need help with my red eye!!

[jdofflemyer]

hi there. i just recently got a baby red eyed tree frog for my birthday. im having problems keeping the humidity and temp right. ive read that humidity is between 50 - 70%. but ive been told by the local pet store to keep the humidity between 80-90%. the guy at the pet store told me to get a piece of glass cut to put over the top to keep the humidity high. so i did that. now my problem is that the temp is getting way to high. ive had him for 1 week and majority of the time he has been brown. so my questions are.... why is he brown? what is the right humidity level? and how can i keep the humidity level right without raising the temp? please help!!


i have had adult red eyed tree frogs in the past. they never turned brown and humidity was always low.

[DigitalPunk]

Reds do not require the humidity ro be so high. You want to aim for the mid 70% in humidity. Reds also require a fair amount of ventilation in order to be healthy. I would remove the glass ( you can get some glass to cover 50% of the top if needed to help lock in "Some" humidity). Temps you want to aim for the high 70s F during the day and allow the temp to drop to the low 70s at night (73 - 76F is a good range to live in)


If you have a hard time keeping he Humidity up during the day let me know and I can tell you the struggles and tricks I learned to help maintain the humidity in my wives red tank.

[jdofflemyer]

That helps a lot. Another question i have is what type of lighting do i need? As of now. I have 13w UVB and 60w day time bulb for baskimg and UVA. Oh and any ideas on why he is brown?

[andaroo]

Most pet stores don't know anything so please don't take their advice. They don't need high humidity or a glass top to hold humidity in. They need a well ventilated enclosure, they are not dart frogs... They only need high humidity when you want to breed them. A thick layer of damp substrate with a heat mat/ heat cable underneath to evaporate it to create humidity and lightly misting at night is enough. Reptile hygrometers are always way off so you can't really rely on them. Temperatures 77-82 f during the day. 74 f at night. Lighting 26 w repti glo 5% uvb. No basking lamps they are too hot and will dry out the enclosure, they have sensitive skin and do not bask, it will burn them. He's brown because he's probably stressed, once he's settled in he will go to a normal color.

[jdofflemyer]

Ive read and been told so many different things it gets confusing. Starting tomorrow im ditching the 60w bulb. I have glass on only half of the top now. Without the glass i have no luck keeping humidity right. Without the glass I would mist 2-3 times per day. But shortly after misting the humidity goes to low. I have sphagum moss that is constantly damp. I also have a water dish. Paul what has worked for you in keeping the humidity and temp right?

[DigitalPunk]

The single best move I made with my reds to stabilize the humidity was changing they way I heated and lit the terrarium. I had the same problems you are seeing and many others have seen and will see in the future. You mist and spike the humidity up within the ranges you want and within an hour or so it has plummeted below ideal conniptions. Here are the things I switched to that solved my issues.

1. Lighting. I switched from Bulbs to LEDs. The LED lights can provide the plants with the spectrum they need to start photosynthesis and grow and also provide your terrarium with very natural looking light and makes the colors on the inside of the tank really pop. The LED lights produce such low amounts of heat that a source of heating the tank needs to be added when changing to LED lights. Another plus for LED lights is because they produce little to no heat they are not cooking the humidity out of the terrarium. I found after switching to LED lights I could mist once in the morning and once in the evening and the humidity would stay stable without wild dips and spikes. You will of course want to experiment with how much of the top to have covered to trap humidity in while still allowing for good ventilation. Having half the top covered with glass is prob going to end up being good. Some good cheap LED lights can be found at Aquatraders - Guaranteed Best Prices on Aquarium Lightings + Free Shipping!

The LED lights I bought have the option of turning on just the blue LED lights to simulate moonlight at night, but from my experience anything other than total darkness and the Reds seem annoyed so I just turn everything off at night and let them do their thing.

