Hi, I'm Jennifer from Florida

[JenniferinFL]

Just joined so I could do a lot of reading and ask some questions on frog care. I used to be quite fond of keeping fish, but haven't kept any in the last several years. I sold most of my stuff, but I kept a 29 gallon tank in case I ever wanted to set up again. BUT, I've decided against getting fish and I believe I would really enjoy keeping frogs instead.

We also currently keep tarantulas and a lovely redfoot tortoise that we've had about 4 years now.

I'm pretty good at following directions and whichever frogs I get will probably be my only ones. So, I'm going to do a lot of reading to make sure I've got exactly the ones I want.

For some location information, I live in Florida and we use the AC very rarely, so generally our house is already between 75 and 85 degrees most of the time and the humidity gauges in my unmisted tarantulas enclosures are already at 70% humidity. So, hopefully that will already help to make frog keeping a relatively easy endeavor. We are on well water with a reverse osmosis system, so that should make safe water not a problem. AND, we already have plenty of crickets and other feeder insects for the tarantulas. And already accustomed to using coconut fiber and sphagnum for the tarantulas too..

I love the bright colored frogs, but I would also be really fond of a frog that calls. We have tons of native toads in our pond in the backyard that I love listening to for the part of the year that they're calling.

Anyhow, I'll be around, probably doing a LOT of reading while I try to decide on a species.

[1beataway]

Hi Jennifer. Welcome. I'm very glad that you have decided to do a lot of research first, instead of buying on impulse and then trying to determine if you can meet the needs of the amphibian.

Feel free to ask any questions you have about any species. I always like to suggest the White's tree frogs, but there are definitely other great choices.

[Paul Rust]

Well hello Jennifer and welcome to Frog Forum!

[Ebony]

Welcome to the forum Jennifer. Let us know what you decide.

[froghobbiest]

Welcome to the forum. I just started keeping frogs again and the best starter frog in my opinion is the Fire Bellied Toads. They can be coloful and the males do call, its rather soothing hes barking right now to. But thats just a suggestion so keep us posted on what you decide and good luck

[lnaminneci]

Welcome to the Forum Jennifer!

You have come to the perfect place. You will find ALOT of information and great articles on this site. As well as friendly and very helpful frog lovers just like you.
I am new to the care of frogs myself and have been reading everything I can as well. It can become addictive.
I am sure you will find the perfect frogs for you and get much enjoyment from them.

~Lesley

[froghobbiest]

I agree they are addictive I started with 2 African Dwarf Frogs and 2 Ivory Mystery Snails now I have 7 ADF and 3 FBT and 2 IMS Im trying to breed the snails but I think ima have to research them some more.

[John]

Welcome to the forum, Jennifer in Florida .

[Kurt]

Welcome aboard. I would suggest using your AC when it comes to frogs. You might enjoy Phyllobates terribilis. They are dirurnal, active, and every time I go to Black Jungle, theirs won't shut up. Besides, John loves them and that should be enough reason.

[JenniferinFL]

Haha, the more I read the more undecided I am.. It will take me forever to decide on a species.
Oh well, at least I found the guide about terrariums, so I can at least get my tank started with a false bottom, plants and decaying live oak leaves to get it all going.. At least I already have the pothos, bromeliads, a few 'spider' plants and plenty of local native tillandsia's(?) to put together a decent planting.. But, it looks like before I do any kind of water feature I will have to have the species decided since apparently some love water and some would drown.. Hmm..
I love the idea of getting diurnal frogs, though, I'm regularly up at 3 am, so I could probably see the nocturnal ones up and around anyways.
Thanks for the welcomes!
I'll probably be putting my tank together sometime this week, so I'll post photos to figure out if I'm heading in the right direction with it.
Thanks again

[Jace]

Welcome to the Forum. Can't wait to see some pics and hear about which species you are interested in. Definitely not an easy choice. Just wondering: what kind of tarantulas do you have? Could you post some pics?

[googie]

Hi Jennifer:

Welcome to the forum. You'll find that members will be able to help you with most any question you have. I 've been member for only a couple of months, and I can not say enough about the help and advice I've been given. It is a great place to share and learn. Keep us updated.

Best of luck.

