Getting my first FBTs

[Allistor]

I'm new to amphibians but not to reptiles and have wanted to either start a small aquarium or get some FBTs, but decided with the toads instead! I hope to get them within the week, maybe even tomorrow if I can, but I have a few questions. First, does this setup look OK? It's a 10 gallon, and I used a 2-10i tetra submersible filter, hidden in the back left behind the fake plant. I have some aquarium plant bulbs (Hybrid Aponogeton, from one of the packages at the pet store. I'm not sure how well they grow but I thought I'd give it a shot?) in the rocks that are growing, and the rocks and log I had gotten from outside a long time ago and use to be in my leopard gecko's tanks, but were eventually taken out and put in storage, and I washed with them hot water and put in the oven for an hour and a half before putting them in. The light is just my desk light that I positioned over the top for a brighter picture, but I read they do not need additional heat unless the room is cold. My room stays around 70-72, but if they need a heat lamp I can get one for them.





There's about 3 inches of water. It's a tiny bit foggy but that's from the rocks, I washed them off but they still had a bit of dust/dirt on them that I couldn't easily get off. The filter is cleaning it out as I type, I took those pictures several minutes ago after starting the filter. It's beginning to look very clear now

My next question is, will they eat dubia roaches, and are the OK for them to eat? I started my own colony (still growing but getting there) and have 3/8" babies that I feed to my baby bearded dragon and my leopard geckos. I think they would be ok for them as I've read other places they are, but wanted to make sure. And do I just drop them in the water, or put them on the rocks? Wouldn't they crawl into the water and drown? I'm still confused on how to feed them haha. But I have multivitamin powder and calc w/ D3 ready, and will feed them 3x a week and dust calc 2x a week and vitamins 1x a week (does that sound right? the caresheet on this website says 2-3x a week, I believe).

Thanks in advance for any help!

[JoshXcore]

Everything looks and sounds good! Do NOT get a heat lamp. They like it in the 70's so your room will be fine. Pick up an aquarium thermometer at Walmart just to be sure. For a 10 gallon tank you should get no more than 3 firebellies. As far as feeding, yes they can eat dubia roaches. You may need more land in order to make sure the roaches don't drown before your toads get to them.i feed every other day and dust 1-2 times a week with calcium powder and mine seem happy

[Allistor]

Thank you very much for your help!

[Allistor]

Also, do you feed yours a set amount or as much as they can eat in a given time?

[JoshXcore]

You kind of have to figure that out as you get to know your FBTs. I know that if I put in a dozen or so crickets, Cortana and The Arbiter will eat about 4-5 yeah and Master Cheif is happy if he gets 1-3. You'll just have to see what happens. If you're getting your FBTs from different places or different tanks at the same place you'll want to quarantine them anyways before putting them together. This is a good time to figure out their eating habits.

[FinnyBird]

I would add some more land area. They need a place to hide/burrow, and also enough room for crickets to crawl during feeding time. Crickets tend to "freeze up" in water and FBTs will not eat anything that is not moving. But besides that, it looks good to me. How many are you getting?

As for the roaches, I wouldn't know as I just do crickets with mine (tried breeding insects myself once, and it did NOT end well. I'm alright stopping at a pet place every week or so for crickets though, ha ha). As a general rule, just don't feed them an insect longer than the toad's head is wide.

[Heatheranne]

It's looking good. I think I'd lower the water level to 2", or, even easier add another inch of rocks to the deep part. You may need a larger area to one side for feeding. Both crickets and dubias will drown. Yes, you can feed them small crickets and dubias. Your calcium and vitamin schedule is right on. Another thing you can do is to make a small floating platform so the crickets crawl up it if they fall in and the toads can still get them. You can remove it when not in use.

We loved our firebellies . Are you getting greens or browns?

[Allistor]

Thank you all! I did lower the water level to about 2", a tiny bit over that. I plan to get 3 green fbts from a local pet shop (not a chain store but family owned and they treat their animals well). I will add some more land, maybe move the rocks around for a more half/half look than just the random placement. Do they need a burrowing substrate, like moss? I have some spare moss that I use for my leopard gecko's humid hides, just frog moss from the pet store not live, and I haven't used it yet so I could spread that over the rocks. I figure coco fibre would dirty the water a lot considering how it looks when you first put the brick into the water.

[Heatheranne]

They don't really need to burrow. They'd more likely love a little cave to hide under or a plant with some over-hang. You'll find that they'll love being in the water. Sometimes they'll just sit in it, so a shallow area is nice. Moss can be used, but never feed on the moss because if they accidentally ingest it while eating they can get an intestinal impaction.

[Allistor]

Ok thank you, I will do some rearranging then to set up more land for them

[Heatheranne]

Sounds good .