Trying again with FBTs (with questions)

[Allistor]

A while back (around June or July '12) I had acquired a pair of FBTs, and they shortly after died, both in the same day. I really have no clue what happened to them, I only had them for about a week, and they just suddenly died one day. But I'd like to try again, and make some changes from what I did before.

I have a 29 gallon aquarium I'll be housing them in; it's more tall, but kind of long (30" long, 12" deep, 18" tall), probably enough space for 3-5 toads? I'd like to stick to a small number; I figure I COULD keep more in this size tank but 4 or so would be better for me to start with. I can always add more later if they do well

I'm going to create a paludarium style vivarium for them; possibly some live plants but undecided yet. Mainly I'm still deciding on the water depth. I Googled this and the answers were mostly "as deep as you want" but I feel too deep and they could drown. But I would like to use up some of the height the tank provides, so how deep would you guys say is the deepest you'd go? Somewhere I saw someone said 10 inches! How would the toad even stay at water level, if it wanted to? Are they able to float by themselves (silly question I'm sure)?

Anyways, I'm definitely doing something like 1/4 land, 3/4 water. There will be a filter, and I'll plan to do a small water change every day or every other day (it's possible my first toads died of toxin accumulation in the water, so I'd like to keep the risk at a minimum). I'm curious if anyone knows whether carbon (the filter media) gets rid of the toxins? If so, is it possible to keep some cold-water fish such as White Cloud Mountain Minnows in with the FBTs? I've seen some threads pondering the idea but none where people have actually tried, although maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. I just thought some fish would make a nice addition.

Thanks for reading! I may not start this up for a few more weeks, but I'll update when I do!

[deranged chipmunk]

make the water as deep as you want. as long as they have spots to get out, they will be fine. they are a semi-aquatic frog and will not drown. you can easily house 3-5 in that size enclosure.

it is doubtful that your toads died from an accumulation of their own toxins in the water. and carbon will not remove them. with a filter, it won't be necessary to change water every day. depending on how much water you have and wht type of filtration you have, you can probably get away with 50% weekly or bi-weekly.

as far as fish, white clouds will do fine. my son keeps a few in his fbt palu. it is a 20L with about 7" of water in it. i also know many people who keep guppies, mollies and a few other fish and shrimp with their fbt's.

hope that helps

[Allistor]

Thank you very much for your comment! It helped me a lot.

[MatthewM1]

Ghost shrimp make a great addition to fbt tanks they love to eat crickets that fall into the water and are super cheap. Its also pretty funny to watch fbts try to hunt them when they occasionally notice them, mine have never had any success but they keep trying

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[Allistor]

Haha! That's a good idea! I'm sure they'd be hard to see. They could probably help me spot clean too I bet!

[deranged chipmunk]

the best AND worst part of ghost shrimp is this: they won't breed in freshwater. this can be a blessing or damnation, depending on whether or not your fbt's like them. LOL but i highly doubt that frogs can catch them. you would not believe how fast shrimp are. LOL

[firebellygirl]

I also have a 29 gallon . I had 5 FBT in there once, but over the years they have passed. I currently have 2. I will not be adding any new toads until my last two pass because they are old and huge and the ones at the LPS are tiny and I dont want my 2 old ladies to mistake them for a snack. I keep my water about 6-7" and they have never had a problem. Usually they just float on the water surface, but they have been know to dive under the water and sit at the bottom, sometimes for hours. I keep white clouds with mine and have never had a problem. I have even had them breed ( both toads and white clouds. I have a whisper reptifilter and I change about 50 % of the water every week.


my fatties

my tank

[Allistor]

That sounds great! I'll have to get some shrimp then, and some fish too

I've got an idea planned out for how I want to set up the tank. I found this on Ebay:
Aquarium Internal Filter 3 in 1 Multi Function Pump 40 Gallon Fish Tank 160 GPH | eBay
And think it will work great to make a kind of small stream on the land portion!
What I've got planned so far is a false bottom on the land portion, a glass (maybe plexi-glass works better? or does it matter?) divider, and 8" of water. The land portion will be made up of Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting soil/mix (I don't remember which one it was). I have read it is used great when planting an aquarium so I don't believe it will harm the toads. Even so, there will be a layer of live moss on the top (any suggestions on what kind to get? I'm thinking sphagnum since it's commonly used, I've heard Irish moss is nice too) The bottom of the water section will be lined with large, round gravel/river rocks (I think pea gravel is too small, they might eat it?). On the land I'll put in some live plants. The filter... well it's hard to explain but I'm going to set it up so it's hidden in the water section by some fake foliage, and then (if I can) lead the spray bar up to the land portion to make a weak stream.
There's more I can add to this, but this is the basic outline of my dream tank! HOPEFULLY it will come out as nice as it sounds (in my head at least lol) but we'll see...

[MatthewM1]

You don't need to worry about them accidentally eating aquatic substrate, smaller gravel will be fine. If using a plexi divider you need to add a way to drain excess water from under the land side.

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[Allistor]

I picked up four brown Orientals yesterday! I'll post some pictures when I get home later tonight. When I got them home I put them all in a plastic container and put some dubia nymphs in and at least 3 of the 4 ate some, I'm unsure if the last one got any or even attempted but he may have.
I did have a scare this morning because when I went to check on them there was no lid on the tank! I'm not sure if I just forgot to put it on or somebody took it off but two of the toads were missing... Luckily I found both of them and they appear to be unharmed, just a little furry from the carpet.

[Allistor]

Sorry, I never got around to posting the pics! But here they are!