Chris

[JenniferinFL]

I don't keep many tarantulas at the moment, I'm down to just 9.
After some soul-searching, we decided we didn't want to deal with breeding tarantulas. Originally we had bought a few of each one to guarantee having females to eventually breed, but, we recently sold off enough where we only had one of each remaining species.
We had a major die-off a couple years ago where we lost 20 in a single week, not sure if the neighbor sprayed pesticide, if we got contaminated crickets or what happened. BUT, that pretty much cured me of the desire to try to breed them. It takes years for most species to reach maturity, so it's just a lot of time invested in a pet that can die so easily. We had spiderlings we'd been growing for a year that just got wiped out when that happened including a couple juvenile females we were really excited about.
Fortunately now we live far enough from the nearest neighbor where we shouldn't have a problem if they do decide to spray. So, we do plan to get a couple of our favorites again to be able to just enjoy watching them. Don't get me wrong, we've had a couple losses in the last couple years, but at least they were losses that mostly made sense. Like mature males dying, or a couple bad molts, and then one that got nematodes somehow. At least no husbandry mistakes or mass die-offs from chemical contamination.
Right now we have the following species, just one of each except the L. Parahybana which we still have two of..
Brachypelma emelia
Brachypelma albopilosum
Grammastola rosea
Grammastola aureostriata
Psalmopoeus pulcher
Lasiodora parahybana
Pterinochilus murinus
Nhandu chromatus

I did take more recent photos of them, but my two prettiest ones, the P. murinus and P. Pulcher are both about impossible to photograph. Just too fast with running back into their hides when the camera comes out.
I'll probably start a new thread with their photos for you, Jace.

[Jace]

Wow-that is very neat. Sorry to hear about all your losses, though. I can understand how that would be frustrating. I am thinking of getting a Pink Toed tarantula, so I am trying to get as much information as I can before actually taking the plunge. If you have the chance, photos would be great, thank you. How is the frog decision going? Do you have it narrowed down to a couple of dozen yet??

[JenniferinFL]

I haven't really been able to narrow down the frogs at all.. lol.. I keep looking at them and as soon as I'm sure I like one I find another I like just as much.. Are there any really good frog books out there? I may just need to go get a book for easier browsing through the species..

Tarantulas are really about the simplest creatures to keep. The only significant drawback to them is their sensitivity to pesticides and so forth if you have a neighbor that treats their lawn a lot or is otherwise crazy with the bug sprays. We've eliminated pretty much all pesticide use because of them. The only pesticide we still use is the topical frontline/advantage for the dogs and cats. There's some disagreement about whether or not they are sensitive enough to be bothered by that just in the same room, but, to be safe the dogs and cats aren't allowed in the room the tarantulas are in just in case. But, I imagine that there are probably frogs that are just as sensitive to that stuff.
The other nuisance-y thing is that as of now there's no 'treatment' for simple things like a nematode infestation because the stuff that would kill nematodes would also kill tarantulas.
But, in captive bred animals, that's pretty rare.
Aviculara's grow pretty quickly, so a well fed spiderling will be decent sized in a year or so.
Probably I would say most of them are for sale as .5" to 1" spiderlings as far as captive bred ones go. That's a TINY spider. But, feeding them isn't complicated like tiny frogs would be, you just cut up a cricket if you don't have small enough or just give them a cricket 'drumstick' (leg) and they'll eat that. Because small ones molt frequently and they are completely defenseless after a molt, it's best to feed prekilled crickets because they can easily bite a hole in a newly molted tarantula. If your getting a tiny one, then housing is easiest with one of those little plastic cubes you can buy at Michaels craft stores. You can either drill air holes in the cubes or melt holes in them with a small, hot nail, but if you melt them do it outside, wash it very well and let it air out for at least a week before housing anything in them.
You can do a false bottom with them because they like humidity and their enclosures mold up really easy otherwise. Just a 1" or so layer of those little I believe they're called hydroton? balls, then a layer of sphagnum and then coconut fiber if you like.. Most people don't use false bottoms with them, but, it really makes sense. I never used them with my arboreals either, but I plan to on my next rehouse just to help prevent the bottoms of the enclosures from getting too stagnant.
Spiderling enclosures should be more utilitarian and basic, a stick to climb on for arboreal species and once they get a solid 1" in size, they can have a tiny water dish, like a milk jug lid. Otherwise they get moisture from their food or sometimes from drinking misted water off the enclosure. Once they get to 2" juvies, you can start making their enclosure fancier if you wish.
Too big of an enclosure and they will starve instead of going to get food, at least when they're small. Bigger juvies and adults don't seem to have as much of a problem with that.
Pretty much though, really simple, if you can keep frogs happy and healthy, then tarantulas shouldn't pose much trouble. Arachnoboards.com is a great forum for talking about them. I've bought a lot from sellers on there too, there's some selling wildcaught, but a lot of people selling captive bred too.
I only feed my adult tarantulas about once per week and they're all chunky. Small spiderlings though you can feed a couple times per week.

