Help My Fire Belly Toads are dying

[PAFishMan]

For Christmas I got my daughter 4 Fire Belly Toads. I have a tank set up with a gravel and swimming area and a mister. I put a heating pad for reptiles on the bottom of the tank under the gravel. There is a under gravel filter in there as well. Looks like a set up that would be perfect for frogs. I checked the temp and it's 72. At first the frogs were happy. We feed them once a day and they were eating crickets every time we put some in. They were singing a couple of times a day that we noticed. Sometimes they would sing when someone went near the tank. I used distilled water to put in the pond area. About 4 days ago we noticed one in the water with it's legs stretched out. It did looked fat. I was sure it was dead and got it out of there. Then last night I noticed another one dead the same way. We noticed just under a week ago they stopped signing and just before the first one died they stopped eating. I just tried to feed the two we have left and the crickets just walk over them and they don't go after them at all like they use to. So now they won't eat. These two that are left look skinny. Does anyone know what's going on? Should I check the water like I do the fish tank? What values am I looking for? It's distilled water so I don't think it went bad that quick with a filter in there. It's only been up 3 weeks. Are crickets going behind the wall and dying therefore making the water bad? I did try to feed them meal worms from the pet store but they didn't eat them. A day later we did smell something rotten from the tank, I thought the water was bad but it was the dead meal worms in the dish so I got them out of there and the smell went away. Hope I can get some help before I loose the lat two. Oh, at night I do set the temp in the house to 68 but I don't think the water in their pond gets that low. Thanks
PS: See photos, the frog on the lily pad is not real it's a fake one that lights up different colors that hasn't worked since the batteries died. The two that are alive are in each back corner of the tank. Thanks

[MatthewM1]

How fat are the dead that were talking about? My first thought would be they had swallowed gravel and died of a bowel impaction. It's fine to use underwater but your going to want to cover it with eco earth or something similar on the land portion. I've never had luck getting that type of setup to work the way I like. My favorite so far it to find a plastic tub that takes up most of the tank than pack eco earth all around it and fill the tub with water, filter, etc. Also don't use distilled water, use tap water treated with dechlorinating drops, like sold for fish tanks. Distilled water can leach minerals out of them causing imbalances in their bodily systems. It's okay for misting but not for soaking/hydrating substrate.

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[PAFishMan]

They were plump a little bloated not huge. I don't think they are eating gravel. They had access to plenty of food. The two that are left are skinny not fat at all and they are not eating. I am going to test the water from a fresh water fish tester and I will post the results below. Thanks

[PAFishMan]

Ok, I did some tests and maybe I found some answers but I don't know about frogs so please anyone that can help me let me know. I tested the temp outside the water on the gravel it reads 68. The temp of the water reads 74. Does this cause a problem? I tested the water with my fresh water tester for fresh water fish and it reads, Low PH is 6.4 ( for fish normal would be 7.6) High PH reads higher than the scale (for fish normal is 7.4). Now Ammonia levels read 8.0ppm (this would be deadly for fresh water fish as you would want 0 ppm for fish). Nitrite reads .25ppm not to bad (for fish you want 0), and Nitrate levels read 160 ppm (this would be deadly for fish for fish you want 0 ) I don't know about these fire belly frogs. In this case my concern if they were fresh water fish I would be concerned with the Ammonia and Nitrate levels. Let me know. Thanks

[SqUaReJeLLy]

I am far from an expert, I have only had mine for a few months now but I would have to say that those numbers can't be good. Whether they could kill a frog or not I don't know but I would still do a full water change and use treated tap water to replace. I use Prime since I also use that for my fish. As far as them eating the gravel it's not because they are hungry and eat it, it's when they go after their food they can accidentally grab a piece of gravel instead which it why it's better if you are going to use gravel to keep it under the water or cover it with something if it's above the water. If you believe the crickets may be going behind the wall then definitely check that out to make sure since any dead in the water isn't good and if they are going back there you may have to take the wall out or close off any spaces that allows them back there. Also there doesn't seem to be any places for them to hide which I'm sure could be stressing them out some.

Even if everything you set up for them is perfect from what I have read most FBT are wild caught which means they are more likely to have parasites and other nasties and the only way to check that out would be to bring them to a vet and they will give you the correct meds to fix them all up. I hope some of what I said was helpful and someone more experienced will come along and help you out. In the mean time if you haven't already check this care sheet out, Frog Forum - Fire-Bellied Toad Care and Breeding - Bombina orientalis and relatives

[PAFishMan]

Ok, I just did a water change and before I was told I took that wall out in the back lol. I may put it back if I can get things stabilized first. Here is the thing, I took out all the water ran the gravel through a strainer not a whole lot but I thought enough. The pet store told me to use tap water with a reversal osmosis. I did that we have well water with a reversal osmosis. We are in a farming community so I replaced half with distilled water and the other half with tap. I took some pictures of what it looks like now. See the pictures below. I did test the water after setting everything back up and I was shocked. The Ph is 7.2 it was 6.4, the High Ph is 7.4 it was off the chart before so now that is normal. The Ammonia is 1.0 ppm it was 8.0 so that is a lot better, The nitrite is 2.0 ppm it was 0.25 like I said we are in a farming community and to my surprise the Nitrate is exactly the same 160 ppm?? What happened? Did that much get put back in from the gravel. I cleaned the little filter in the pump even. There was some dead crickets behind the wall but I cleaned that out and washed out the tank in a sink. I ran water into the tank and dumped it a few times until the water was clear and dumped that out to. I had all the gravel in a five gallon bucket and put some into a strainer and washed it a little then dumped it into the tank and kept doing that until I had the gravel back. I guess I will check it again in a couple of days, that is if I still have these two frogs. I am going to put some Prime in now as well. If anyone can let me know here how I can get this cleared up faster let me know. Thanks