firebelly home reusable??

[kroberts009]

hi all, i have finally decided that i would like to upgrade my firebellies enclosure. when i first got them, we had a "grasp" and i was completely not ready for possible eggs literally a day after i got them. so i split them and put them in very large tote containers. with rocks covered in moss and a house formation made out of rocks. as well as fake plant in their water with COMPLETE tank changes each week.

now that its starting to get cold, i am interested in putting them back together, same type of set up, but in a larger container (probably a designer 5 gal (for just the two)) complete with filter and probably a small heater. really hooking it up and giving them a proper home. that is much easier to maintain.

so my question is... that since the firebellies are going to be taking over (the current cricket container)... will putting the crickets into the large firebelly totes be at all damaging to the crickets in the long run. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, the crickets are being fed to firebellies, leopard geckos, and lol a very spoiled little red eared slider. I DO NOT WANT firebelly toxin possibly injuring any of my animals.

so in your opinion, if i scrub the heck out of the containers with a 10percent bleach/90 percent water solution, do you think the crickets will be safe enough to feed to all of the other animals? ide really appreciate input, as ide like to do this over the weekend

[FrogFriend]

My own personal opinion, I really refrain from bleach around animals. I don't even use it as a cleaning product in my house. I use more natural cleaning aids, most of which can be found around the house. White vinegar and water solution (about the same ration as your bleach to water) does the same job and vinegar is non-toxin. If you have the earth safe soap, you can add a tiny drop of that to your water:vinegar solution as well. Another good, non-toxic and natural, way to clean is to put ice in the bottom of the tank with some salt and then you cut up lemons, squeeze the juice into the container over the ice and salt mixture. This works great for cleaning glass, not so good for plastic! The ice and salt mixture act as an abrasive and the lemon acts as a cleaner. Also, you can sprinkle in a little bit of baking soda on first- the alkaline quality will help to absorb the toxins AND this is a great combination if your aquarium glass get foggy from calcium build up. I have cleaned my quarantine tank like this for quite awhile now and recently started using my quarantine tank as a cricket keeper and my crickets are doing great! In fact, my loss ratio, since I have converted them over to this tank, is a lot better! Before half my crickets were dying and now only one or two. It's also because of the habitat that I have for the crickets too, even they have a sweet living condition! I hope this helps.

[kroberts009]

My own personal opinion, I really refrain from bleach around animals. I don't even use it as a cleaning product in my house. I use more natural cleaning aids, most of which can be found around the house. White vinegar and water solution (about the same ration as your bleach to water) does the same job and vinegar is non-toxin. If you have the earth safe soap, you can add a tiny drop of that to your water:vinegar solution as well. Another good, non-toxic and natural, way to clean is to put ice in the bottom of the tank with some salt and then you cut up lemons, squeeze the juice into the container over the ice and salt mixture. This works great for cleaning glass, not so good for plastic! The ice and salt mixture act as an abrasive and the lemon acts as a cleaner. Also, you can sprinkle in a little bit of baking soda on first- the alkaline quality will help to absorb the toxins AND this is a great combination if your aquarium glass get foggy from calcium build up. I have cleaned my quarantine tank like this for quite awhile now and recently started using my quarantine tank as a cricket keeper and my crickets are doing great! In fact, my loss ratio, since I have converted them over to this tank, is a lot better! Before half my crickets were dying and now only one or two. It's also because of the habitat that I have for the crickets too, even they have a sweet living condition! I hope this helps.

thats amazing advice! because to be honest, i hate bleach too! it irritates my skin (if it touches at all), and i generally avoid using it in the home. i thought perhaps that would be my only chance, since i recalled reading it somewhere else previously. looks like vinegar and water with a small sprit of baking soda might be my way to go!

i am really looking forward to getting them into a more toad friendly enclosure. dont get me wrong, they have been doing great with what they currently have. but lol weekly changes get to be alot when your doing it on 2 leos, a boa, 2 birds, and 2 firebellys. lol... thank god the turlte tank self cleans really well.

now i have some additional confidence in the switch. looking forward to hitting the pet store!

[FrogFriend]

Yeah, I have been hearing from a lot of friends that they have been having reactions to cleaning supplies bought in stores. A friend of mine even ended up in the emergency room from an allergic reaction to cleaning with bleach! So I am a big advocate of the natural! Besides, most of the things you need are already in the home! I also understand about cleaning so many tanks! My fire-bellies are in a 10 gallon tank which I skim every few days and do cleaning about once every 1-2 weeks, besidens them, like I said, I have my crickets in a small (1-2 gallon maybe) tank and I regularly have to clean out there food that I feed them as well as the stuff I put at the bottom to help decrease the cricket smell! Then I also have another two 10 gallon tanks, a 30 gallon and a 50 gallon. On top of that I have 3 kitty litter boxes to keep clean- so I hear ya on wanting to keep maintenance at a minimum. Let me know how it goes and what you think!

[kroberts009]

hi there, well... since i made the firebellys a new home today, (with filter and heater) and finally put them back together (they were seperated since a day after we got them... i didnt need 80 frogs within the first few weeks we bought them... LOL) anyways... they have been right next to each other since they got put in their new home. theyve remained out of water, hiding under the "house" we built for them out of rocks. not going to feed until tomorrow. i dont want to bother them too much. TOTALLY OFF TOPIC, but the metal sceen lid no longer closes all the way due to the cords from the heater and the filter, think i can drill a hole through the top and put the cords through? not to worry, i have the sides completely covered until i find a better solution. hoping the new system works out well for them! (diagonal cut 5 gal)

tiny (the very tiny res) is in a 10gal with filter and sucker fish, that gets changed every few weeks
whisper the common boa is in a 10gal (hes still young) and gets changed weekly
the leopard geckos with no names (one hoards and the other hogs.. so they were seperated) are both in sep. 5 gals changed weekly
not to mention the 2 birds! changed once or twice a week.
crickets themselves are now in an extra-large plastic tote. which get fully cleaned out every 2 weeks with touch ups in between

and whats crazy, is i still want a few new species or duplicates of current ones... its like an addiction that never ends!

the cleaning appears to have gone well! thanks for your help!

[FrogFriend]

Hahaha! I know what you mean by an addiction that never ends. We have enough as it is and I still think about getting more. And what's worse is that I am a sucker for a stray, rescues and special needs critters. I have two special needs kitties and recently one of my special needs kittens died from his complications. So I REALLY have to watch myself. LOL! I really want a Great Dane, but at this point in time it is just not a possibility. So then I think, well, frogs and toads don't take up room like that, and I am learning about all kinds of new frogs that I had never even heard of! But for now, at least, I am being good and saying we have enough and I come on here and look at pictures of other people's frogs/toads and listen to their stories and that suffices! If I were to do anything, I think I would upgrade my FBT tank to something larger and pimp it out more! :P