Frog buried in moss

[Kurt]

Does the frog have a few places to hide in? Lots of foliage will help in this respect. Also mist once a day, preferably at night.

[bmlbytes]

Hes got some foliage. I had trouble finding live plants that would fit the biotope, so I grew them from seed. They are still small plants so they may not be very good hiding plants.

I have been misting him once a day with reverse osmosis water (I have it for certain fish I keep). He seems to like it. I also got a digital hygrometer and thermometer. With the heater on always the temperature has been between 75F at night and 80F during the day. The humidity is between 73% and 99%.

[John]

You want nice big leafed plants that will do well in a semi-tropical environment -there are some nice large-leafed Aroids available (check out dendroboard.com and its vendors for example).

I use distilled water to mist (not for water bowls though - you don't want the frog to sit in R/O or distilled water).

[Kurt]

You can also use artificial plants.

[bmlbytes]

Cool thanks for your help guys. Although your help has led to another question

Since my vivarium is a biotope, all the plants and animals have to be found together in nature. Any suggestion on plants found in the tropical rainforests of northern South America?

I may pick up some plastic plants, but they will be short term as I want to keep everything in the tank live.

Also I see a bunch of terrarium plants at PetCo, but they dont have them labeled. They just say either "Tropical Plant" or "Desert Plant". Any idea how to identify them? Maybe I should visit a plant nursery...

[Kurt]

You're welcome. Sorry can't help you with plants.

[John]

Identifying plants is really an experience thing, unless you have some kind of magic book that identifies all tropical species. I'm not very good at it - the best I can do is narrow down to the family ("that's a begonia", "that's an Aroid", "that's a fern", "that could be an orchid"). If you really want to do this right, I suggest you contact Black Jungle (www.blackjungle.com). They're good guys and one of the owners, Richard Revis, is a real tropical plant expert. Tell him what you're trying to do and I am sure he can help you out - he also sells a fantastic range of named tropical plants - both Kurt and I buy plants from him.

[adawinters]

I'm not all too great with plant species either, but I found this:

Plants of South America

It's not specifically northern, but you could poke around and get to know some of the species you like, and see if (a) they're available, and (b) they'll fit the dimensions of your tank.

Some of the hiding could simply be adjusting to a new home. I usually try to up the humidity, though, when I see a tree frog burrow into moss. Was there any difference after you got the humidity above 60?