GABF Terrarium Ideas?

[supersmach]

So lately I've been rather unsatisfied with my GABF's tank... It seems so terribly plain in comparison to all of the other beautiful terrariums and tanks I've looked at. I know that since he's a burrower that live plants probably wouldn't last very long; he drags his fake leaves all over the tank, and he moves his water bowl around often too. Pictured below is when I first brought Fred home; he's gotten a bit bigger since then. Any ideas on how to spice up his tank? It's a 20gal long terrarium.

[deranged chipmunk]

Tanks for the big terrestrial frogs are difficult since they tend to destroy most things in their path. You can try some silk plants along the back wall to spruce it up some, but the frog will probably end up just rearranging everything anyway lol


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

[LittleFrog]

I know, it can be tough. I'm currently working on a custom design for my GABF, Strax. Strax loves the water, spends 90% of his time in it, so I'm designing my décor to be mostly water with a smaller dirt section big enough to fit him if he chooses to burrow, along with a rock waterfall, and custom background. I'm a LONG way from being done, but below is a picture of what I've done so far. The white paper was taped together to be the exact dimensions of Strax's tank, and you can see that I've carved the pieces to go around the land/dirt section and the stepping stones to get up to it. The curved piece in the top left corner is where the waterfall will be, I'm working on the pieces for that now, and then I've just got to carve the background, which will hide the rest of the bowl I'm using to hold the substrate in the land section. Hope that helps to give you some ideas!

[deranged chipmunk]

Hijack alert: strax, hehe, Who much? Lol a note about your design. Make sure you have a way to drain your substrate bowl. The frog will track water in there and it will amount up pretty quickly


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

[LittleFrog]

Lol, you caught me! Huge Whovian! I actually also have a baby corn snake named Madame Vastra.
Thanks for the heads up on the drainage issue, Strax has spent so little time in his dirt that I've actually had the opposite problem, I'm always misting it to keep it from drying out, so the thought that it could get too wet never occurred to me, lol. How would you suggest I handle it?

[LittleFrog]

Oh forgot to mention one other thing I'll be doing, I'm planning to get those little pots from IKEA with the hooks on them, planting them with Pothos, and hanging them off the back of the tank with the leaves trailing down inside. I figure that it should give the look of live plants without having to worry about them getting dug up.

[bcreps]

can you put a link up for those hooked pots. they sound cool

[LittleFrog]

Here you go.
Wall Storage - Kitchen Storage - IKEA

[deranged chipmunk]

Honestly, you could use any of the containers in that link, they all connect to those little hanging hooks, so you could simply pick the size container you want. You could also use any of the dish drainers that attach to hooks and put pots on those. That's why I just linked to the whole page instead of just one item, there's lots of options there. In that case, you could do what I did, and go through this forum, looking at the various designs, plus google paludariums and look at what other people have done, and pick and choose elements that you like. It takes time, but it's worth it. One idea that comes to mind is to create a custom background, that would liven things up quite a bit. You could also use the idea I mentioned above to get trailing plants hanging down into the tank. I also know that there is one GABF tank in this forum that someone set up to look just like their natural habitat that is very cool. If you do a search here on African Bullfrogs, it should pop up.

If using those metal containers, make sure they go on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure.


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

[LittleFrog]

If using those metal containers, make sure they go on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure.


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

That is indeed the plan.