2. Heating - I switch to using Ceramic Heat emitters. They produce a radiant heat that penetrates down into the terrarium. This creates a natural warmer spot right below the Ceramic Heat emitter (CHE) and cooler temps down towards the substrate. Frogs are smart and will move around the tank to find the temperature that is pleasing for them at that moment. CHE also produce zero light. This allows you to maintain ideal temps in the enclosure at night without having to use a red heat bulb and disturb your frogs. The radiant heat also does not dry out the air and zap you humidity from the tank. When you are purchasing a CHE I ended up going with one that was bigger than I needed for my terrarium (18x18x24 Exo Terra). I found the 50w CHE could maintain the temp in the terrarium, but it struggled to recover from the temp drop I wanted to simulate at night. It would take the thing nearly all day to bring the temps back up. So I switched to a 100w CHE. This allowed me to do the temp drops and then recover the temps faster in the morning and raise them to the daytime temps in an hour or so.

3. Thermostat - I paired the CHE with a ZooMed Hydrotherm. The Hydro therm lets you program a max and min temp range and help regulate the temps in the terrarium. It also has a "Night time" temp setting. The Hydrotherm has a photo eye on the led screen that is looking for the light to be on. Once the light in the tank goes out the Hydrotherm switches to the night time temp settings. This will let you simulate a natural temp drop at night which the frogs will appreciate. The Photo eye needs to be looking at the tank so the lights inside the tank will trigger it, this can take a bit of playing around with to get right, but I absolutely love it! As an example I will run my reds terrarium at 76F during the day and allow the temp to drop to 72 - 73F at night. The Hydrotherm will turn the heat source off and on throughout the day and night to maintain the temperature. This will also help conserve the cost of electricity. The Hydrotherm is not cheap ($60 or so), but was one of the best purchases I made for my reds.

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The big risk you run without getting your humidity locked in (other than the obvious dangers to your frogs) is creating a swamp in your terrarium. The soil can be soaking wet but the humidity in the tank read low because the bulb you are using is drying the air faster than the soil is evaporating water. You can end up with a bacteria filled cesspool in the bottom of your tank in a few days if you mist every hour or 2 because the moisture is being cooked out of the air.

Another tip for the CHE. I bout a wire dome for the CHE. It is not safe to use them in the normal reflective domes. I used this one Amazon.com : Exo Terra Porcelain Clamp Lamp, Small : Pet Habitat Lights : Pet Supplies
I actually took tin snips to is and cut the cage back so the CHE sat closed to the tank top. I positioned the CHE in the center of the tank (or as close to center as I could get), where ever you end up placing the CHE put the Hydotherm sensor as far from is as you can get. This will help ensure you are heating the whole terrarium properly. I use an Exo Terra Lamp holder to secure the CHE so it can't be accidentally knocked off the top of the terrarium. I am avery pleased with the way the Red tanks functions now. it is very stable and the now 5 Red Eye Tree frogs I care for a doing great!

[DigitalPunk]

Also to touch on the "Why is he Brown" It is most likely stress. And sometimes when they are young they just like to be different. I had a baby Red not long ago that preferred to keep his back an almost purple color. He has since grown out of that and is now a more "normal" coloring for Reds, but they will change colors to match their environment to an extent. Sometimes my adults will be a brown color through the day if they decided to sleep next to some wood.

[jdofflemyer]

Thanks so much for all the info. Im gonna try ditching the 60w and having 50% of the top covered at first. Im hoping that will work. Ive already spent so much money and cant spend any more until next payday. If that doesnt work i will definately be getting everything you suggested. Thanks again

[BArnold]

I have had my three RETFs since Feb and I have found that putting a towel on a portion of the screen helps a lot. I have one of those heating pads on the back and the whole set up is fairly close to the heater in the room I keep them in. I also keep it by the small window I have so they get natural light patterns, I don't have any lights, my plants all are growing new leaves and thriving as well without any fake lighting. All of them are their bright colors that they are known for during the day and then at night they vary from purple to brown to dark green. It depends if they are hunting or where they are sitting. I also have the bottom of my enclosures all water with a makeshift rain system that I rigged up. So I don't have to mist it at all and it keeps the humidity constant. When I had substrate I had to mist twice, sometimes more, a day and keep a towel on part of the top to keep humidity steady, or else it would drop really low then I would mist it to get it to where I needed (mid 70s) and it would drop again, it was a constant battle.