pacman frog trouble please help

[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.

[Cory pacman]

I used a digital thermometer with a probe to get a reading under the substrate it got to around 85 just before the glass bottom. . My pacman will only fully bury itself after I move it so I can clean the tank or if I have to give a bath to help the frog poop usually the next day its heads above the substrate again looking for food , it never really changes where its burrowed until I have to give it a bath again , when I first got it I was using 2 inchs of substrate but I was afraid it wasnt enough because of the heat mat underneath so I start using between 3 and 4 inches would using less help ?

[monster]

Your frog doesn't completely burrow more then likely because its to warm underneath him so he chooses to sit at the top. If its 85 just before the glass the glass is going to be even hotter then that which is making him not want to touch it. For the burrowing after you give him a bath he does this because they don't like being picked up very much so he buries to make himself feel secure. Its not a matter of using less fibre because if its to hot in the substrate he is not going to want to completely burrow. I have 3 of these guys and during the day I never see them they are all underground, sometimes you can here them rubbing on the glass to try and get further down. At night the lights go out the temp drops a few degrees and they are usually out with in an hour ready to eat. Next morning lights go back on the temps go up and they disappear again. This is whats natural for them, all though they live somewhere its so hot they aren't the biggest fans of extreme heat. Again I know its recommended in books but IMO this would be the last option for heating if you couldn't get your temps a different way, so I'm not saying don't do it if this is your only option.

[Cory pacman]

I just got off the phone with a petshop near me they have 60 watt ceramic lights or he said the red light he has in stock would give me the right temps so ill pick one of those up tomorrow with a digital thermometer and see how it goes . . thanks for the help

[monster]

The 60 may be too hot, if you can you can buy a dimmer at Walmart for like 80 bucks and control the heat that way or if you have it you can by thermostat. And don't get me wrong your frog isn't going to pass or anything being kept this way so you could even order a 40 watt CHE and just keep it this way till it comes in. And if you choose to keep it this way for awhile its best to have the probe right against the glass under the substrate, this way you get the reading from the glass.