New tomato frog -- it's TINY!

[emandkel]

I know I started this posting for the little guy, but here's a picture I took last night of my big guy ... still behind part of a plant, but more visible, soon after he came out of his hole (the brownish on him is the coco-earth). He is yellowish with some red dots and darker red legs. Only had him a week or two. I still can't really believe finding my little guy after getting this one.

[emandkel]

The little guy got full tonight. I don't know how many fruit flies I put in, but I put him in a small critter keeper tonight and put in almost as many flies as I feed my 6 bumble bee toads, probably 5 or 6 dozen. He ate about half of them, then started trying to jump out with no more interest in the flies. I'm looking forward to seeing this little guy grow up.

[emandkel]

Well, he seems to be able to handle crickets that are nearly 1/4" long, I've found the tiniest ones out of the ones I get and have fed him 2 - 4 crickets, depending on whether or not I give him fruit flies as well. The other night I put fruit flies in, covered the top of the container with a paper towel and then put the lid on and that worked in keeping the fruit flies in, but most of them ended up cimbing up and staying out of reach on the bottom of the paper towel. [Any advice on this would be great -- thinking fruit flies would be better at this point if they don't stay out of reach.]

This evening I fed him 2 little crickets, and took him out and put him in a small Kritter Keeper, again with a paper towel across the top then a plastic lid on top, with about 2 dozen fruit flies. I keep tapping the top to get the fruit flies off the bottom of the paper towel. But he does NOT like being caught.

I'm going to start breeding my own crickets -- with that I should have some more properly sized crickets -- can't get 1/8" crickets locally and I think that's a better size, plus hopefully will save some money versus buying crickets.

He seems to be doing great, I think he's grown a bit or at least has become a bit chunkier at least. He's active during the night and uses his water/soaking bowl.

The temperature in his enclosure (with a heat pad on the outside of the 10 where the Kritter Keeper is within the 10) gets to be 78 - 8o during the day and around 75 at night, with humidity 70 - 80%. I do have a glass versa-top lid on the aquarium to keep in humidity, with it vented open about 1/4 inch at the front for a bit of ventilation. Does this all sound ok?

A couple of pictures taken a few minutes ago -- sorry for the lower quality, the camera wouldn't focus in low light and didn't want to turn on the light -- can't quite tell if he's grown or not but it's only been a week. Regardless:

[ShelbyFFS]

I have a new Tomato frog as well a touch bigger than yours between nickel and quarter size. I don't have a heater but the room I keep them in stays near 80F. From people I know who had them (this is my first) they said no heat is necessary at all.

I have mine in a larger critter keeper. I found that dusted D. hydei flies are best as fewer escape weighed down by the dust as it really holds onto the wings (the D. melanogaster have no wings and the dust has less effect). It may be an obvious plug but I do carry D. Hydei cultures and fly media.

Mine does sit still a lot but he does hunt at nite. When just the room nite light is on I see him hunting. He also ate some small crickets. Now he is a fat little butterball.

I have to say they are cool friendly frogs.

[emandkel]

I have since covered the top with a nylon stocking (or covered the lid, actually). I haven't tried the hydei flies as my culture hadn't really matured yet. I had tried turkish gliders at first and they seem to quickly climb the sides and hang out on the bottom of the covered lid. I put half a grape in and did find by the morning a few were on the grape.

The D. melanogaster wingless flies so far are working the best. They don't seem to climb the sides much and stay longer on the substrate.

I have also since gotten another little baby tomato frog about the same size and they seem to be ok together and pretty much stay in the same hideout. The newer one is a slightly more orange color. When feeding them the other night the fruit flies got in the water container and the new one found them and started feasting. I have a short video of them feeding.

They are feisty little frogs. Even at their size if I touch them, they puff up! They both are doing well, chunky little babies, and I enjoy watching them when I get the chance in the evening, especially at feeding time.

[emandkel]

A video of the two eating fruit flies:

[emandkel]

The latest picture of my two babies, now about the size/length of a quarter: