Pacific Chorus Frog

[TheMaskedMan]

My little pond with about 200 PCF tadpoles......I wish I had a better camera but they are in there, they all have 2 legs now.....

[TheMaskedMan]

UPDATE:......I notoced some activity this morning around the pittle pond..went out and I saw about a dozen froglets with tails scrambling out of the water to the underbrush.....dang they matured pretty fast...

[Guenhwyvar]

I got three tadpoles a few weeks ago, I only wanted 2 but a third hatched in transport(the egg was stuck to a plant and no one saw it). So now I have 2 baby frogs only 2 days old and the third is still a tadpole. It hasn't grown legs or anything yet. Right now I have my tank half water and water land that slopes into the water. They are so tiny I have to use a flashlight to find them. One is a nice pastel green with black spots and the smaller one is dark brown with black spots. I've kept them before, but I forgot how tiny they are when they first emerge. I really liked your article, it let me know that was doing things right to begin with^^ It was a chore finding crickets small enough for these guys as the largest one is still only 1.5cm long. Most of the small crickets the stores had were bigger than them.
After I lost my 3 a few years ago, I couldn't keep anymore. I wanted to but I thought I did something wrong; I could never find a care sheet on them though. My first 3 I acquired up in WA, I live in OR; I got these 3 from a local place within walking distance. I switched my first 3 to a mostly dry tank with a waterbowl. They lived on fishtank gravel; is that okay? I used the gravel in the tank for the tadpoles for easy cleanup, but is it okay for the frog? I have cocofiber for my pacman tank(I'll get him in august) when do you think I should switch them over, if at all? I haven't gotten any non-aquatic plants established in their tank like I have with my pacman tank because it was for tadpoles and full of water. There is java moss which i found out will grow on land if moist enough. Would a baby spider plant be okay for them right now? Sorry for the long post, I just really want to do this right and have my frogs live longer than a year this time.

[Jace]

I would get your froglets off the aquarium gravel sooner rather than later. Now that they are out of the water, I would use the gravel as a drainage layer with a layer of soil/moss/leaf litter on top. Lots of branches to climb and a water bowl. A spider plant would be really neat looking in there-go for it!! I have had my oldest PCF, Yoki, for over two years now, and he has weathered a variety of substrate experiments and seems none the worse for it. Though I think I did detect an eye roll the last time I changed things around!

[Frog Mom]

I'm also in Oregon and I am newly keeping 7 PCF's in a 20 gallon viv. I had the tadpoles in a little critter-keeper with water and a big rock, but quickly transferred them over to the bigger viv once they became froglets. I put some organic potting soil down and got some moss from behind my house to cover the soil. I bought three nice plants that don't need much light and I've put them in there but left them in their pots, since I wasn't sure if this was going to be my permanent set-up. I can't find the third plant tag, but one is a philodendron and the other is a dracaena. I also have some sticks for them to climb, a couple of big rocks, and a small log.

They really are tiny, it's hard to find any crickets small enough around here to feed them, but I've been giving them lots of fruit flies from a culture I bought at Petco. They seem pretty happy with the set-up.

[Jace]

Sounds like a great setup you have for them! PCFs grow quite quickly, so pretty soon you won't have a problem with appropriate sized crickets. I love how easy these frogs are to keep and they are active and vocal. Definitely one of my fav frogs. Best of luck!

[Frog Mom]

Thanks! It has been so much fun. This can really be addicting. I had no idea I could get so attached to the little guys.

[Jace]

Just be warned: the males are very vocal and very loud. I used to have them upstairs, but when all five boys started going, it woke everyone up. Plus, it got my Green Tree Frog going, so the house literally vibrated with their calls. Now, they are in the basement, behind a shut door, and they can still wake me up. I wouldn't have it any other way, though!

[Frog Mom]

That's been one of my concerns. I'm hoping that since three of them seem decidedly smaller than the others, that there will only be three males out of the seven, but I don't know if that's a reasonable guess or not. We'll see how it goes.

[Guenhwyvar]

Ants were recommended to me to feed my little PCF's. Are they a good choice? I was also told to try blood worms...I have my doubts about that. They don't hunt while swimming. They are hungry because a cricket that was just a bit too big got in there and my biggest little froggie sat there for 5min trying to swallow it then spit it out. The pet store promised me tiny crickets, but when I went to go pick them up they came out with crickets that were bigger than my frogs. I told them that those weren't even close to tiny and wouldn't buy them. Would they eat mealworms? I know they wouldn't eat dead or dried food which the pet store tried selling me...but what else could I offer in this kind of situation?

[Jace]

I would be leery of ants because even the tiniest ant can bite, and though it might feel like nothing to us, I'm suer it could be painful to a little froglet. If you're pet store can't bring in pinheads or 1 week old crickets, I would stick with fruit flies until they get bigger. Mealworms you could try, but I have yet to get my PCFs to eat mealworms. even as adults. But what could it hurt to try? If they are hungry, it would at least put something in them. Just don't give too many, as mealworms could cause impaction.

[Frog Mom]

I had the same problem at first. I got the fruit fly culture from Petco. It really saved me. Petco also seems to have smaller crickets than the other pet stores around here. Not sure if you have one close, but I've been really happy with what I've been able to get there.

[Guenhwyvar]

Well, I don't have #3 anymore. He hadn't grown legs yet and I was worried he'd be too far behind the others. He's been acting strange for the last couple days, so I thought something was wrong, I just didn't know what. He started growing his back legs, but they were looking funny. They were coming in white and misshapen looking. My other 2 grew theirs just fine and they came in brown-green with spots. I think something was wrong with this guy though, so at least he's better off now. I guess I'll get only 2 frogs like I wanted in the beginning. It was kinda nice having a surprise though.Bye-bye #3, I'll miss you.

[Frog Mom]

Sorry to hear about your number three.

[killerecho]

I just found one of my PCF metamorphs dead in the water. It had all its limbs and had already begun to resorb its tail.

I don't know what caused this - drowning maybe? I had only half an inch of water, wet paper towels and rocks that it could climb on in the enclosure. Also, temperatures have been hotter than ideal, so there's that. I always figured that metamorphs at this stage still needed a thin layer of water to take a dip in, but maybe it's better to do away with that and only use wet moss and paper? I have two more tadpoles that are perhaps a week away and would reeeeally like to avoid a repeat.

Any help would be appreciated.

[John]

Definitely drowned. Frogs drown incredibly easily if they can't exit the water very readily. Once the front legs pop you need to put hem in a container that doesn't allow them to drown - have a read of the gray tree frog article and see what I say in there about this.

John

[killerecho]

I had thought a half inch was shallow enough; guess I was wrong. Painful lesson learned.