pacman frog trouble please help

[monster]

Ya putting it on the side doesn't work the greatest, I use them on the side but it took a lot of playing around to figure it out. I have said now for along time that once my matts are no more good and need replaceing that I'm going overhead heating. Yes you are right that if its to cold they will stop eating but these guys are eating machines and the temp needs to be really low imo to make them not eat. And being warm enough to eat doesn't always mean that they are warm enough to digest. For the overhead heat you could use a red bulb or a ceramic heat emitter hooked up to dimmer or a thermostat. Place it to one side of the tank so the opposite end is a couple degrees cooler this way he can thermos regulate his body temps if need be.

[Cory pacman]

might be a few weeks till i get overhead heating for now im just gonna try cover up around 3/4 of the top of the enclosure with aluminum foil to try keep some heat in, i had only got half covered before and ill see if misting with warm water makes any difference i noticed today that the water ive been using is cold . .

thanks for the sound advice

[jasonm96]

What works well is to use a heat bulb during the day, which will provide viewing light and heat in a natural way, and then use a thermostat controlled heat mat on the bottom at night if temps drop below the 70s F, which would micmick heat retained from during the day and offer a place to warm up if too cool. This is how I keep my bullfrog and so far so well. I'm not keen on red bulbs, as now it's thought that the animals can see the light and in my experience I would say this is true because for every animal I've used with would freeze and be more active when it was switched off. Ceramics are good for large tanks, but drying and also very hot so moving the fixtures for access into the tank can be risky, so unless you have one with front access or a way of suspending the heater, it's a pain. I would not cover more than half of the screen top or ventilation will be poor and could cause infections since pacmans produce a lot of waste.

[Cory pacman]

Thanks for the heads up ill fix the cover now , what type of heat bulb do you use and would a thermostat be necessary with my heat mat seeing as its not getting the right temperature for me now I would guess the temperature its raising the enclosure to would be a good night time temp

[jasonm96]

I use the zoomed daylight bulbs and with 12" tanks normally the 40w does the job. Check the temperature underneath the substrate for the mat with a digital thermometer. Mats produce mostly contact heat so don't want the air much and so it's easy to get a wrong temp reading from them, especially with analogue thermometers. Depending on make, an unstatted heat mat can reach temps as high as 100F so double check temps, it's most likely warm enough. I do prefer to use them at night as during the day the frog would burrow to cool down

[monster]

Your frog is albino so i wouldnt recommend useing the day light blue bulb, it may be to bright for him. I use a 5 watt led from walmart with my albino and before that i just used the room light because it lit up the whole tank. I started useing the led just for my viewing pretty much. If your going to use a matt on the bottom i wouldnt use it during the day as suggested and just maybe say at night when hes above ground. They burrow to get cool not warm, and any heat the ground retains when the sun goes down doesn't last that long and the sun doesnt actually heat up underneath the top layer of soil or dirt that much. There is actually a very big difference in temp from the top to just an inch or so down. Im not saying dont use it if need be its just not the best option. I went out side about 20 mins ago to conduct a little experiment and here is the pics. Right now were i live it is 32C and feels like almost 40 with the humidity, so thats 89.6F and 104F with the humidity. So i went outside with my infrared thermometer and checked what the temp of the ground was right out in the sun and then dug a hole directly under were i took the first reading and took it again, you would be amazed the difference. I also only dug about an inch and a half were as a pacman would burrow further down then that more then likely. And this was right out the in the dead of heat like mentioned and they would rather be in a shaded area if possible which wouldnt be alot but would be a couple degrees difference.

[monster]

Heres the first one, I couldn't get it in the first shot.