White's-TreeFrog is being inactive...?

[Kurt]

Or the tank is simply too big for the entire thing to be very affected by the lightbulb which is tangling about 5 inches above the lid.

There's the problem, the bulb is too far away from the tank. When I have used heat bulbs/ceramic heat emitters they were installed in clamp lights that rest on top of the screen mesh of the cage. The mesh is metal. If the mesh is plastic, you cannot rest it on the top of the cage as it will melt. Keep the clamp light away from the any plastic, like the frame of an aquarium. Place it in the middle of the screen top to prevent melting the frame.

[Kerry1968]

Can I jump in here and ask about a similar problem with my White's temperature?

I have a 24" tall Exo terra tank and I have a heat mat on the back (behind the polystyrene 'rock' background) that stays on all the time. During the day I have a red bulb on that sits on top the mesh This raises the temperature up to around 20 degrees at the highest, the rest of the time the tank is at about 18c (64f), I know this is still low for a tree frog, but I'm not sure what to use to raise the temp. When I asked at the shop about a ceramic bulb the girl there said it'll burn through the mesh on the tank. So I went for the 40w red bulb.

Also, as the temperature is dropping so low at night do you think it would be OK to keep the red light on all night?

[Kurt]

You may have to keep it on all night, your temperatures are too low. I think that the polystyrene 'rock' background may be blocking the heat mat's effectiveness.

What's the wattage on the ceramic heater and what is the mesh top made out of?

[Crystal6]

*adjusts heat lamp so it is closer* Now we play the waiting game.

[gray frog in manitoba]

I keep my heat light (one of the red reptile bulbs, 40 watts) on 24 hrs, it has not seemed to change his behavior. Every night between 9 - 10, he becomes alert ~ hops into his water dish and waits to see if its feeding time....

[Crystal6]

Well he seems more active now since the light was lowered/left on 24/7. He looks sleepy though, like his body thinks it's daytime but he knows it's night and warm enough to allow him to explore.

The result is him just kinda sitting halfway out of his hiding place staring sleepily at the glass. (He looks healthy as ever. Just that his pupils are small like they are in the daytime and he's not climbing around, suggesting the advertisement of this heat bulb being "nocturnal" may be stretched.)

But yeah... breathing is normal and he appears at least somewhat more active then before. Before he litterally did not leave that spot all week. I put crickets in there to prove it. (When he was active he would do everything in his power to reach the crickets even if there's glass and 10 feet between them.)

Now my only worry is rather or not he'll adapt to constantly red light with no periods of darkness until summer.

[Kurt]

I would shut the light off at night. If you need continued heat, use a ceramic heat emitter instead of a heat bulb. The frog needs the darkness to properly function.