Introducing me!

[John]

Welcome! Actually you've come to the right place. That's an error in the welcome message :P. I've never kept Kassinas but from what I understand they are quite straight forward. Do you have specific questions? I bet we can field them.

[John]

I've fixed that PM. Thanks for pointing that out Kerry.

[Kerry1968]

Thanks John, no particular queries. It would be nice to know about other peoples set-ups etc. I'm changing my frog tank this weekend, going to put a divider in to have a permanent (sp?) small water area. I've tried tipping the tank to have a wet end and a dry end, but it hasn't really worked, it's all wet! Also I wondered about substrate for these frogs. I've got topsoil and compost mixed, the frogs seem OK with it, but I wondered if it was a bit too dense?

[John]

You've hit on your gradient problem in that last sentence. If the soil is too dense then the moisture just spreads throughout the whole thing. These frogs don't need it very moist so your idea about having a small permanent water area is a good one- that way you don't have to obsess about keeping the soil very moist. Do you find that they hide much? Do you have many shelters for them?

[Kerry1968]

Thanks for that again John. The frogs hide ALL the time! The only time I see them out is when I disturb them by moving stuff in the tank etc. I have an underground tunnel made from a PVC pipe and they spend most their time in there. I have some pieces of wood and a bit of moss in there and they'll hide under this too. One of them is more outgoing and is the first to poke his (her) nose out if anything's going on, the other one I hardly see and have to check every couple of days it's still alive!

[John]

Thanks for that again John. The frogs hide ALL the time! The only time I see them out is when I disturb them by moving stuff in the tank etc. I have an underground tunnel made from a PVC pipe and they spend most their time in there. I have some pieces of wood and a bit of moss in there and they'll hide under this too. One of them is more outgoing and is the first to poke his (her) nose out if anything's going on, the other one I hardly see and have to check every couple of days it's still alive!

How long have you had them? A lot of wild caught anurans never really tame down very well but your Kassinas seem particularly shy. Have you tried hand feeding them and do they show any interest?

[Kerry1968]

I'm not sure how long I've had them, a couple of months I should think. I've never tried hand feeding them, I just put 6 or so crickets in the tank every few days. I've managed to hold the less shy one a couple of times and he actually doesn't seem too panicked by this, perhaps I should just build on this and get them more used to people?

Oh, the way I know which is which (they're called Bert and Ernie) is that he less shy one (Ernie) is much skinnier. I've actually seen him eat, so I'm not to worried, but I wondered if the difference in body shape might show a difference in gender? I've never heard them call.