Interested in getting a Fire Belly! Am I ready?

[hgual22]

So I have lots of animals, of all different kinds. Dogs, cat, lots of fish, birds, rabbits, rats, hamster, leopard gecko, hedgehog, etc. I take excellent care of my pets and always make sure I can care for the to the best of my ability before getting one.

So I've been interested in amphibians for a while, and it seems FBT are a popular, easy choice. I do not want something I have to heat, since it will be in my room and I have lots of heating equipment in there already (for the fish, hedgehog, and gecko) I have no more outlets and wont feel safe adding anymore extensions.

That said, my room is warm because of all this heating equipment. Easily mid-high 70s during the day and high 60s at night. Summer it can get upwards to 80 but never past that.

Set up. I want a trio, so I would prefer something bigger than 10gal, but was wondering if I can use a food safe rubbermaid container with a footprint equal to a 20gal? It would allow more space but wont be expensive. I use one for my hospital/quarantine tank for my fish and it works well.

Eco earth is what I would use. Half substrate, half water. I want to keep the water in a deep container, and add river rocks to half of it. I think a removable container would help keep the water cleaner and allow me to change it daily. I use live plants for my fish so I could add some floaters to the water. Silk for the land. Diet of crickets and occasional mealworms if they will take them? I have mealies available from my gecko, he wont touch crickets. I know how to gut load and have supplements already.

What am I missing? Any more advice? Thanks!

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Think best thing to do is read this care article: Frog Forum - Fire-Bellied Toad Care and Breeding - Bombina orientalis and relatives .

[hgual22]

Read it, I think im good.

The only thing it didnt cover is if a clear plastic bin would work, but I assume, as long as its food safe it should be frog safe. Awesome!

[Vivariums In The Mist]

No reason a clear bin wouldn't work. Have used for frog rearing tanks, just give plenty of spaces to hide and make them feel comfortable. They are pretty bold frog anyway, so you shouldn't have any issues with hiding in my opinion.

Read it, I think im good.

The only thing it didnt cover is if a clear plastic bin would work, but I assume, as long as its food safe it should be frog safe. Awesome!

[dj1]

I have replied to this thread but it doesn't seam to have appeared so here goes again.
I would reverse the idea of land and water, I'd put the land in the smaller container made up of different size pebbles and a few logs and live plants FBT are very aquatic and usually feed in water either catching floating insects, or grabbing them and diving into the water, as they don't have tongues this seams to help them over power the prey. I don't use meal worms, flies and crickets as well as spiders and small smooth caterpillars make up the bulk of my European FBT diet, meal worms tend to sink in the water and are lost.
Make sure you have larger stones around your island so they can get out of the water to bask if they have a light, even only a 10 watt bulb does for them.also if you use under gravel plates under the water topped with gravel an airline can be rigged up with an air pump if you can get an extension socket and the water will be filtered saving draining it out,all the time, these toads do produce a lot of waste for their size. aquatic plants also help if they have enough light and allow the toads to hunt their prey on the surface stems. Good luck with what ever you do, but more water the better. Think of them more as turtles than toads.

[hgual22]

Alright so I went out today and got some supplies. I had tons of stuff already, but I bought 2 tubs. One for the enclosure, its 21 x 15 inches. Then I got one thats 14 inches x 12. Fits inside perfectly. I filled the space around the tub with eco earth, its about 3 inches deep, and the water is about 3 inches deep as well. There are river rocks, live water lettuce and fake leaves in the water and theres a hide, fake plant and several small pieces of driftwood on the land. I'm going to get another silk plant or two for the land sometime. Anyways, there is a bit more water than land, and its treated with prime.

And I got the frogs. I definitely wasnt planning on getting them right away, but I really fell in love with these guys, and I had everything needed. I got 3, 2 are green, but one is lighter than the other and then i also got a light brown one. They aren't skittish at all and seem to love their new home so far. I'm going to feed them some crickets tomorrow.

Pictures!!
Heres the first guy I picked out, at the store. He was just staring at me.


