18x18x24 RETF - Natural Style - Build

[DigitalPunk]

Well the frogs are starting to look more and more at home in the tank. I don't think they are settled in yet, but they have started exploring. So far they all prefer the water in the bottom of the tank for soaking to the water bowl. I have setup 2 platforms for feeding and water (I fill the platform with water and then set a small bowl of crickets in the middle). It is hard to tell who is eating what with 5 frogs in there, but I have not observed any fighting. You can tell they are very aware of the population increase and are still trying to figure out how to deal with it.

On a side note, and I think this is very interesting. A couple of the little frogs will dive off the land bowl into the water and swim to the other side of the tank and then climb out. At first I thought it was because they didn't know it was full of water, but they seem to enjoy doing it. I even saw one of our bigger ones lower itself all the way into the water and swim a bit before exiting. Seems to go against the "Not good swimmer" statements you hear sometimes about the Reds, though they are not graceful swimmers like the Mantellas I have are.

[DigitalPunk]

I am going to be changing some things with this build. The over all layout will remain mostly the same. I am going to replace the Bowel in the water with some rocks and a land mass over the water. The bowel is just causing some concerns over swamping out the soil and I want to spread the plants out a bit more. The rocks will allow for drainage and will give me more surface area to work with. I want to keep the water feature in some respect. Heating the tasks with the aquatic heater has worked out great so far and is much more affordable than using other sources. The main thing I have noticed so far is that the water does evaporate quickly due to the largely vented screen top... I have to add roughly a gallon of water a week to the tank. I will be pulling the frogs out in the next week or so to clean the tank anyways and will make the adjustments while they are in the temp holding tank while the cleaning is done.

They LOVE the limbs in the tank. They climb all over them when they wake up. They have been seen lowering themselves all the way down into the water. The bigger to Reds we have will actually get all the way in the water and stand on the bottom and just soak. They have a water dish as well (and do use it) but they all seem to prefer the water feature more.