Vivarium Help

[Sarah42]

As some of you may have read, I am rearing a collection of frogs from eggs I found in my garden in a rapidly shrinking mud puddle. Up until now they have been thriving in a full 20 gallon tank, but some are now morphing. I've set about converting my tank into a Vivarium, and want some advice and thoughts about my progress so far. I've gathered objects from the area in which I discovered the eggs: oak branches, dried leaves and so on as well as some small sprouts of local plants from wet ground: clover and soft grasses. Also some quartz stones from a nearby stream For the objects that were dead, I rinsed and brushed them with very hot and very cold water in a bid to destroy bacteria and buggies without chemical residue. I also striped the branches of bark before beginning to clean them and checked for the slightest boreholes. I routinely use branches fallen from the same trees as perches for the small parrots I own, and they have never shown ill effects after the branches have been treated in this manner.

The bottom of the tank is sill about an inch deep in water, with gravel. The gravel is purposely uneven to cause dry areas and pools, and then covered over in oak leaves. There is also a hide cave, and I have scattered some grass seeds in there to sprout (the kind found in bird seed, not the chemical mess you'd seed your garden with. ) the tadpoles are now in a four or five gallon hexagon tank within the Vivarium, where the can leave as they finish growing legs.

ive been reading about bromeliads and rainforest plants, but I don't think i want to go that route. It's not the natural habitat for these frogs, which is my back yard.... I'd prefer some more indigenous alternatives. To the current set up in need to add some clinging plants to the walls, strong enough to support their weight and yet leafy. Unless you can think of anything, I will use a plastic plant if that's acceptable. I will include a picture below.... But is there anything glaringly missing? Or something I did horribly wrong?

for some reason my iPad put the photo in upside down and I don't know how to prevent it from doing that. I'll take a new one when I have my computer.

[deranged chipmunk]

Without knowing what species tadpole you have in there, it's hard to say. What are the tank parameters? Temp, humidity? What are you using for substrate? I can say this, there are very few plants that will cling and attach to glass. The other thing being that if the humidity is higher than the mid 70's, regular grass will have difficulty growing without rotting. Although, a Bermuda grass may work.

As far as indigenous plants, I would suggest going on a hike with a few ziplok bags and a small trowel.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[LilyPad]

They look to be spring peepers, Bill. Will know once they get their X. Previous thread - http://www.frogforum.net/other-frogs...tml#post225326

I loved my spring peepers and one thing I learned, they are only semi arboreal. How many do you have? I kept 7 of them in a 10 gallon until they were about 3-4 months old. I was worried that moving them to a bigger tank would make it really hard to find food.

In their first tank and then in their big tank, I had lots of leaf litter, moss and places to hide. Do not be surprised if they dig in. My biggest male made a home out of the area below the water dish. He would hide underneath it with just his little face poking out to watch for me to feed them. They used pretty much the entire tank, jumping on the big flat leaves in their first tank and loving the ficus I had in the second tank. Do not completely discount a bromeliad. They loved to tuck in the leaves and soak in any water that got caught in there.

Once they're all morphed, make sure the water is really shallow. Those little guys can drown really easily. I kept the water shallow enough that it only covered their bodies, not their heads at all.

Also, these guys take a long time to reach a size where they no longer need fruit flies. Mine never took anything bigger than a very small cricket. By 8 weeks old they were eating 100+ fruit flies a day. I tried to do pinheads, but the fruit flies were much easier to have on hand. Even when they were big enough for small crickets, they still preferred the fruit flies. I had anywhere between 6 and 10 cultures going at a time the entire time I had them. (I purchased pre-made cultures as the ones I made always seemed to crash)

I had them for just over a year before I lost them all, I have no idea why they died. Typically, they live 2-4 years in captivity. There is still not a lot of info on the web about caring for them in captivity because they just do not do well in captivity usually. I loved my babies but I wouldn't have them again.

This thread has a good pic of their first viv, they were very happy in there and easily found any food they needed -- http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...-froglets.html

[Sarah42]

Well, as for temp and humidity, I'm keeping the tank at circa 70 degrees, as the frogs are obviously temperate, being hopefully some sort of local tree frog, although it is hard to say so very early. They survive here in 35 degree spring nights and 100 degree summer days over the course of the year that I can hear them sing, but simulating that environment seems rather over the top. I'm making it perpetual mid spring for them. As for the humidity, I am doing my best to mimic the out of doors here. We aren't tropical here in Maryland just forest and mountains and swamps. I don't have a meter, but I made the Vivarium in the image of the boggy forest in which I found them.

As for the substrate, I already said that it is gravel covered over with oak leaves, and I have drawn a 'fill line' of water so that it will pool in the places the gravel is low and still leave much of the surface dry. I'm rather unwilling to use soil, because of the horror stories of frogs swallowing it, and because I also like to encourage cultures of black worms to grow in all my tanks within the gravel, fish or amphibian. They filter the water of contaminants, and when their population grows big, the tank inhabitants can graze on them.

I began with dozens of tadpoles, probably at least over fifty. I way over estimated their number when they were tiny darting black specs. I've had some casualties over the course of their growth as one might expect: frogs lay hundreds of eggs and hope a few will live. I've just taken predation out of the equation. I expect to have at least 30 frogs when all is said and done. I'm going to release all but a handful.

Thanks for for the advice about what to feed them, that will be extremely useful. Do most pet stores sell fruit flies?

[LilyPad]

For substrate, I'd get some kind of coco fiber or something of the sort since they do like to get down in there. They shouldn't swallow it, they're not exactly ravenous eaters like a whites tree frog. My peepers rarely got something in their mouths while eating that they weren't supposed to, and when they did, it was a piece of leaf litter that they could "wipe" out of their mouths. If you're really concerned, you could dump the food in a bowl in the tank. A lot of them will be eaten before they ever make it out of the bowl. Especially since they will stop to clean vitamin dust off themselves.

I kept mine around 70 degrees also. I would get something to monitor the temps and humidity though, you might be surprised by how off it can get being a tank vs the open air and a light source on there. Plus, if there is ever an issue, then you have the exact temps and humidity on hand to see if that can be a contributing factor to any illnesses or strange behaviors.

I have a local pet store that sells fruit fly cultures, or you can purchase them online.