[Jace]

Wow, thanks for the info. The Pink Toed I am looking at is at least a couple of inches now-it's been at the petstore for a few months now. They say it has molted at least twice since they have had it. I have a plastic 2 gallon sitting empty, but I also have a 5 gallon aquarium I could use as well. I am doing research on how to sex it (I would like a female), but I'm finding that to an inexperierenced person, I have a very low chance of being able to tell. Oh well-as long as it is healthy, I don't much care. I'm just worried about humidity as I live in a desert climate and my house has low humidity....all my frogs require mistings several times a day to keep them moist.

[Kurt]

We've eliminated pretty much all pesticide use because of them. The only pesticide we still use is the topical frontline/advantage for the dogs and cats. There's some disagreement about whether or not they are sensitive enough to be bothered by that just in the same room, but, to be safe the dogs and cats aren't allowed in the room the tarantulas are in just in case. But, I imagine that there are probably frogs that are just as sensitive to that stuff.

Frogs are more sensitive to toxins in the enviroment.

[JenniferinFL]

Frogs are more sensitive to toxins in the enviroment.

That doesn't surprise me at all, that's what I had thought.. I wouldn't have even considered keeping frogs if we weren't far enough from neighbors to prevent pesticide poisoning..

Wow, thanks for the info. The Pink Toed I am looking at is at least a couple of inches now-it's been at the petstore for a few months now. They say it has molted at least twice since they have had it. I have a plastic 2 gallon sitting empty, but I also have a 5 gallon aquarium I could use as well. I am doing research on how to sex it (I would like a female), but I'm finding that to an inexperierenced person, I have a very low chance of being able to tell. Oh well-as long as it is healthy, I don't much care. I'm just worried about humidity as I live in a desert climate and my house has low humidity....all my frogs require mistings several times a day to keep them moist.

About the only way you can sex them is from a molt, and with smaller tarantulas you may need a lighted loupe. Unfortunately, often the part that gets shredded in a molt is the part you need to be able to sex them.. lol.. Isn't that always the way? What you are trying to look at is the inner lining of the underside of the tarantula. A tarantula's body is split into two obvious sections, and your looking for the little piece right around where those two pieces connect.
Here's a good site with the underside drawn. http://tarantulas.tropica.ru/en/node/608
Basically, a female will have a little pocket on the inside lining of the molt right where that vent is in the underside. You usually have to soak the underside of the molt because that part wrinkles right up. Then spread it out with a small paintbrush. It's really not all that complicated, to actually sex, there's either an obvious pouch or there isn't. The complicated part is getting a molt that hasn't been chewed and then it can get a bit aggravating to get that wrinkled piece spread out.
Our last aviculara lived in a 5 gallon hex tank and made good use of the space. BUT, that one was an adult. For a smaller one, a 2 gallon would probably be fine.
If you just mist when you mist your frogs, you'd probably be fine. It may not even need that much misting. Of course, also provide a water dish. They really get most of their moisture from their prey items, but will occasionally drink..
I kept my avics at least 50% humidity but usually closer to 75%.

[Amphibians]

Jace, my pink toed tarantula is one of my favorites! It's arboreal nature is really whats cool about it, When I go to feed him he races down and grabs 2 or 3 crickets then climbs up the wall to eat them vertically. It's very fun to watch. I would be careful if your going to get one through a petstore, just be weary of the conditions its been kept in. Great tarantula!

[Kurt]

My favorite is Avicularia versicolor. Drop dead gorgeous!