Greetings from Delaware (USA)

[JBDelaware]

Good Evening Everyone,

My name is Jonathan. I accidentally fell into the hobby when my daughter decided to get three big tadpoles from our local fish store. One turned into a frog and so, I decided to build a Paludarium for it and we fell into catching/purchasing more toads/frogs for the tank. It has now been a shared passion between my daughter and myself for almost a year now -- and I'm constantly learning.

As Spring hit our area, we have a retention pond near us and so, my daughter decided to catch a few frogs for the tank and I'm fairly sure the mix I have now, while they are thriving very well and appear to be very vibrant in color and appetite, I'm sure I shouldn't be housing them together. So, I've lead myself to searching to what others opinions are on keeping multi-species amphibians in one tank and found this forum. I'll explain my setup and once I re-scape my tank, I'll provide photos. I'll also provide photos on what the tank looks like now. Here's my setup:


55 Gallon Tall Tank (same length as my 75 Gallon but a little taller and slightly thinner in width).

Land VS Water is about 50/50 and the water side of things holds about 25 Gallons of water.

Land side comprises of several layers of substrate (Sand/Lava Rock/Top Soil/Lava Rock/Top Soil/Leaf Litter/Top Soil/Leaf Litter)

I used to have several plants but am discovering what can thrive in my tank setup. Right now, I have one tropical plant (forgot the name to it) and three big Asparagus Ferns.

The water side of the tank has an in-water filter and a UV sterilizer to keep bacteria and un-wanteds at bay. I used to have a few flying foxes in the tank but I'm assuming the Bull Frog or Southern Leopard Frog have eaten them -- no big deal. I have a bushynose pleco and a Dwarf African Clawed Frog.

Now, the frogs/toads I have:

6 Fire Belly Toads (4 Green 2 Brown)
1 Wood Frog or Spring Peeper (not sure yet)
1 Gray Tree Frog
1 American Bull Frog -- Grew from Tad Pole from LFS
1 Southern Leopard Frog -- Stunning Green to Bronze Transition


They all are very active throughout the day. The toads like to dip in the water and back out. The bullfrog stays in the water mostly but sometimes comes on land and sleeps with a mound of toads ontop of him in the frog cave. The Southern Leopard Frog likes to hide in between the ferns and has a huge apetite for -- anything. I don't see the wood frog/ peeper much at all and the gray frog I caught on my second story window on a daring feat of climbing out my daughter's window with a net to snatch him.

I am well aware of the toxins the toads have and what it can do to your skin if you scare them -- we take very good care of all our amphibians, their diet usually is: Small to Large Crickets, Small/Super Meal Worms, and Wax Worms when I decide to purchase a 1000 of them from Georgia Cricket (Awesome place to buy your frog food online). I usually try to feed the crickets a feed that delivers needed nutrients to my toads/frogs before feeding them. I haven't had one die on me yet and the bigger frogs seem docile so far to the toads.


Well, i've rambled on too long so I'll stop while I'm ahead and see if I can upload some photos to my profile. The Avatar photo option seems broken so I hope the other piece isn't!

Regards,

Jonathan

[Strider18]

Hello and welcome to the forums! The main concern I have is that all of those frogs are in the same tank, the poison in the FBT's could quite possibly kill the other frogs. The worst thing I can think of is that bullfrog growing up and deciding to have some tasty treats, if it got one of the FBT's both would probably be dead

[JBDelaware]

Hi and thank you! Very true indeed! I'm not for releasing my bullfrog into the wild since he was grown in captivity and not sure if anyone local to me would even consider trading/taking the frog to their pond. The crappy part is, after, we grew him from a tadpole, is my LFS couldn't even tell me what tadpole they were selling. It was only after we had him living in my tank that my Fish Group told me he was a bullfrog. Beginner's ignorance for sure. I definitely don't want them to eat each other for sure -- so far, he/she seems completely disinterested in them so far. The frog is big enough to easily eat the fire belly in one bite. I would upload photos of my frogs/toads but I am unsure why I can't. I'm guessing it's a restriction based upon my forum ranking?

Edit: One other beginner's ignorance I'd like to point out is: I didn't realize Bullfrogs have nasty teeth!!! Does anyone how how much damage one could do if he chomped at your finger? He/she fits into my palm (I have big hands) with little room to spare.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Strider18]

Yeah definitely don't release it, the best thing to do would be to set up a much larger terrarium for the bullfrog to prevent accidents. And posting photos is currently bugged at the moment as well as some other features because the site got hacked recently Our Admin is currently working on the problem though

[JBDelaware]

Aww, that stinks! I'll imgurl it or something. I might eliminate my 75 Gallon freshwater tank and convert it into another viv/paludarium for the Bullfrog and maybe get him/her a partner. I was eyeballing a 200 the other day -- just not sure if I am ready to make the jump!

[Strider18]

A 75g would probably be a large enough tank for a short time, but not for long. In my opinion the 200 would have been the perfect size for it!