Hi FrogForum,

I've been caring for fire belly toads for about six years now.

I started out with a trio -- one male and two females. About a year or so ago, one of my females passed away. Then the other female passed a few months later. My male toad remained.

At this point, I decided to introduce my lone male to a new tank mate: another male fire belly toad henceforth known as the "problem toad." The problem toad wasted little time asserting his dominance over my original male. It seemed like the problem toad was constantly seeking out and grappling with my original male, pulling him down below the water's surface and holding him there for minutes on end. At first, I dismissed the problem toad's behavior as a mating ritual rather than territorial dominance. After all, in the past I watched my original male perform amplexus on my females from time to time. Although never quite to this extent.

I sought answers. No forum thread I found ever talked about territorial behavior among fire belly toads. In fact, many seemed to dismiss the act of amplexus as simple courtship behavior and nothing to worry about.

So I let the behavior continue.

As much as it pained me to watch my original male struggle under the weight of the problem toad pushing him below the water's surface every day, I let it continue.

After about three weeks, I noticed my original male's personality change for the worse. He was defeated. Rather than waiting for me in the wide open to drop crickets in as he'd normally do, he was now hiding in the smallest corners of the vivarium. He lost his appetite. He stopped resisting my attempts to pick him up. Before long, he swelled up and died a day or two later. I discovered his corpse with the problem toad still grappling it tightly at the waist.

I was crushed. From my point of view, it seemed like the problem toad's constant bullying stressed out my original male so much that he lost the will to live.

Fast forward to about ten days ago. With the problem toad still occupying my vivarium, I decided to take a chance and introduce three new tank mates: one male and two females. With a community of four, I thought, there was no way the problem toad could possibly bully any one of them nearly as much as he bullied my original male.

I was wrong.

The problem toad never seems to get tired of reminding the others exactly who the alpha toad is. Almost every time I walk by my vivarium since I've introduced the latest three, I've heard the problem toad calling and/or asserting his dominance directly over one of the others by grappling and pinning them below the water. It's gotten to the point where my latest three are so afraid of being harassed by him that they've taken up hiding in the smallest corners of the vivarium. If the problem toad is on land, the other three are almost certainly in the water or vice versa.

This can't continue. If there's one lesson I've learned at the expense of my original male's life, the problem toad will almost certainly continue to demonstrate his fierce territorial nature even if it results in their untimely deaths.

So here are my options and I'm running out of time before I've expired one of them: 1) I can simply leave things as they are just as I did before and hope things somehow get better on their own; 2) I can separate the problem toad into another enclosure that he'd occupy all to himself (which would unfortunately be a lot smaller and terrestrial as opposed to the 29 gallon semi-aquatic vivarium he's occupying right now); or 3) return the latest three back to the pet store before the two week satisfaction guarantee expires. Ultimately, I'd hate to have to return the latest three or separate any of them for safety's sake. But at this point it seems like I'll have no choice but to make a tough decision.

Has anyone else ever had to deal with a problem like mine? Has anyone got any advice or other options I might consider?

Thanks for hearing me out.

-A distressed pet owner