromeliad for your Whites. They love to sleep down in the leaves and the plant holds moisture to help with humidity. Bromeliads are self sufficient. They hold their own water, do not need soil to grow and can be cut back as needed to fit a tank.

If you plant a Bromeliad, have good drainage so the base doesn't rot.

Check out my photo albums for some pics of some of the Broms i have or had.

[matt palm]

yeah i have mesh screen under substrate then hydroballs just for the plants plus it holds a lot of humidity it seems like and i got 3 real plants for less than 10 bucks from walmart cant beat that