This is their enclosure. Any advice? I was thinking about adding one more shallow water dish, just for soaking, since their main one is deep enough for their whole bodies. There are rocks though and they easily get in and out. Also the substrate isnt in the water, its under neath. The water is staying pretty clean so far.


And the little fellas.


Any tips are greatly appreciated!

[badkelpie]

That actually looks great for them! My first suggestion is only because my set up is similar and I wish I had thought to do this. Get a second container the same kind as the one the water is in, and stack them. That way, if you need to take it out to clean it, the tub underneath acts as a "placeholder" and keeps the dirt from caving in around where the tub was.

Also, is there a top? They're not really climbers, but occasionally I will have one get the right footing and climb up a ways.

[hgual22]

Yes there is a top! I drilled several small holes around it for air. I just took it off for the picture since the lid is not clear. And thats a good idea! I will definitely look into doing that! I'm also getting a couple more silk plants for the land area.

Yay! I'm glad I did it right on the first try. They seem to love the room as well. At petco, where I got them, they were in probably around 12in x 8in of space with 12+ other frogs. Now these guys have 21in x15 in of space to themselves! I've noticed they dont hide much either, they love looking outside the bin around my room. And when I open the lid they all just sit there and look at me. Such cuties!

[Strider18]

It looks awesome! Plastic tubs FTW!!!

[badkelpie]

That's my favorite thing about them, they're not shy.

[hgual22]

Okay so I got a few more things today. I got 2 plants, a tall thin one and this one that looks like grass. Both are plastic but soft enough so im not concerned. I also foudn this adorable little watering can that I added for a little hide.


And heres the babies. The brown guy seems the most plump. The two green guys are rather skinny, but both seem interested in crickets so i'm not concerned. They probably didnt get their share of food living with all the other frogs at the shop. Those two marks on the brown ones back, markings? Or an injury? I just noticed it today.


I dont know whether they are males for females but I have named them Kourtney, Kim and Khloe. xD Can anyone identify their genders?

Any tips on the set up? I'm happy with it. They seem to have enough water. Its deep enough so that they can be fully submerged, or they can go on the rocks and just sit with their upper bodies out. There are places to hide on land, but also just room to hop.

And one more question. How often should I be changing the water? Thanks!

[dj1]

The marks are quite typical of fire belly toads and more pronounced in captive bred animals from my experience. The water should be changed as needed, I scoop out dead food and poo every day with a pip pet, and clean the water every couple of days in the unfiltered holding tank of my European Bombina b. and partial water change every couple of weeks on my Bombina b varigata tank.
Hope this helps.

[MaxVanity]

I could be wrong but the brown one looks female to me. The green on the left looks male and the green on the right looks female. you'll know for sure once they start barking or grabbing to mate. Only males grab.

[hgual22]

No grabbing or barking yet.

Im trying to decide how to go about cleaning the water. There is some eco earth in it, which makes it look dirty. I guess i could scoop that out and then take the whole water tub out to clean, though I feel like they would get out when I did all that. Since the tub isnt very tall. So far everytime I open the lid to look at them or feed them, they just watch me. xD They are super cute.

[badkelpie]

My set up is similar, like I said. I just scoop out almost all of the water and refill. The eco earth settles to the bottom and doesn't really come out, but it doesn't worry me. Looks like a pond. I do this about once a week. If dead crickets or roaches fall in before I want to clean it, I get them out.

[dj1]

No grabbing or barking yet.

Im trying to decide how to go about cleaning the water. There is some eco earth in it, which makes it look dirty. I guess i could scoop that out and then take the whole water tub out to clean, though I feel like they would get out when I did all that. Since the tub isnt very tall. So far everytime I open the lid to look at them or feed them, they just watch me. xD They are super cute.

That is why my suggestion of using the whole tub as a pond with only a small land area full of pebbles and plants would be easier to clean, no soil and an aquarium gravel siphon used to hoover up the poo and detritus. All FBT are more aquatic than terrestrial, as long as they can leave the water and dry out securely but drop back in at a moments notice, they are fine.