help me set up a pacman home please

[Lija]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Good for you that you are researching and setting up terrarium first.
The care sheet you have been advised on is excellent, check it, the other thing you have 20 gal long tank and a sand. Sand is not usable for pacman frog, 20 gal long tank is too big for a baby.

[Lecroixe]

I was able to upgrade my little pacman from his tiny carrier that he was kept in at the store to a 10gal Long right away. Granted he spent his first week hiding out underneath the eco earth substrate until he got more comfortable with poking his head out. For awhile I could only see his eyes if they were even peeking out of the substrate.

If brian really wanted to, he could divide the 20gal Long into two separated 10gal sections and house two, or some other critter if properly divided. Or leave the one half empty until the Pacman gets bigger; and then it could have a lofty 20gal to itself.

I think the key things to keeping a Pacman is keeping the temperature around 70-85 (Night/Day) and the humidity at 75%+.

I've read a few threads where Pacman owners have trouble setting up the humidity and maintaining it throughout the day, which causes some health problems when a Pacman doesn't have the right amount of moisture in their environment, personally I have a see through glass top for my 10gal that holds in most of the humidity in my bedroom. It's also thin enough that I can adjust a daylight/heat lamp to occasionally increase the temperature of the terrarium as needed.

Some people say that they don't need the additional light/heat but I think that is up to the owner and careful consideration of the actual enviroment that the Pacman terrarium is housed in. My family runs the A/C 24/7 in my house during the summer, so I leave my heat lamp on the terrarium throughout the day to keep it nice and warm. Wouldn't want our frogs to freeze to death now do we?

As for humidity being important, there were a few forum members that had issues with extremely low humidity levels, causing their frogs to practically hibernate and "play dead" or estivate would be the proper term. Pacmans don't move around much to begin with, but you don't want them to be uncomfortable.

[Lija]

Lecroixe, it is pretty simple. You have to have correct parameters and proper sized tank for pacman frog, decor and covering 3 sides is important too. It doesnt matter how you achieve proper environment. You can use any heating element, but light have to be dim, for albino no uvb. You will always have problems with low or too high humidity unless you you set up properly. It is not rocket science. If you want easy way, you invest some money and get fogger, plug it and heating element into hydroterm, otherwise you gotta play around and see what works safely ( covering or opening screen top, misting more or less, etc.).

10 gal can also be too big for a baby, some wont care much, especially there are a lots of plants and hides present, others will stress out, refuse food = big problems.

Dividing tank is not the best option, but not impossible. You have to make divider absolutely not see through and completely waterproof both sides. And when you get a second frog, it had to be in quarantine first, both new and "old" tested for parasites and treated if needed.

[Ornate frog]

Pacmans are simple to care for feed 2-4 times a week
Spray them down 1-2 times a day
make sure there at 80-86 faren height (sorry for my English )
20 gallon is to big 4-5 gallon is good for a baby like lecroixe said you could divide it witch would be awesome !
Heres the stuff u will need (Eco earth , water dish , hides (not compolsery) plant (live r fake ) make sure its not harmful if its live
that's it

[brian c]

ok i think i get it just a little ok no sand though i was not gonna use it anyways and humidity and temp for my fish tanks they are usually 76 degrees and about humidity can i just have a water bowl in it and do i need a gauge for humidity and what kind of plants would i need to buy because i would like live plants and if i get a lot of live plants will i ever need to clean out the poop becausew i have heard of them having teeth and drawing blood and im not gonna lie im actually a bit scared its ;like a big foot long piece of flab with teeth no offense frogs and how do i make a tank divider and only one frog is good with me

[Lija]

Brian, did you read a care sheet?

Yes you need:
- hydrometer and thermometer, get digital, analog ones are garbage
- water conditioner for all water you are using, including the one you expand exo earth (plantation soil) with. You can get reptile specific, but any fish tank ones will do. I like prime the best, cheap and lasts long time.
- fine coconut fibre - eco earth or plantation soil, get bricks, more economical this way. You will need to change it every month, water - every day.
- shallow water bowl, i like ceramic plant dishes the best, they are very cheap and usually just right size. I think they are under 1$ at walmart.
- plant of sorts - any plastic or silk plant, hanging or not ad long as frog can hide under is fine. Any terrarium decor if you'd like to, but something to cover 3 sides if your tank, fish tank background works awesome. But anything not see through would do.
- ca with vit d3 powder and multivitamin powder
- something you will use to heat up the tank - infrared lamp + dome or heat mat that has to be attached to the side.
- mister , hand mister or humidifier.

[Lecroixe]

Brian, did you read a care sheet?

Yes you need:
- hydrometer and thermometer, get digital, analog ones are garbage
- water conditioner for all water you are using, including the one you expand exo earth (plantation soil) with. You can get reptile specific, but any fish tank ones will do. I like prime the best, cheap and lasts long time.
- fine coconut fibre - eco earth or plantation soil, get bricks, more economical this way. You will need to change it every month, water - every day.
- shallow water bowl, i like ceramic plant dishes the best, they are very cheap and usually just right size. I think they are under 1$ at walmart.
- plant of sorts - any plastic or silk plant, hanging or not ad long as frog can hide under is fine. Any terrarium decor if you'd like to, but something to cover 3 sides if your tank, fish tank background works awesome. But anything not see through would do.
- ca with vit d3 powder and multivitamin powder
- something you will use to heat up the tank - infrared lamp + dome or heat mat that has to be attached to the side.
- mister , hand mister or humidifier.

I have an analog thermometer and it seems to be working fine for me but I keep my humidity and temperature pretty stable. 70"F Is the lowest my temp gets at any part of the day, and 80% humidity all the time.

A portion of my terrarium also has some moss to hold moisture. I was advised to change it once every two weeks but I have gotten away with the moss being reliable for up to a month.

Water conditioner is also very important, or you can opt to make it easier and buy bottled spring water jugs. (I had done research and I do my daily misting and water dish changes with spring water.) It has the right water properties/qualities as far as I understood and for three months or so now Keropi seems to be doing just fine. If you don't use water that has the correct necessities you run the risk of leaching vital nutrients and minerals from your frog, or your frog absorbing toxic substances, i.e. chlorine used to make tap water drinkable/bacteria free.

Plastic plants can be a hazard if you think that the leaves or pieces of the plant could prove to be a poking injury. You don't want your frog to poke his eye because he just happened to jump into a plant to try and hide but instead stabbed himself in the face. As for real plants, I have heard that they will try to dig under and hide beneath plants, so expect real plants to be uprooted if not carefully placed. I buried my plastic plants low enough in the substrate that he can't possibly burrow to them bottom grids that hold the plant down in the substrate.

[brian c]

i am not using sand that was when i was getting a gecko but someone gave me a full set up so..