New RETF owner

[DigitalPunk]

Hi All,

I bought by wife 2 RETF for Christmas this year. She absolutely loves frogs (and has her whole life). I did some very disgraceful research and then decided to go to the pet store. I trusted the local pet store peoples and set this up for them. . We kept them in there for a couple days, the more I read online about these frogs the more I realized the setup I was sold at the store is not ideal for them. I scoured the internets and cmd across this site . I spent hours lurking, reading, and compiling my supply list. I ordered nearly $500 worth of additional materials (Happy frogs happy wife? ). The last of the items were delivered today so I spent the evening assembling what I am sure is just phase one of this terrarium. I have to admit I am getting into the whole setup and execution of the environment thing.

We are as I alluded to earlier in the post very very new to being the caretakers of frogs, so with that in mind here is their current home. We are still awaiting 2 additional plants we ordered 2x Pothos to add some more verticality to the terrarium. They should be here tomorrow.

Anyways. We bought a misting system and a Zoo Me HydroTherm controller. Those are all set up and put a timer on the lights to get the little guys/gals in a good day night cycle. The plants currently in the terrarium are Shake Plant and some Lucky Bamboo. The water dish is entirely to large (i think so always) and I have ordered a replacement bowl that is about half as big as the one in there currently. We hope we are doing things right for the RETF and are open to any and all suggestions. The substrate is 2 inches of Hydroballs, screen mesh, and ABG Mix on top of that with Magnolia leaves on top. The temp is hovering around 78 degrees and the humidity is roughly 78%.

Feeding wise we started out putting 8 - 10 crickets (dusted with calcium powder) in the cage at night just before lights out and in the morning most if not all were gone replaced by little frog poop. Tonight we tried putting the crickets in a small glass bowl but Roy and June (our frogs names, from the movie Knight and Day) sat on the edge and stared at them then got bored and moved on. When we dumped the crickets out the hunt was on and they quickly ate 3 or 4 each. So not sure the glass bowl will work for these froggies, but we will try to keep it in the terrarium for a few days and maybe put 1 - 3 in the bowl as a snack incase hunting goes poorly that night.

Water - We are currently using tap water that has been filtered, both for the water bowl and the misting system. Is this ok or should we be doing something different?

Lastly I will close with a pic of the frogs. We don't know if they are indeed male and female, but hope they are Here they are right after the move into the new home tonight.

[DigitalPunk]

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas! I have a humidity question.

I have seen it posted on here and on other sites, and it does seem that the practices around humidity seem varied.

I didn't mention it above, but out tank is an 18x18x24 Exo Tera. We have a 2inch HydroBall layer separated by basically window screen and ABG mix substrate with leaf liter of the top. We have a Zoo Med HydroTherm probe/controller to help keep a constant temp/humidity level, but the issue we are seeing is the humidity plummets from 78% (that is the setting I have on the HydroTherm) to the mid 50% range in a few minutes and then the ProMist is turned back on and it mists back up to 78%. Rinse and repeat and the Substrate has started to get really really wet. I noticed this morning when I replaced the water dish with a smaller one that the sub straight was overly wet so I unplugged the pro mist and began reading all I could find again on maintaining humidity in a terrarium and saw several people suggesting to cover some of the mesh top with a towel/ plastic wrap/ glass basically anything to help trap in heat and humidity. So off to the store we went and bought some picture frames and used the glass to cover 80% of the mesh top.

The humidity is still sitting at 54% and the Pro Mist is still off. I am hoping that the heat in the terrarium mixed with the plants and the wet ABG mix will naturally increase the humidity some. Is there anything else we can do to get this under control a bit more?